IUSA

The art of stupidity

By C. Warner Sills and Chris Wisner · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:59 p.m.

The Jackass guys -- you either love them or hate them. After the first flick made mad money at the box office while garnering terrible reviews from critics nationwide, it was only a matter of time until a sequel came around. Johnny Knoxville swears it wasn't for the money -- the only way another Jackass movie would be made were if enough absurd, death-defying stunts went from paper to successful performance on camera -- and damn, were they successful.

Shining star

By C. Warner Sills and Greg Schoenbaechler · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:57 p.m.

One of the more original movies of 2006 has finally come to DVD shining as bright as its yellow cover. After receiving great acclaim for its character-driven plot, "Little Miss Sunshine" has lived up to all of the hype and is worthy of its two Golden Globe nominations, Best Musical or Comedy of the Year and Best Performance by a Female in a Musical or Comedy (Toni Collette).

'Snakes' on a DVD

By C. Warner Sills and Greg Schoenbaechler · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:55 p.m.

I was very skeptical when I saw the trailer for "Snakes On a Plane" because it had Samuel L. Jackson in it, but didn't look that great. A couple words came to mind: stupid, idiotic, far-fetched. It's funny because I was exactly right. Those are just a few demeaning words that perfectly describe "Snakes On a Plane" one of the biggest pieces of trash in the past year.

Bloomington to host MLK Day events

By Shannon McEnerney · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:53 p.m.

Peace. Justice. Equality. All the words are associated with civil-rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. But when freshman Elia Nikitas thinks of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, she remembers the man, then also that she has a day off from school. "It's nice to have no class," she said, "but I don't think of the day unless it is mentioned."

Montreal is the 'Destroyer'

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:53 p.m.

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? isn't due out until Jan. 23, but thanks to the generosity of the band and Polyvinyl Records, it's already available for listening on the Polyvinyl Web site, so, how about a preview? (And after reading this review, you don't have to just take my word on it, check it out yourself at www.polyvinylrecords.com/hissing.)

Big Bang slipped through cracks

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:51 p.m.

These weeks immediately after the holiday shopping season are a wasteland for new releases. So why not dig up something that slipped through 2006's cracks? And, indeed, what I'm recommending slipped so deep that seemingly only mp3 bloggers and mole men know about it.

No resurrection here

By C. Warner Sills and Brian Hettmansperger · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:48 p.m.

With his new album, Hip-Hop is Dead, Nas' flow is as gritty and raw as ever. His trademark interior rhyme scheme is here as well. With production by Will.i.am., Kanye West and Scott Storch, and guest appearances by Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and The Game, how could this album not be an instant classic? For starters, there are way too many mediocre tracks on the album -- recycled gansta' rhetoric that has plagued all this new hip-hop since the drrty South went mainstream. "Play on Playa" with Snoop Dogg is nothing more than an excuse to get Snoop on the album.

Oh! Gravity only OK

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:33 p.m.

Switchfoot's Oh! Gravity is a frustrating album. Beyond being wildly uneven, it seems like the product of a Bizarro World in which experimental is mainstream and mainstream experimental. Just as the complaint against some of the more "out-there" indie acts (say, the Fiery Furnaces or Animal Collective) is that they alternate between pop perfection and artsy hooey, in Oh! Gravity, Switchfoot alternates between tracks of shockingly good garage rock/pop-punk and bland, by-the-numbers post-grunge dross.

'More Fish' is delish

By C. Warner Sills and Benny Goldman · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:30 p.m.

While many figured March's excellent Fishscale would keep Ghostface fans full for the current standard of two years, it turns out it was just an appetizer. Less than nine months later, Ghost is back serving up seconds on More Fish, an album that lives up to the expectations of its title. The album kicks off with "Ghost Is Back," an update of Rakim's classic "Know the Ledge." It's a bold move by Ghostface, attempting to compete with the lyrical mastery of someone who uses the last name "Allah." He sets the tone by boasting: "With more blubber than a Ruben Studdard, I grease the pan with rhymes and y'all can't believe it's not butter." From there, it's best to take Ghost's advice: "Chill and stretch all out like franks on the grill."

Rocky still has it

By C. Warner Sills and Chris Freiberg · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:25 p.m.

Hell has frozen over. Sylvester Stallone has defied the gods and nature to make a sixth installment in the long-running "Rocky" film series, and even more shocking, it's a pretty good movie. In "Rocky Balboa," everyone's favorite boxing underdog has finally retired to a quiet life in his home of Philadelphia. Instead of running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rocky is much more content running his restaurant and regaling patrons with stories of his legendary career.

Fairy tale worth forgetting

By C. Warner Sills and K. A. MacDonald · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:24 p.m.

