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(10/31/12 11:05pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Seven Psychopaths” follows a writer named Martin who is working on a screenplay called “Seven Psychopaths.”Martin (Farrell) has writer’s block and flirts with depression and alcoholism. Although Martin has only come up with one of the seven psychopaths at the beginning of the film, this is not a film about writer’s block. Rather, “Seven Psychopaths” is an uproariously funny, superbly written parody of the violent crime genre its title invokes and an exploration of that genre’s potential. Martin’s friend Billy, played excellently by Rockwell, envisions the film’s script ending in a flashy Hollywood shootout, but Martin has become disenchanted with wanton violence. Instead, he wants the psychopaths to drive out into the desert and just talk. Happily, both men get their wish. This is made possible by director/writer Martin McDonagh’s signature combination of fascinating characters, surprising plot turns and thought-provoking dialogue.Like McDonagh’s masterful debut, 2008’s “In Bruges,” “Seven Psychopaths” ponders its own violence. The result is a film that is at once absurdly entertaining, scathingly satirical and deeply charming.By Corin Chellberg
(10/25/12 4:51pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The first “Paranormal Activity” was a surprisingly satisfying novelty. The second improved on the first by deepening the story and ramping up the scares. The third provided even more breadth and depth while achieving new levels of scariness by relying less on the found-footage gimmick. Unfortunately, “Paranormal Activity 4” is much more like the first film than the third. Rather than finding new ways to scare the audience, the latest film regresses to the methods of the original, with doors closing on their own, shadowy figures, floating household objects and the like. This has been effective for the series in the past, but several factors make it stunningly ineffective here. Like its predecessors, “Paranormal Activity 4” quickly provides a semi-plausible explanation for the existence of found footage that makes up the movie. This time, webcams around the house capture mildly creepy events. Unfortunately, the paranormal activity they capture really isn’t that creepy. This could be due in part to audiences growing accustomed to the series’s tropes, but, regardless, none of the nocturnal occurrences manage to achieve a solid scare.This fact is made worse because the characters almost never watch the footage they recorded. Even if the footage captured terrifying events in the night, the characters probably wouldn’t notice. What’s worse, even when they do watch footage or experience supernatural phenomena while they’re awake, the characters simply don’t get scared.Instead, their reactions are often more akin to bemusement or mild perplexity, devoid of any sign of real fear. This ineffectual approach to suspense building is further sabotaged by frequent laughs at the humorous dialogue — laughs that would serve as comic relief, if there was any tension to relieve. The end result is a film that is much funnier than it is scary, a major disappointment for people who plunked down their money expecting to be scared. The film doesn’t get scary until its final 15 seconds, and they don’t even come close to justifying the cost of a ticket. Stay away. You have been warned.By Corin Chellberg
(10/17/12 9:17pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This weekend, a brave assembly of computer gamers set aside homework. They threw up their hands, accidentally knocked over their energy drinks and cried out with one voice, “We are sure as hell not getting anything done this weekend! And can someone please bring us some paper towels?”The occasion, not that they really needed one, was Gaming@IU’s 23rd semesterly LAN War. More than 300 people, including myself, attended this semester’s 24-hour gaming extravaganza, drawn by the irresistible energy drinks, pizza, prizes and camaraderie, worth the $20 registration fee at the very least.The LAN War is the nerd equivalent of a car show, with gamers competing both with how their case looks and how they perform on it. Rows of carefully dusted computer cases lined the tables, with clear side panels showing off their brightly illuminated, color-coordinated innards. One impressive competitor had lights built into his rig’s memory sticks. By comparison, my case began to seem rather plain, but I tried to remember that I had chosen it for that very reason. Bright cases are great for events such as this but not quite as great for sleeping.Fueled by a bottomless supply of NOS energy drinks, we clicked and tapped late into the night, and then early into the morning, until finally we reached the crack of noon Sunday. The LAN War was punctuated by the cheers of raffle winners and tournament victors, screaming their thanks to the gaming gods and the competition’s organizers and sponsors, for the bounty of mechanical