12 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, June 24, 1996 Plot holes doi By Ted Watts Daily Arts Writer Don't believe the ad campaign; "Fled" is not a terribly done cyber-film full of quick cuts and futuristic imagery. It is, in fact, an averagely done action/buddy flick. Convicts Dodge (Stephen Baldwin) and Piper (Laurence Fishburne) are on a work gang in I D Dodge, Piper and Cora discuss Cora's driving habits in 'Fled.' 't stop action in 'Fled' Georgia when all hell breaks loose panicked as in the beginning. Piper and they have to run for their lives. does have a terrible action-hero line Did I mention they're shackled to near the end (remember his name and each other? Dodge, it seems, has been see if you can figure it out), but it's an committing computer fraud on some isolated incident. Baldwin is a bit flat, very large companies. In fact, the but Fishburne is skilled enough to company from which Dodge stole improve both characters with the $25 million and a disk of accounting interplay between them. Still, I don't information is a Cuban mob front. So think anyone's going to be winning an guess who's chasing Dodge besides Oscar here. law enforcement? The movie uses a large number o The movie keeps rolling along, Georgia-specific things to draw atten- constantly telling us that Dodge and tion to the fact the movie takes place in Piper are two really nice guys, and Georgia. A couple of cops have Georgia while they have been a bit naughty, accents, and we get to see Georgia they should really be free, not like places like the Georgia Dome and those terrible mobsters or ethically Stone Mountain. Do you understand? questionable federal marshals. They It's trying to convince us it's Georgia. enlist the aid of Cora (Salma Hayek), And I do see Georgia! I do! I do! Please a character who is shockingly calm, stop hitting me! when they car- "Fled" moves jack her and REVIEW along quickly make her take enough that yo them back to her ( Fled don't notice most Oh .#~' Directed by Kevir troks, apartment. Oh With Laurence Fishbune and of the plot holes, well, at least it Stephen Baldwin and so it's pretty avoids the cliche Arie d i toafve e e entertaining . of having the Enough unexpected hostage be extremely frightened things happen to keep it interesting, before suddenly realizing how good and there's enough humor in it to her kidnappers are. They also hook up keep it from appearing too serious. with Dodge's stripper girlfriend, his And besides, you just gotta have best friend and RuPaul's car, none of some respect for a film that is rip* which are treated very well by ping off "The Fugitive" left and Dodge's pursuers. right, but mentions it during the Fishburne and Baldwin's perfor- most blatant example. Now that is a mances improve as the movie goes on, show of some big, greasy postmod- and their characters aren't quite as ern guts. Dodge and Piper, fists clenched, duke it out. SAMIAM Continued from Page 11 After the release of "Billy," major labels began to take notice, and eventu- ally, Samiam signed with Atlantic Records. The band didn't mind signing with a major, Brogan said in a phone interview with The Michigan Daily, because "all's (Samiam) wanna do is keep playin'." Atlantic released "Clumsy" in 1994, which was a very different Samiam album. The album still featured the group's trademark sound, but there was more melody, and more of an attempt by Beebout to actu- ally sing his lyrics. Brogan said, "We've done the fast thing, you know ... and to me a lot of things start losing melody after, it's kinda hard to tell what's going on when you play songs really, really fast." Not to say that Samiam has softened up at all: "Clumsy" still rocked even harder than the group's three previous albums. Now, in the midst of a shakedown at Atlantic, Samiam is hitting the road again to keep sane. The band's fifth album, "You're Freaking Me Out, is all mixed and recorded, yet won't be out until January. Brogan said the band isn't frustrated yet. "Right now, all's we're doing is just working on getting out this new record, which is all done," Brogan said, "and just work on better distribution and radio ..." Samiam's live show is power- packed, exciting and a lot of fun. The group has toured with millions of bands, including Bad Religion, Gree Day and Sense Field. The band is doing small clubs right now and will join the Warped Tour in the South for a few dates in August. Samiam will be play- ing some new songs, along with old classics like "Don't Break Me" and "Sky Flying By." What's kept Samiam in this game for eight years without very much recognition? Love for the music and good sense of humor. Brogan sa Samiam's philosophy from the begin- ning has always been, "Just try to do the best you can and see where it goes." Hopefully, "You're Freaking Me Out" and the new tour will take this awesome band farther than it's ever been.