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FOR RENT
ACROSS
1 Lighthouse
emission
5 Routine material
10 Mystery novelist
Paretsky
14 “Sesame Street”
giggler
15 How cut-up raw
veggies are often
served
17 “Bridge of Spies”
spy Rudolf __
18 “Casablanca”
actor
19 Deliberately
damage
21 Some running
shoes
22 Made oneself
scarce
23 Bingo-like game
24 Smoke from
Cuba
30 Euro pop?
31 Go from pillar to
post
32 Gaza Strip gp.
35 Milk
40 Classified
postings
41 Word with hall or
house
42 __ pricing
43 Some Downton
Abbey staff
47 38th-parallel land
50 Many millennia
51 Just enough to
taste, with “of”
52 Starting at 19-
Across and
ending here,
vehicle making
its way through
five long answers
58 Expressed with
only gestures
60 Greasy
61 Walk-in
emergency
center
62 Mess setting
63 Zap with a
weapon
64 Like giraffes and
horses
65 Token receiver
DOWN
1 Young Cleaver,
for short
2 Idris of “Luther”
3 Service call?
4 Penicillin source
5 She sang about
McGee
6 Iroquois tribe
7 Willy or Lenny of
Manhattan deli
fame
8 Pentathlon sword
9 35mm camera
type
10 Russell __
Candies
11 Heart chambers
12 Played over
13 “You __ cool!”
16 Selma’s state
20 “So that’s the
puzzle theme!”
24 Torso topper
25 Torah chests
26 One of a
vivacious pair?
27 Origami bird
28 Discontinued
Saturn model
29 Noir weapon
30 School support
org.
32 Cooped (up)
33 Co-worker of
Clark
34 “The good is __
interred with their
bones”: Antony
36 Stuffed one’s face
37 Throw on
38 Jettas, e.g.
39 Rev
43 Protégé
44 Midnight rider
45 Like a ripped-up
check
46 Taylor of fashion
47 On the blink
48 Maureen of “The
Quiet Man”
49 Wedding bands
52 Layered mineral
53 Arabian Sea
sultanate
54 Loads
55 Vaccine holder
56 “Not only
that ... ”
57 Politburo no
59 “Newhart”
production co.
By Ed Sessa
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/03/18
01/03/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
6A — Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
“Jumanji:
Welcome
to
the Jungle” functions as a
“legacy-quel” (a term coined
to describe the recent trend in
movies to release sequels after
their original audience has
had time to grow up and have
little audience members of
their own) to Robin Williams’s
(“The Birdcage”) flick released
22 years ago. In this updated
version, instead of the titular
board
game
bringing
all
sorts of jungle creatures into
modern-day
suburbia,
four
high schoolers are sucked into
a virtual world, given different
avatars to control and told that
they must save the world in
order to return home.
The
crux
of
the
film’s
marketing was the idea of
watching the stars of the
movie playing against type
in a particularly egregious
way. Dwayne Johnson (“The
Fate of the Furious”) plays the
avatar of a nerd who’s afraid
of
everything.
Kevin
Hart
(“Central
Intelligence”)
is
the jock who pays Johnson’s
“real life” character to do
his
homework.
Jack
Black
(“Goosebumps”)
is
every
teenage girl stereotype the
writers could cram into a
single character. The problem
isn’t that there are no laughs
to be mined from this. The
conflict between a person’s
outward appearance and who
they actually are is some of
the oldest joke material in the
book. No, the problem is that
after the first scene with the
avatars, the shtick wears real
thin real fast.
After that first scene, it
becomes painfully obvious that
no one involved, especially the
writers, has any idea what to do
with “Welcome to the Jungle”
beyond repeating those same
jokes ad nauseum. By the time
Jack Black gets an overlong and
embarrassingly
extraneous
scene in which he is taught by
Johnson and Hart how to use
his new penis — a sentence
that, God help me, I can never
unwrite — they’ve graduated
from the shallow likeability
they showed at first into a
groanworthy monotony.
Not only does using this
conflict as the cornerstone of
the film hurt the comedy, it
makes it all but impossible for
any of the players to develop.
The high schoolers are entirely
defined
through
contrast
with their avatars rather than
through any growth of their
own. Take Johnson’s character,
Spencer, for instance. From
the very beginning, everything
about Spencer is in service to
enforcing the idea that he is not
a character The Rock would
usually play. These characters
are usually fearless, so Spencer
is afraid of everything. They
aren’t
usually
nerdy
and
socially awkward, so Spencer
is both. There isn’t a single
aspect of his personality that
can’t adequately be summed up
as not “The Rock,” and when
a character is defined by what
they aren’t as opposed to what
they are, that doesn’t make
for
interesting
storytelling.
The actors all turn in fine
performances, but they aren’t
given much to do besides
taking
what
they
would
ordinarily do and just doing
the opposite.
Aside from that, there was
a chance for “Welcome to the
Jungle” to satirize gaming
culture,
as
winked
at
by
Karen Gillan (“Guardians of
the Galaxy Vol. 2”), pointing
out
the
absurdity
of
her
avatar wearing a halter top
in the middle of a jungle.
Unfortunately, not only does
the script completely abandon
this idea after that first aside in
favor of action scenes that make
the sexualization of Wonder
Woman in “Justice League”
look subtle by comparison, but
most of the movie plays like
it was written by a 40-year-
old man who hasn’t touched a
video game since 1996. What
little dialogue isn’t taken up by
repetitive jokes is filled with
clunky exposition about video
games that feels like someone
opened the Wikipedia page
for “video gaming” and just
started copying paragraphs.