keyboards, graphics cards, memory sticks, surround-sound headsets, laser mice, solid state drives and last — and very much least — hats, water bottles and T-shirts. The food supply was not nearly as bottomless as the energy drinks. In the blink of an eye, 77 extra-large pizzas from Pizza X disappeared, a necessary sacrifice to maintain the peace. Hungry gamers make for sore losers.In spite of the quick pizza consumption, nobody went hungry. The organizers called for people to get third helpings before the supply was finally exhausted.For some, the event was not as social as anticipated. Some gamers passed the majority of the night with their headphones tightly sealed around their ears, removing them only to relieve themselves or find out whether they had won a prize. For most, the LAN War was a time for nerdy solidarity. It was a time to loudly curse a buggy game or your own bad luck while surrounded by sympathetic commiserators and a place where one could spend 24 consecutive hours playing video games without getting disapproving looks from significant others, non-gamer roommates or judgmental pets.If this sounds like your kind of part, fear not. The next LAN War is tentatively scheduled for April 13, 2013. I’ll see you there next semester, assuming I can pry my eyes off my monitor.By Corin Chellberg
(10/03/12 9:29pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The marketing blitz has begun for the latest in the “Call of Duty” series, “Black Ops II,” and Activision is spending the big bucks. “Modern Warfare 3 made $400 million in its first 24 hours when it launched last November, breaking the $360 million record set when “Black Ops” launched the year before. And people are still tripping over themselves to buy new versions year after year.Some observers have compared the yearly success of the “Call of Duty” franchise to EA’s “Madden NFL” series, which also releases a new title every year. In both cases, millions of gamers pay full price, $60, for a product that is barely discernible from its predecessors. EA and Activision must think we are suckers. Worse, customers confirm their suckerdom by turning out in droves. Although the core “Call of Duty” multiplayer experience is only minutely tweaked with each iteration, every new release features a new single player campaign, thus justifying the full purchase price. This would hold up if people bought “Call of Duty” for the campaign, but they don’t. Since it’s all about the multiplayer, gamers’ yearly $60 payments only gets them new maps, minor tweaks to gameplay and a smattering of new guns and kill streak rewards. This amount of content is far more appropriate for downloadable content, which rightly costs much less than a full game, usually between $10 and $20. Instead of selling this content as DLC, Activision puts out a new game every year, rendering the previous version obsolete because the players all migrate to the new one. This seems to leave “Call of Duty” devotees with the choice between putting up with dramatically longer match making times and getting ripped off.I suggest a third option: Don’t buy “Call of Duty” until Activision stops treating you like a sucker.Instead of seeing “Call of Duty’s” yearly success and comparing it to Madden, compare it to its main competition, “Battlefield 3.” Its DLC costs only $15 or less with Premium and includes everything “Black Ops II” will: new maps, new modes, new guns, etc. Please, stop rewarding Activision for treating you like you’re stupid. You’re not. Right?
(10/03/12 9:13pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Mumford & Sons’ new album, “Babel,” is not a stylistic departure for the band. I am so relieved. Their core sound remains largely the same. After all, “Babel” is only its second album, following the 2009 debut “Sigh No More.” The day for experimentation will come when fans tire of the core Mumford & Sons sound.That is not this day.“Babel” is a strong album from start to finish. It has the mark of a truly great album, in that I have a new favorite song every few days as a new track grows me. Discussing individual tracks would be almost pointless but worth noting is the cover of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer,” a beautiful rendition and a pitch perfect match for the band’s sound.The band stays right in its wheelhouse, showing off the explosive folk rock, thoughtful songwriting and melodic genius that made their debut album so successful. “Babel” reflects Mumford & Sons’ wise choice to not fix what isn’t broken.By Corin Chellberg
