biiiiNE~nAY NIGHT.
The Vans Warped Tour, featuring Save Ferris
Rancid and The Cherry Poppin' Daddies plays
The Phoenix Plaza in Pontiac on Wednesday Monday
July 22. Call (248) 645-6666 for ticket info
BNL steals show at H.O.R.. E.
Courtesy of Tristar Pictures
De la Vega (Hopkins, far left) watches his protege (Banderas) charm his daughter
Elena (Zeta-Jones) in "The Mask of Zorro."
Zorro' leaves mark
on su-mmer movles
By Ryan Malkin
Daily arts Writer
Barenaked Iadies or It1()R.D.).
Festival? This year's II) RD) festi-
val Saturday at Pine Knob seemed to be
more of a Rock Spectacle reunion than
a quadruple headliner.
After Alana Davis, Ben Harper and
The Innocent Criminals and Blues
Traveler gave good, but not phenome-
nal perfor-
, ;|||||7 mances, The
4 Bare na k e d
Ladies tured tbe
The Horde place upsid
Festival down.
Pine Knob As soon as the
JulyB1ysnk boys of
Barenaked
Ladies came out,
they took full
control, grab-
bing the audi-
ence, pulling
them in and not
letting them go
until their set was finished. They
opened with "The Old Apartment,"
played another song or two and then
busted into a hilarious song about
Ypsilanti. After calling out many
suburbs in the area, they found
Ypsilanti to be the most fun to say.
These guys truly love their music
and performing. When the band has
a good time, the audience has an
By Gabriel Smith
Daily Arts Writer
In the past. Zorro struck fear into his
enemies and won the hearts of the peo-
)le with his trademark black suit and
the carvings of the letter "Z' that he
would leave. Alter a long reprieve,
Zorro once again returns to battle evil in
"The Mask of Zorro."
But this movie has a ditlerent formu-
la than many current summer flicks. It
contains a minimal amount of special
effects while being thick on plot, long
on acting and
tilled to the brim
with swashbuck-
*ing scenes that
leave your jaw The Mask
jar of Zorro
Sir Anthony
Hopkins plays
Don I)iego de la At Showcase and
Vega. who for Berarwood
many vears has
donned the black
ttask to sate the
_neople from the
Evil governor
Montero (Stuart
Wilson). Now. the Spanish are leaving
California to Mexican rule. and lorro
seems to have won.
But Montero plans to finally cap-
ture Zorro and uses the public exe-
cution of three innocent peasants as
bait. Zorro once again saves the day
with the help of two small bos, one
of whom he gives a necklace. But
'Montero tails de la Vega to his
ome, kills de la Vega's wife and
steals his only daughter, Elena. De
la Vega is thrown in jail, not to be
heard from for 20 years.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Murieta
(Antonio Banderas) and his brother,
who were the two small boys who
helped Zorro, are wanted men. With
the help of his brother and the notori-
ous 3-Fingered Jack, Murieta robs a
-sert outpost. Unfortunately, the tlree
re found out. Alejandro escapes, but
3-Fingered Jack is shot and captured,
while Alejandro's brother is beheaded
by the malicious Captain Love
(Matthew Lctscher).
By chance, Alejandro meets up with
de la Vega, who has recently escaped
from prison and recognizes Alejandro
by the necklace: De la Vega trains
Alejandro so that both have a chance
for revenge - Alejandro for his broth-
er, and de la Vega to save his daughter
Elena (the stunning Catherine Zeta-
Jones).
Not the greatest actor in the world.
Banderas alvays makes up' for things
with his effort. Banderas' energy is
impeccable and his flair for the dra-
matic makes him fun to watch.
Hopkins once again is brilliant, mak-
ing his character's pain evident and
believable. Zeta-Jones also puts in a
fine performance acid even gets to
ssvordfight some herself. etsclher-s
performance is better as Captain Love
than Wilson's is as Montero.
Steven Spielberg's Amblin
Etertainment has produced your clas-
sic faiiy tale stor - vith a quest for
justice, a dashing hero, a beautiful
damsel and an obfuscated family lin-
eage. The twisto f Hopkins being
Zorro and then turning the reins over
to Banderas is greet, and the script
makes use of this as a foil for both the
old and new Zorros, contrasting the
steles and motivations of each.
Moreover, the film has a balanced f<ir-
mula of some action, some romance
and some comedy.
"'The Mask of Zorro" shines where
so mane movies have failed this sum-
mer. Films such as "Godzilla" and
"Armageddon" relied on the their big-
budget special effects to carry them
through. That's why "Godzilla" failed
and "Annageddon" is barely breaking
even. Audiences demand more.
Only a handful of this sutnmer's
movies have woven together a good
plot, shown depth of character or done
both. Movies such as "The Truman
Show," "Out of Sight" and "The X-
Files: Fight the Future" accomplished
one or both of these tasks. "The Mask
of Zorro" does both. It's a small gem of
a film that's worth seeing. The last half
hour of the film is stellar - so if you
do drink something during the movie,
be sure to hold it in, because it's well
worth skipping the bathroom break for
the finale,
Ed Robertson of The Barenaked Ladies gets crazy with funky dancing and upbeat
guitar playing.
lead vocalist Steven Page began
dancing in his trade-mark, high-ener-
gy, ridiculous manner early in the
show and didn t stop for the remain-
der. In fact, the other members of the
band joined him. Once they covered
the '8Os hit "Jump" and the classic
"Jane," they moved into their newer
material. At this point the entire
pavilion was packed and the lawn
was a sea of flesh swaying with the
music.
From "Brian Wilson," they moved
to "If' It tad $1,000,000" Just when
the audience thought the best was
over, BNL surprised them again with
the Biz Markee coxer, "Just a
Friend." After exiting the stage with
lighters held high, BNL came back
to do the only encore of the night.
$ ET
U -r
The classic tune "What a Good Boy"
belted from the speakers as wvv4 as
from the mouths of almost every
audience member.
Although the rest of the day pailed
in comparison to BNI's performance,
the other artists certainly deserve some
credit.
Alana Davis, newcomer to the head-
lining scene, seemed right at home on
stage as she played her set from 3.50
to 4:30. No more than a quarter of the
total pavilion capacity was listening as
she played, but it didn't phase her.
Davis. afer conversing with the audi-
ence for a bit, closed her set with
"Crazy," backed by amazing guitar.
After a half-hour break, allowing
the audience to make their way to the
See HORDE, Page 10
Steven Page of BNL has some fun at
Pine Knob last weekend where his band
headlined H.O.R.D.E.
Great Brands er
\ \.
Stuifent ciscots
on eye examsand
eyeglases
Hours:
Mon-Tue-Thu Fri 9- 530
Wed & Sat 9-
320 S. State St 't ciardson's
flowernete of
Decker Drugs)
662-1945
L'JAC 4dd15UU01' UNRU'
BFOC R MORE fMMF
Re ox 0, 1im sOY4RfZarf* CT 06497