This lack of self-awareness
and dated dialogue might be
forgivable, but it’s compounded
by the dearth of good humor,
and almost any reason to see
“Welcome
to
the
Jungle”
completely
collapses
under
that weight. The only thing
left is the simple nostalgia of
seeing the original reimagined
— references include a well-
intentioned
reference
to
Robin
Williams’s
character
that makes little sense and
Bobby
Cannavale
(“Ant-
Man”) chewing scenery in the
part originated by Jonathan
Hyde (“Titanic”) — and that
nostalgia, as in all legacy-quels,
JEREMIAH VANDERHELM
Daily Arts Writer
‘Jumanji’ sequel fails despite good cast and performances
‘Welcome to the Jungle’
can’t match the original
When you hear moviegoers
use the phrase “so bad it’s
good,” your mind likely goes to
Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room,”
or perhaps to even more recent
offerings such as “Sharknado”
or “Birdemic: Shock and Terror.”
With the recent release of “The
Disaster
Artist,”
a
comedic
biopic about the making of “The
Room”
from
actor/director
James Franco (“The Vault”), the
discussion
surrounding
films
that are so bad they’re good has
been renewed. However, the
advent of the anti-masterpiece
began
long
before
Tommy
Wiseau ever uttered the phrase,
“Oh, hi Mark.” Rather, those
examining the history of bad
film should look to one Edward
D. Wood Jr., the mind behind
B-movie flops such as “Bride of
the Monster” and “Plan 9 from
Outer Space.”
In the 1994 film “Ed Wood,”
director Tim Burton (“Miss
Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar
Children”)
pays
homage
to
Wood, posthumously awarded
as The Worst Director of All
Time. Starring Johnny Depp
(“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Men Tell No Tales”) as Ed Wood,
the movie focuses on several
aspects of the director’s life: His
transvestitism, his film career
and his friendship with actor
Bela Lugosi.
Interestingly, the film never
sets out to make fun of Wood
but to celebrate his life and his
uncompromising dedication to
his dream. Over the course of
the film, audiences see Wood do
whatever it takes to film his next
scene, whether that be begging
for the attention of rich backers
or convincing all of his friends
to get baptised by a church in
order to fund his movie. Depp’s
charm makes Wood the ultimate
underdog; as he stands behind
the camera mouthing along to
lines he wrote, pantomiming
the facial expressions of his
characters, Wood’s unbridled
enthusiasm becomes contagious.
It’s this very contagiousness
that sits at the center of the film’s
message; for all his eccentricity
and incompetence, Wood is
never alone. He attracts an
unwaveringly
loyal
band
of
Hollywood misfits from the once-
great actor Bela Lugosi (Martin
Landau, “Abe & Phil’s Last Poker
Game”) to Tor Johnson (George
Steele, “Boston Girls”), a hulking
Swedish wrestler. Never mind
his ineptitude, never mind his
penchant
for
crossdressing
during
the
puritanical
and
straight-laced
1950s,
Wood’s
magnetism and vision make
him beloved by an ensemble
of characters who don’t just
tolerate his eccentricity but
embrace it.
It’s in this way that Wood
redefines “the artist’s struggle.”
It’s
not
just
the
monetary
struggle of the underappreciated
artist, it’s also the struggle to
stay true to oneself. This is
poignantly depicted in a scene
where a frustrated Wood storms
off set and hops in a cab to the
nearest bar. Upon arriving, he’s
surprised to see his inspiration
and idol Orson Welles sitting in
a booth. Dressed head to toe in
women’s clothing, he approaches
Welles and the two converse as
equals. There’s a certain coat of
irony that comes in successful
mega-stars playing struggling
artists, but it melts away in this
scene as we see the lauded Welles
speak to Wood as if they were old
friends. These artists, for all the
disparity that may be present in
the quality of their work, bond
over common experiences. It’s
here that the true message of “Ed
Wood” reveals itself: The quality
of your work isn’t as important
as staying true to your vision.
It’s an important message,
and one that likely answers the
question of why we gravitate
towards films like “Plan 9 from
Outer Space” and “The Room.”
Both Wood and Wiseau were
men whose mediocrity at their
craft played itself out with such
passionate truthfulness that the
result is irresistibly magnetic.
Through all the raw, unbridled
passion these artists hold, we
can sense an uncompromising
dedication to a dream. As Orson
Welles says to Wood when the
two directors depart: “Visions
are worth fighting for. Why
spend your life making someone
else’s dream?”
From the Vault: ‘Ed Wood’
“Jumanji:
Welcome to the
Jungle”
Ann Arbor 20 +
IMAX, Goodrich
Quality 16
Sony Pictures
Entertainment
After that first
scene, it becomes
painfully
obvious that no
one involved,
especially the
writers, has any
idea what to do
with ‘Welcome to
the Jungle’
What little
dialogue isn’t
taken up by
repetitive jokes is
filled with clunky
exposition about
video games
MAX MICHALSKY
Daily Arts Writer
FILM NOTEBOOK
Max Michalsky thinks about ‘The Disaster Artist,’ and
why we love terrible movies despite their obvious flaws
Interestingly,
the film never
sets out to make
fun of Wood
but to celebrate
his life and his
uncompromising
dedication to his
dream
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