(09/05/12 11:11pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Something bad happened to my GPA at 3 a.m. last Tuesday: “Guild Wars 2” launched. ArenaNet’s latest MMORPG has gorgeous graphics, a fantastic questing system and no monthly subscription fee.No monthly fee is huge. Spending $60 to buy a game is much easier to stomach than $15 a month to play one (it works out to $180 a year).The game also features an innovative questing system. Unlike most MMOs, “Guild Wars 2” sends you from NPC to NPC to complete quests.Map markers show people in need of help. There’s no quest to pick up, you just get there and start pitching in.It all feels organic, a word not often used to describe MMO quests. Finally, the graphics are drop-dead gorgeous. It is the “Crysis” of MMOs, and compared to it, “World of Warcraft” is showing its age.ArenaNet has created a beautiful, innovative, organic MMORPG with no subscription fee. Throw in immensely satisfying combat and you get a damn good game, as well as a recipe for commercial success.By Corin Chellberg
(08/23/12 12:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Gamers everywhere this summer faced a challenge harder than trying to beat “Dark Souls” without swearing: keeping their money. First, there was the annual Steam Summer Sale in July. If you missed the sale or are a gamer of the console persuasion, you are both lucky and unlucky. For those unfamiliar, Steam is the largest digital distributor of PC games. Several times a year it has a sale that makes Black Friday look like a rip-off. This sale was no exception. Every day, a different set of games went on sale, with discounts upward of 75 percent as the norm. Countless titles could be purchased for the price of a fast-food cheeseburger. Even blockbusters such as “Skyrim” and “Arkham City” saw markdowns of 50 and 66 percent, respectively. For 11 excruciating and glorious days, gamers woke to find new sales threatening to drain their bank accounts. Those gamers with extreme self-control or zero credit got by unscathed, but the rest of us ended the week like Tiny Tim: destitute, but happy.As if that wasn’t enough, a new console called OUYA, pronounced ooh-yah, exploded onto the gaming scene via Kickstarter that week. The OUYA is a small, white box running Android and powered by a quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Its designers plan to attract developers with a familiar platform and free software development kit. To seduce gamers, all games on the OUYA will be free to play or free to try. The kicker? It costs $99. How is an avid gamer to resist a hot, new console that has the potential to tap a new sector of crowd-sourced creativity? I don’t know, and apparently neither do more than 60,000 newly poor souls who were excited enough about OUYA to buy it eight months before its release. There were plenty more financial perils along the way. There was the Oculus Rift, a promising 3-D virtual reality headset, which garnered rave reviews from the likes of gaming forefather John Carmack. The “Battlefield 3” premium service racked up 800,000 sales in its first two weeks. Throw in pre-orders for a tidal wave of hotly anticipated sequels, including “Guild Wars 2,” “Halo 4,” “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” “Assassin’s Creed III,” “Borderlands 2,” “Darksiders II” and “BioShock Infinite,” and I consider myself lucky to have returned to school without declaring bankruptcy. I plan to celebrate with ramen. Lots and lots of ramen.
(05/24/12 1:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Unlike Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous hits, which relied on ridiculous characters interacting with real people, “The Dictator” is a scripted comedy. Cohen’s character this time around is Aladeen, the callous and lonely dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya. When the United Nations threatens military action against Aladeen’s nuclear program, he travels to New York to address the U.N.’s concerns. Along the way, the film stumbles through a romance between Aladeen and Zoey (Anna Faris). While the venture into scripted comedy works fairly well overall, fans of Ali G, Borat and Bruno should be warned that the humor here isn’t exactly the same.The movie is plenty funny, and it effectively satirizes both autocracy and democracy. However, Cohen’s over-the-top and over-the-line humor doesn’t quite belong in a scripted comedy. Part of what made “Borat” great was watching the character’s antics make real people squirm. In “The Dictator,” these same antics seem at times like he’s trying a little too hard. The scripted format is necessary for such a high-profile character to work, and “The Dictator” is ultimately a rewarding experience. Fans of Cohen’s fearlessly vulgar comedy will not go home disappointed.By Corin Chellberg