If you have seen either "Shrek" movie, you can skip "Happily N'Ever After." There we go, a full movie review in 13 words. The movie isn't bad, but it isn't really that good either. There is nothing new in the movie that we haven't seen before, heard before or possibly thought before. If I want to watch a movie about fairy tale characters gone awry, I want to be falling out of my chair at the silliness and the impossibilities (because I truly believe that talking pigs and houses made of gingerbread are possibilities, if not necessities). The plot involves Cinder-Ella's evil stepmother taking over control of the Scales of Good and Evil in Fairy Tale Land while the Wizard, the underused George Carlin, is away hitting the links. The bad fairy tale characters join together to capture Cinder-Ella and the kitchen boy before they can screw everything up and return all of the story endings back to happy ones. And you can guess how it ends.

Dench gives plenty of reason to take 'Notes'

By C. Warner Sills and Alyson Brodsky · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:21 p.m.

Dame Judi Dench has reunited with her "Iris" director, Richard Eyre, in yet another fascinating performance in what is one of the best films of the year. Dench carries the title of "dame" well; she is like a female version of King Midas -- her acting turns films to gold. Dench's acting is matched by Cate Blanchett, who gives a worthy, Golden Globe-nominated performance as Sheba Hart.

'Shepherd' requires your utmost attention

By C. Warner Sills and Doug Evans · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:19 p.m.

In his second directorial effort and his first since 1993's "A Bronx Tale," Robert De Niro takes on the arduous task of creating a convoluted spy movie that must always be two steps ahead of itself. Spanning the 1930s through the early 1960s, "The Good Shepherd" tells the story of the ever-quiet but always attentive and patriotic Edward Wilson (Damon) and his role in what would become the CIA. Damon does an excellent job as a man who, because of the forces of his profession and his determined personality, is compelled to lead a double life. Mr. Wilson is first and foremost the working man, putting his tasks ahead of everything else in his life and always out of the country on business. To a much lesser extent, Mr. Wilson is the family man, who is rarely home, was not even present for the first six years of his son's life and only married his wife Clover (Jolie) because of an impulsive one-night stand.

Go to a real museum instead

By C. Warner Sills and Phil McLaughlin · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:16 p.m.

Had I been born in the late-'90s, wallowing in the boredom of an extended recess from the trials and tribulations of my third-grade workload, I might have found something more in Shawn Levy's "Night at the Museum." Something beyond the countless underdeveloped B stories, a virtually unused Ricky Gervais and plot hole after plot hole The film is far from the best of the year, yet I can't help but realize that it served its purpose: entertaining an audience that doesn't keep tabs of how many dead ends a story can create within itself and possess a supporting cast that leaves their parents almost triumphantly exclaiming: "I bet the kids don't even know who that is."

Family matters in Spain

By Chris Wisner and compiled by Chris Wisner · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 3:13 p.m.

People were stunned last year at the Cannes Film Festival when the jury awarded the Best Actress prize to all the women of "Volver," director Pedro Almodóvar's latest accomplishment in his long filmmaking career. While I've only seen a handful of his works, the honor Cannes bestowed upon Pedro's actresses made perfect sense to me, for if any one of them weren't in the story, the whole thing might've fallen apart.

Man seen streaking in southwest Bloomington

By Alexandra R. Moses · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 1:27 p.m.

A passer-by called Bloomington Police on Wednesday to report a male streaking near West Tapp Road and South Adams Street Wednesday afternoon, said BPD Capt. Joe Qualters.

Cleanup underway days after Pizza Express blaze

By Alexandra R. Moses · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 1:27 p.m.

The Pizza Express restaurant that was gutted by an electrical fire Jan. 2 is still scheduled to reopen by the end of the month, the company said.

The Complete Morons' Guide to: Major movements in Western art

Friday, Jan. 12,2007 1:24 p.m.

To become a high-browed arts expert, you can take one of the many classes that the IU art history department offers. Or you can just consult this little guide.

This weekend in the Jacobs School of Music

By Eric Anderson · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 2:35 a.m.

On Saturday night the atrium of IU's celebrated Art Museum will be transformed into a medieval French cathedral as the Jacobs School of Music presents 'Fleury,' a 12th-century liturgical, or church, drama. "Fleury," an anonymous manuscript, contains 10 separate dramas that address a variety of biblical stories, such as Christmas, Easter and the conversion of St. Paul.

'Hello, Goodbye'

By Scott Leadingham · Friday, Jan. 12,2007 1:43 a.m.

Hello 2007, goodbye 2006 -- good riddance to you and your congressional elections that yielded so much progress and hope.