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Aguilera impresses in return to form

By Alyson Brodsy and Michael Mellini · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Full disclosure: I've been saying Christina should do the whole 1940s-Betty Boop-swing thing for years. She's got the perfect voice for this kind of stuff and she's the one who should be releasing albums of American standards, not Rod Stewart. Aguilera starts out by thanking all the musicians of that era who have inspired and influenced her, yet she does it more literally than musically. While she sings "I've waited some time/to get inside the minds/of every legend I've wanted to stand beside," she doesn't quite get "back to basics." Instead, the first part of the album has more of a contemporary R&B sound.

'Trade Center' honorable, horrific

By Alyson Brodsy and Doug Evans · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

It is not an easy thing to review a film based on an awfully recent tragedy that affected so many people to such a great magnitude. Likewise, it was certainly no simple task for Oliver Stone to direct such material. The director does a masterful job, holding back like never before in making a film that pays much honor and respect to those directly involved or affected by the events of Sept. 11. "World Trade Center" focuses on two real life Port Authority police officers, John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Peña, "Crash"), who were trapped under wreckage from the collapse of the towers for nearly 24 hours before finally being rescued. Stone tracks the officers through the beginning of their work day when they are called to the Trade Center. A majority of the story takes place as the men lie trapped some 20 feet under the rubble. Their conversations drive these scenes of entrapment as the men struggle to stay awake and help each other survive. A parallel storyline revolves around the families of the two officers. Their wives and children wait in agonizing emotional pain, following the television closely, not knowing if their husbands and fathers are even alive.

The Indiana Daily Student

'Descent' intelligent, horrifying

By Alyson Brodsy and Michael Mellini · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Take a deep breath. Feel that stuff going in and out of your lungs? It's air, enjoy it because during "The Descent" you're going to need lots of it. OK, OK, so you're probably thinking, "Hey, this movie came out last year; it was called 'The Cave.'" Well, that movie sucked. Fine, I never saw it. But I'm assuming it sucked, and this one is, well, pretty awesome and scary. Director Neil Marshall ("Dog Soldiers") made this horror hit with almost no budget and it shows, but in a good way. The film follows a group of female cave-exploring adventure seekers who head out on a weekend spelunking trip. Hoping to discover a new location, one of them decides to bring her friends to uncharted territory. But things don't go as planned. A landslide seals shut the opening of the cave and the women become trapped hundreds of feet below the earth. The first half of the film works in the same manner as "Open Water" and "The Blair Witch Project," dealing with the fear of claustrophobia and knowing your life is about to end. The camera movements and minimal lighting excellently create the feeling that the audience is stuck inside as well. Several times throughout the movie I reached out in front of me to remind myself I was safely in a movie theater.

The Indiana Daily Student

He's Not that tired of Snakes

By Alyson Brodsy and Sandy Cohen · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

He's been a gangster and a hit man, a distraught father and a disgraced police officer, a scientist and a Jedi. In his latest role, Samuel L. Jackson is a snake-killer. Jackson stars in one of the summer's most anticipated movies, the title-says-it-all thriller "Snakes on a Plane". He helped promote the movie last month at the San Diego's biggest comic book convention, San Diego Comic-Con, by wearing an albino Burmese python around his neck. It's the closest he came to his slithery screen companions (agent's orders, he says). Still, Jackson was as cool as Jules Winnfield, the scripture-spouting hit man he played in 1994's "Pulp Fiction" that earned him an Academy Award nomination.

Terror at 40,000 feet

By Alyson Brodsy and John Barnett · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

When the Internet buzz over "Snakes on a Plane" started this past spring, most everyone assumed the film would either be so totally over-the-top it would rival "Bad Boys II" for pure popcorn ridiculousness, or be just another formula horror flick that somehow managed to grab a big-name actor to generate box-office revenue. David R. Ellis' much-hyped "Snakes" actually manages to be a little bit of both, with a healthy dose of "Scream"-style self-deprecation thrown in for good measure. Think Jules Winnfield meets "Anaconda" at 40,000 feet.

New Eats

By Alyson Brodsy and Kacie Foster · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

More than a dozen new restaurants have sprouted up in Bloomington this summer. Owners are eager to introduce their menus to returning students. IU senior Todd Schear is a shift manager at D.P. Dough at 107 N. Dunn St. The franchise specializes in calzones ($6) and offers more than 40 varieties. The restaurant offers free delivery with a minimum purchase of $5. Schear says since the opening last month, the staff prepares about 100 orders per day. Once classes are in session, he says he expects orders to double.

The Indiana Daily Student

Coppola's war

By Alyson Brodsy and John Barnett · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Encompassing over a calendar year of principal photography in the Philippines and nearly two years of post-production in director Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope labs, 1979's "Apocalypse Now" remains one of the few greatest cinematic achievements of all time. Based on Joseph Conrad's 1902 story "Heart of Darkness," "Apocalypse" delves into the dark heart of man versus man and the ugly, subversive politics of war. It succeeds better than any film before or since.