(05/17/12 1:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Lone Survivor” is one of the scariest games I’ve ever played. Surprisingly, it’s also one of the simplest, both in graphics and mechanics, and this is what makes the game’s style of terror so effective. As the title suggests, your character is one of very few survivors of a mysterious, catastrophic event that took place before the game starts. The only real goal the game gives you is to survive. Your character requires sleep and food, or the stressors in his environment (read: panic-attack-inducing monsters) will drive him insane.The game readily invites comparison to 2010’s survival horror masterpiece, “Amnesia: The Dark Descent.” Surprisingly, “Lone Survivor” is measurably scarier. Although it’s a sidescroller, “Lone Survivor” feels extremely open and free, and this openness makes you feel exposed at all times. Whereas “Amnesia” kept players mostly on track with a trail of glowing pink goo, “Lone Survivor” leaves you largely to your own devices. What’s more, the dim, understated graphics and distorted ambience are incredibly effective at filling you with dread and fear. Playing in the dark with headphones on and the volume cranked will force you to question your own sanity. Frequently.Playing it will make you genuinely uncomfortable in your own house. In other words, “Lone Survivor” is a fantastic horror game.By Corin Chellberg
(02/09/12 1:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In most superhero origin stories, the characters get superpowers, spend a minute or two reveling in them, then are promptly distracted by the plot for the rest of the film. In “Chronicle,” when three high-schoolers get superpowers from a mysterious object in the ground, they do what any real person would.They experiment with their new abilities, delighting in the fact that they actually have them. For about 40 minutes. It’s an indulgence that is essentially a triple dose of the best part of any superhero movie, and it’s wonderfully satisfying.A conflict presents itself eventually, but rather than rushing itself, it grows organically from the events of the movie. In addition to the wonderful pacing, the way the movie is shot also works well.The film is presented as “found footage,” a series of tapes filmed by the main character himself, but it’s not distracting like it was in “Cloverfield.”“Chronicle” will have you gleefully sharing the pure joy of having superpowers, even as the characters deal with the sobering consequences.
(11/02/11 11:24pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fans waiting for Coldplay’s return to its roots are going to be sorely disappointed with “Mylo Xyloto.” In this latest album, Coldplay continues to move away from the sound that made it great, the sound of “Parachutes,” “A Rush of Blood to the Head” and “X&Y.” This sound was rock lite to be sure, with frontman Chris Martin’s falsetto giving it an uncommon beauty — but it was rock all the same. It was trademark Coldplay, and the charm and earnest romance in the songs worked for the band on every level. “Viva La Vida” represented an alarming stylistic departure in which the band seemed to abandon the idea of being a rock band, seeking instead to create pleasant music best suited to unmemorable commercials. Soundscape music has always been Coldplay’s niche, but on “Viva La Vida” and now “Mylo Xyloto,” the band seems to abandon all pretense of making rock music. With ambient great Brian Eno again on board as a seemingly domineering producer, this latest entry is most accurately described as ambient, generic quasi-rock. Martin’s vocals blend with the rest of the music, which luckily hides the largely trite, repetitive lyrics. For example, half of the lyrics on “Paradise” are either “Para-para-paradise,” “La-la-la-la-la-la” or “Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.” Take note, Coldplay: This is not the stuff quality songs are made of. Oddly, the most compelling song on the album is “Princess of China,” a collaboration with Rihanna. It doesn’t sound remotely like Coldplay; when I heard it on the radio, it took the entire song to convince me that it was, in fact, Coldplay. But the song has a catchy hook with a very uncharacteristic dance vibe, and the artists’ voices complement each other very well.When I heard the first two big singles from “Mylo Xyloto” — “Paradise” and “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” — I hoped against hope that they weren’t representative of the album. Unfortunately, they are. The music is pretty, but that’s about it. It’s agreeable and likeable, but ultimately forgettable and unexciting.
(10/27/11 1:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While both of “Paranormal Activity 3”’s predecessors were enjoyable films, they had a few issues. The really scary stuff didn’t start until just before the end, so by the time the films had built to an impressively scary crescendo, they were finished. The third goes a long way toward getting this right. The scares begin much earlier and occur more frequently, so you spend more of the film scared and less of it staring at uneventful footage, waiting for something subtly creepy to happen. To be sure, there is still some of this in the beginning of the film, but the resulting lowered expectations make the ensuing flurry of superbly executed scares even more effective. Like “Paranormal Activity 2,” the latest entry ties into the previous films very effectively, adding to the depth of the series’ story and setting up the inevitable fourth movie perfectly. While “Paranormal Activity 3” doesn’t end with quite as big a “jump” as the first two, it’s by far the scariest and most enjoyable of the three.
