Mid'night'Madness
The Michigan Theater is presenting 11
p.m. showings of "The Mummy" on
Friday and Saturday. "The Matrix" will
be showing next week, same times.
cRTdS
Monday
July 12, 1999
Terror rules on 'Arlington Road'
Legacy arrives on DVD
By Jonah Victor
Daily Arts Writer
For a film dealing with terrorism and
packed with suspense "Arlington Road"
has relatively little action. Director
Mark Pellington, best known for mak-
ing Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" video, instead
pays tribute to the
old fashioned
mystery-thrillers
of the Hitchcock
Arlington era.
Road Jeff Bridges, in
a much more
mature role after
At Ann Arbor 1&2 "The Big
and Shswcase Lebowski," plays
widowed father
Michael Faraday.
No, not the
a'-famous physicist,
but a highly emo-
tional professor
who lectures on terrorism. Tim
Robbins, in a deeply layered perfor-
mance, plays the ideal neighbor Oliver
Lang, whose family lives across the
street. Joan Cusack portrays Lang's all-
too-perfect wife. Faraday meets Lang
when he rescues Lang's son from a fire-
cracker accident. As the Faradays
quickly befriend the Langs, Faraday
watches his son fall under Lang's ques-
tionably benevolent influence. He
begins to have suspicions about Lang's
shady background, which escalate into
a paranoia that drives him to the edge.
Both Bridges and Robbins give
strong performances, and their
exchange of words alone builds tension
and excitement. The film has nothing
new to say about paranoia, but its com-
mentary on terrorism and disguised ref-
erences to the Oklahoma City bombing
make it relevant, albeit somewhat fanci-
ful.
While no masterpiece, "Arlington
Road" is a well constructed suspense
film of the sort not seen too often in this
day and age. It proves that a movie need
not have a big budget tobe amply enter-
taining.
., . . : , r m
By Ed Sholinsky
Daily Arts Editor
It seemed obvious that the Alien
Legacy should be on DVD - the for-
mat begged for it. Finally, all for
"Alien" films get the DVD treatment.
Sure, "Alien 3" and "Alien:
Resurrection" never came close to
living up to "Alien" and "Aliens," but
this is still a collection well worth
owning.
Because Fox included bonuses on
each of the DVDs and it's been hard to
find pristine copies of "Alien" and
"Aliens," the discs are especially pre-
ctous.
Of the lot, the bonuses on "Alien"
are the best. Ridley Scott's commen-
tary provides a lot of insight into not
only the technical aspects of the film,
but also of what went into making
something that had never really been
done before. The real highlight, howev-
er, is the collection of deleted scenes.
Not only are there almost 20 deleted
scenes, but there is an introduction to
each of them. detailing why they were
cut out.
"Aliens" - the best film in the lega-
cy - is presented in special addition
format, and includes more than 17
minutes of additional footage. Most of
the restored material blends nicely into
the film, and only the most knowledge
able viewer will notice most of th
additions. Though the film do
have a commentary by director Jame
Cameron, it does have an intervies
with him about the details of making
sequel. Cameron's revelation that h
used only six alien costumes in the filn
is only one of many interesting insight
the director brings to the film. Th
worst feature of this DVD is the pro
duction feature of it where they shov
some of the technical intricacies of th
film, which are extremely dull.
"Alien 3" sucks. That's all that cat
said of director David Finch .
("Seven") debut film. But the DVE
contains an interesting featurette on th<
first three alien movies. "Alien
Resurrection," while not as good as th<
first two, is certainly better than thi
third. Like "Alien 3" the only bona.
material is a making of featurette tha
you could hae seen on the Sci-F
channel before the film even hit t-
aters.
Perhaps only a completest will wan:
to own the entire Alien Legacy, but
there's no denying that watching these
movies together gives a more complete
picture of Ripley's character and the
saga as whole. For those not interested
in this, each disc is sold individually.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Jeff Bridges suspects his neighbor of being a terrorist In "Arlington Road."
Monstrous battles explode in 'Legaia'
By Devoron Q. Sanders
Daily Arts Wnter
It's a dangerous time for Playstation
role-playing games. "Final Fantasy VII"
raised the bar
immensely, and
the majority of
Legend of RPGs since have
L egai failed to come
close. There have
been a few shin-
y ing moments,
Sony Paystaton however, and
Sony's "Legend
of Legaia" is one
of them.
In "Legaia,"
players enter a
world where man
used to co-exist peacefully with power-
ful beings known as Seru. Humans can
combine with Seru to gain special pow-
ers such as flight or extreme strength.
Unfortunately, the world is being threat-
ened by a mysterious and evil mist -
one that causes the Seru to run rampant,
forcing themselves onto human hosts
and turning them into monsters.
Naturally, the goal here is to save the
world. The main character, Vahn, starts
off in his tiny home village of Rim Elm.
From there he meets up with an
orphaned girl named Noa, and a
Warrior-Monk called Gala. Together
these three wage war against the mist,
fighting for their own separate goals as
well as for humanity. The game is sur-
See LEGAIA, Page 15
Courtesy of 20th cenary Fox
Ripley (Sigomey Weaver) connects with her inner alien in "Allen: Resurrection."
~ Testament delivers 'The Gathering'
Intense action awaits players in "Legaia."
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By Adlin Rosli
Daily Arts Editor
"Life is hard, but Testament is harder,"
said Testament's guitar player and princi-
pal songwriter, Eric Peterson. Peterson's
statement is no empty boast as the group
has faced numerous uphill obstacles
throughout its decade-plus struggle.
The group has lost all of its original
members, leaving only the duo of
Peterson and lead singer Chuck Hilly,
had to deal with all manner of legal and
political flak from its former major label,
Atlantic Records and ended up making
no money from its last album, the duo's
elf-financed aiid released 1 7 effort
"Demtonic," elite to the disttibutors going
bankrupt.
Despite the hardships, Peterson n
aged to find the inspiration to carrr
"I was seriously thinking about quittin:
at the end of the "Demonic" tour, bu
then when I got home I put on tha
record and realized I wasn't done yet;
Peterson said.
What resulted was the duo's recen
release, "The Gathering" which title
Peterson explained, refers to, "the albun
being a gathering of our best musica
aspects and that we managed to gt
all-star lineup to back us up."
With lising drum legend, Dast
LomSbaEdo, on drums, Nirtuoso fretless
See TESTAMENT, Page 11