(10/19/11 10:51pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Björk’s latest release, “Biophilia,” is an extremely ambitious project from an artist known for her unusual, ambitious projects. As its name suggests, “Biophilia” seeks to encapsulate humanity’s relationship with the biology of the natural world using music. Given the abstract nature of the album’s theme, Björk looked for ways to enhance the experience for listeners, eventually settling on an iPad app, due to the popularity and flexibility of the platform. As a result, the album is available as a traditional album, and each track has its own app, all contained within the free “Biophilia” app. The music on “Biophilia” is largely enjoyable, but some of the songs are less than accessible on the first listen. The tracks are sparsely orchestrated, with Björk’s trademark vocals accompanied by just a few instruments, different from track to track. One standout is “Dark Matter,” which sounds like a demon-possessed version of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” Unusual instruments are on display here, including several built specifically for Björk to use on the album. The relationship between the instruments and the songs’ themes are sometimes apparent (for example, the sparkling chimes on “Crystalline” or the Tesla coil on “Thunderbolt”), but other tracks remain thematically unconvincing, even after the lengthy explanations available in the app. The album is a more compelling work — and a better buy — in its app form. The $9.99 in-app purchase gets you all 10 $1.99 mini-apps, allowing you to listen to the entire album while enjoying a great deal of additional content. Each mini-app contains the interactive musical app, an animation accompanying the complete song, an explanation of how the app relates to the theme of the track, a detailed musical analysis and lyrics.In the “Crystalline” app, for example, you pilot a polygonal crystal down colored tunnels as the track plays. Periodically, you can choose to change tunnels, causing a different section of the song to play. This lets you reshape the song to your liking, and the options increase as you unlock new tunnels. Other apps let you create, save and export your own music, among other things.The “Biophilia” app album is a fresh and compelling model for artists to provide a musical experience that goes beyond audio files while containing some gorgeous pieces of music. However, its attempt at such an abstract theme results in lyrics that are borderline nonsensical, which make many of the ambitious comparisons ring hollow.
(10/13/11 12:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Although FX’s comedy “The League” is about fantasy football, it’s not just for football fans. Now in its third season, it is arguably one of today’s best-written comedies, with incredibly sharp dialogue and rich, endearing characters. The brilliant second season of “The League” centers around a group of friends who have a fantasy football league and take it extremely seriously. Every episode is packed with fierce trash-talking, intense analysis and planning for each game, along with creative gloating from the week’s winners. The characters struggle with balancing their passion of fantasy football with their daily lives and relationships, resulting in hilarity. In one scene, Ruxin (Nick Kroll) tries to covertly update his roster while his wife (Nadine Velasquez) is blindfolded and tied up in bed talking to him. Another standout cast member is comedian Jon Lajoie, who rose to fame through hilarious YouTube songs like “Show Me Your Genitals.” Lajoie’s character is quirky and very popular with the ladies, yet has a childlike cluelessness that makes every scene he’s in that much funnier. Fantasy football fans especially will love the frenzied competition, and even people who don’t like football will find themselves personally invested in the emotional highs and lows of life in the league.
(09/21/11 10:30pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Blind Pilot’s focused, acoustic sound is uncommonly soothing. It is music to listen to in a comfortable chair on a rainy day. The band’s six members wield a veritable arsenal of instruments, including acoustic guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, upright bass, dulcimer, trumpet and violin. This diversity of sound is put to good use and never feels like too much thanks to deft, light-handed instrumentation. Similarly, lead singer Israel Nebeker’s pure, airy vocals are matched with the perfect amount of tight, well-executed harmonies. The drum work is excellent throughout, from the energetic beat that drives the title track to the sparse, haunting bongo work of “New York.” “We Are the Tide” showcases the band’s thoughtful, refreshing melodic style. The music rarely goes where you expect it to, but each surprising chord progression is so clearly right that you’ll wonder how you didn’t see it coming. Nebeker’s clear voice propels strong, compelling melodies that ride the natural swells of the music, achieving a humble, effortless majesty.
(05/13/11 6:37pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hyetal’s “Broadcast” sounds like an unusual science fiction movie soundtrack. Some of the music has a retro feel to it, featuring simple electronic sounds similar to those that come out of an 80’s arcade, while other tracks are more complex and futuristic sounding. The song “Beach Scene” is filled with interesting drums mixed to victory music from old Nintendo games. “The Chase,” has a hypnotizing quality to it, starting off slow and mourning, then becoming frenetic as more and more sounds are thrown into the increasingly complicated mix. “Searchlight” features jarring vocal samples interspersed with the coin sound from Super Mario Brothers. Hyetal hits its stride with ‘Dime Piece’, a vast, epic-sounding track with a great hook and vocals and ending with the sounds of a rainstorm. The final track, “Black Black Black,” is superb, with haunting, airy vocals over a meticulously crafted background of bassy drums, chimes, synth loops and other rhythmic sounds. For all its highlights, “Broadcast” is an inconsistent album containing its share of disappointing tracks. Those several great tracks on the album, though, make it one that is worth the cost.
(04/13/11 9:27pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I’m just gonna come out and say it. “Your Highness” may be the perfect movie — if your sense of humor is like mine, that is. “Your Highness” is essentially based around this formula: Take a typical fantasy quest film, add copious amounts of cursing and filthy humor and hire a hilarious cast. James Franco, Natalie Portman and Justin Theroux give very good performances, but Danny McBride is the unchallenged star of the show as a bumbling, dirty-minded prince, replete with imagined suavity and inexplicable confidence. The amount of cursing is astounding for a fantasy film, and each expletive is perfectly timed and deftly worded for maximum comic effect. Viewers who are offended by profanity should avoid this film, but fans of diverse language will relish in this film’s unusual lexicon. In other fantasy films, when a moment comes where a good F-bomb is really needed, the audience gets lets down. “Your Highness” has no such failings.The plot, following the tone of the movie itself, is pretty absurd. Franco and McBride, two princes, must save Franco’s bride-to-be from an evil wizard who intends to impregnate her during a lunar eclipse to fulfill a prophecy, resulting in her giving birth to a dragon. It makes sense for this film. Why give a film that’s not serious at all a serious plot? Fittingly, the characters mock plot holes throughout the film.While some viewers with delicate sensibilities will doubtless be offended by the humor in this movie, most people in its target audience (over 17, under 30, immature) will find it riotously funny. While other comedies are admittedly more well-rounded in terms of story, meaning and depth of character, none come to mind that are as funny. Sure, the plot may merely be a vehicle for dick jokes, but that’s all it has to be. There might never have been a film that takes itself less seriously than “Your Highness.” It mocks the fantasy genre without pulling its punches whatsoever, it mocks itself, and the characters ruthlessly mock each other. It has no pretensions of social or political commentary. It’s simply an extremely funny movie, no more, no less. Ignore the stuffy film critics panning this film. “Your Highness” was meant for you, not them.
(03/03/11 2:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>What would you do if you found out that you weren’t in control of your life? In “The Adjustment Bureau,” directed by George Nolfi, David Norris, a down-to-earth New York senate candidate played by Matt Damon, accidentally finds men in suits scanning the mind of one of his friends as his co-workers sit nearby, completely frozen. The men explain that they are responsible for making sure the world unfolds as it is supposed to according to “The Plan.” Norris is told that he has “seen behind a curtain (he’s) not even supposed to know exists” and that if he reveals their existence to anyone, they will erase his mind. With Norris’ unintended glimpse of the Adjustment Bureau comes a second encounter with a girl who he was only supposed to meet once according to The Plan. Her name is Elise Sellas, played by Emily Blunt, and she’s a talented dancer. The men in suits instruct Norris that he can’t be with her. Angry and shaken, he demands to know why but is only told that they have to follow The Plan. The remainder of the movie is comprised of Norris battling these executors of fate in order to win the right to be with the woman he loves. While the romantic aspect of the film can tend toward the corny from time to time, it bestows a touching, humanizing charm on what could have been a rather dry sci-fi thriller. The film’s visual impact is powerful, in the same league as “Inception,” if slightly less jaw-dropping. The employees of the Adjustment Bureau navigate the world by using a network of connected doors, which allows for some breathtaking scene changes. In one such startling transition, a door leads from a dank steam room directly onto the field of Yankee Stadium. While the ending is decidedly cheesy, it fails to leave a bad taste in viewers’ mouths and it is still satisfying. “The Adjustment Bureau” deftly weaves together a fascinating sci-fi premise, a heartwarming against-all-odds love story and mind-bending visual effects to make a compelling film.
(02/24/11 12:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This year’s Academy Awards will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, a somewhat odd pair to follow up last year’s comedy dream team, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. In what could be an effort to increase viewers, the Academy appears to have swapped seasoned comedy veterans for younger, less funny, prettier hosts. It’s an interesting move, and it could bring in more viewers in the ever important 18-30 age group, but at what cost?Admittedly, Franco and Hathaway were not the Academy’s first choice. Hugh Jackman, who was the host of the ceremony to rave reviews in 2009, turned down an offer to be the host of the 2011 ceremony due to conflicts with the next installment of the popular X-Men franchise. The Academy has been trying to bolster ratings in other ways. Last year, they increased the number of nominees for Best Picture from five to 10, which incensed many critics and pleased others.However, what the Academy really needs to do to keep viewers watching in greater numbers is to condense the ceremony. It’s just too long; and those viewers who aren’t movie buffs tend to waver and change the channel during the middle section of the telecast, in which the technical and artistic (read: less interesting) awards are presented. The ceremony is slated to run from 8 to 11:30 p.m., not including the hour of red carpet coverage preceding it. That’s enough time to watch two of the Best Picture nominees, and given that many of the awards are considerably less interesting, not something many viewers are likely to do in one sitting. Shortening the ceremony might be difficult to do without stepping on some toes. Whatever categories have their time reduced will inevitably feel slighted and understandably so. They deserve recognition from the Academy and in front of all their peers, but they won’t really be recognized by most of the telecast’s viewers. Who really knows the difference between sound editing and sound mixing? The Academy moved Lifetime Achievement awards and other honorary Oscars to a ceremony separate from the rest of the Oscars. If it wants to really boost its ratings and keep viewers through the entire telecast, it should consider doing the same with the more obscure awards. Having the entire production team for a film crowd up on the stage is a grand moment for them and enjoyable for those in the know, but it just takes too much time.
(02/02/11 11:00pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“The Pawnbroker” is a dark, great film directed by Sidney Lumet. Notable for being one of the first American films to depict concentration camps in the Holocaust, “The Pawnbroker” casts an unflinching eye on a Holocaust survivor named Sol Nazerman.Nazerman (Rod Steiger) owns a pawn shop in East Harlem, which is depicted as a parallel to the concentration camp in his memory. When Nazerman sees a fight going on as he walks to his car, rapid, jarring flashbacks occur, taking viewers back to his memories of violence in the concentration camp.The film’s black and white aesthetic and overall style is harsh and gritty. It’s almost as if Lumet rigged the cameras to capture only the bad in each scene, leaving nothing but a shadow where good things should have been. The lack of color mirrors the world as Nazerman sees it. He has been numbed by his experiences in the Holocaust, and he leads a nearly emotionless life. He is unmoved by the heartbreaking stories of his desperate customers and further unmoved by the death of family members. His lack of emotion is disturbed only by rare flares of anger, usually when someone else refuses to leave him alone. As Nazerman tells his apprentice Ortiz in one of the film’s most famous scenes, the only thing he believes in is money. He views money as a much needed constant in a world full of chaos. This belief is reflected in the way the pawn shop is treated in the movie. It is Nazerman’s refuge against the world, a place where he is in control and where he feels closest to a peace, albeit a tense peace.The external conflict of the story arrives when Nazerman learns that Rodriguez, the racketeer who is using his pawn shop as a front, runs a nearby brothel. In another series of flashbacks, we see Nazerman being forced by a Nazi guard to watch as his wife is violated. Because of this experience, Nazerman goes to Rodriguez and tells him that he won’t take his money if it comes from a brothel, which Rodriquez concedes it does.Reeling from his falling out with Rodriguez and overwhelmed by long-suppressed memories, Nazerman lashes out at Ortiz, telling him flatly that he means nothing to him. Ortiz, driven by greed and resentment, plans to rob the pawn shop with a few of his friends.The film takes the audience on an interesting historical voyage, into a different era of cinema and a different period of time. It also presents a unique recollection of the Holocaust from the perspective of someone who has struggled to suppress that very memory. “The Pawnbroker” is being shown at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at the IU Cinema.