"Brick" boldly reinvents noir

By Alyson Brodsy and Chris Wisner · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Film noir has always been the genre most precious to me, so when I was informed of a certain "Brick" generating an appreciation that spread like wildfire at last year's Sundance Film Festival, I needed to get the lowdown. I'm not sure how writer/director Rian Johnson came up with the idea to take all the elements that make noir so great and place them in a high school setting, but the only word I can reply with is brilliant. The dark alleys of the city are transformed into dimly lit, locker-filled hallways. Heavies become jocks and the ever beautiful yet deadly femme fatale isn't a woman smoking a cigarette in some nightclub -- she is the head of the theatre and drama department.

The Indiana Daily Student

Spike gets 'inside' Hollywood

By Alyson Brodsy and Chris Wisner · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Spike Lee directing a heist thriller? It's hard to imagine the same man who made "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" tackling such a genre. Rest easy; within the first 10 minutes my skepticism had subsided entirely. Meet Dalton Russell (played by the ever cool Clive Owen, "Sin City"), a man who never repeats himself and speaks as if every word out of his mouth has been memorized and planned for more than a year. He swears he is about to conduct the perfect bank heist and by the end of his to-the-point introduction, you'd dare not even doubt him for a second. With the bank held-up and every hostage suited up in outfits and masks to make everyone look like the robbers, the frenzy stirs Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) into action and it is clear from the start if anyone is going to play Russell's game, Frazier is the man to do it.

The Indiana Daily Student

"Dead" rises to gory occasion

By Alyson Brodsy and Chris Freiberg · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Admit it: You've sat around at least once with your friends and had a discussion about how to survive when the zombies come. It's OK; we've all done it. Really.And if you haven't, then they'll just eat your brains first. Zombie apocalypse planning is just as important as preparing for a tornado, flood or terrorist attack.For those of us who know it's not a matter of if, but when the undead attack, there's perhaps no better survival simulator available today than "Dead Rising."

Trice's sophomore album leaves potential untapped

By Alyson Brodsy and Matt Dollinger · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

Apparently, the general public just doesn't understand Obie Trice. Obie is quoted on his official Web site as saying, "I just want them to get an idea of the things that go on in Obie Trice's head and see who I am ..." Well, his fans get a chance to see just that on his sophomore album, Second Round's on Me. The second album continues Obie's "bar theme" and follows up his platinum debut, Cheers. Simply put, the thing that makes Obie's rap style effective is when he goes against the grain. He has several songs on his new album that are so generically gangsta it's painful. For example, you know how you'll see "Scarface" memorabilia in every rapper's homes while watching MTV's 'Cribs'? Obie takes it a step further when he samples a "Scarface" quote in his appropriately titled song, "Kill Me a Mutha". The sample has so much swearing it would make Richard Pryor blush.

Bite not as big as hiss

By Alyson Brodsy and David Germain · Thursday, Aug. 24,2006 12 a.m.

The Internet buzz over "Snakes on a Plane" turned out to be nothing to hiss about. The high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $13.8 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. With its campy, tell-it-like-it-is title and the star power of lead actor Samuel L. Jackson, "Snakes on a Plane" became an online phenomenon, prompting endless Web chat and parodies long before anyone saw the movie. That buzz proved fairly hollow when it came to showtime, with the debut weekend a respectable but unremarkable return for a movie with a production budget of a little more than $30 million.

The Indiana Daily Student

Teacher strike disrupts Gary schools

Wednesday, Aug. 23,2006 11:47 p.m.

GARY -- Unionized school bus drivers refused to cross picket lines on the first day of school Wednesday as striking teachers carried protest signs and handed out fliers to parents in the first work stoppage in the district in 22 years.

The Indiana Daily Student

IUPD officer remembers friends

By Audrie Garrison · Wednesday, Aug. 23,2006 11:37 p.m.

IU Police Department Lt. Greg Butler's job has never allowed him to complete the entire 1,100 miles of the Concerns of Police Survivors charity ride, but he always participates as much as he can.

The Indiana Daily Student

New Eats

By Alyson Brodsy and Kacie Foster · Wednesday, Aug. 23,2006 11:13 p.m.

More than a dozen new restaurants have sprouted up in Bloomington this summer. Owners are eager to introduce their menus to returning students. IU senior Todd Schear is a shift manager at D.P. Dough at 107 N. Dunn St. The franchise specializes in calzones ($6) and offers more than 40 varieties. The restaurant offers free delivery with a minimum purchase of $5. Schear says since the opening last month, the staff prepares about 100 orders per day. Once classes are in session, he says he expects orders to double.

The Indiana Daily Student

You know what time it is

By Alyson Brodsy and Chris Freiberg · Wednesday, Aug. 23,2006 11:07 p.m.

Every few years, there's a TV event that not only changes your life and your world but your very notion of what you thought the medium could do. On Aug. 6, a lovely (read: "horrifying") lady with the moniker "Somethin'" crapping on the floor of Flavor Flav's mansion in the premiere of Season 2 of "The Flavor of Love." It's unclear exactly what lead up to this earth-shattering moment, as it rarely is clear as to how exactly poop ends up on anyone's floor. The 14 women vying to be Flav's new main squeeze had gotten through the first elimination ceremony and "gathered 'round your man" after a brief party. Then they all started to smell something rotten, and the next thing you know there's a turd on the ground (which, in a rare classy moment, VH1 did not show on camera). The second episode didn't answer the questions about the turd, but Somethin' (who's 200 pounds if she's an ounce) said she was glad she had shat on the floor because it made her stand out. This is just one of the many examples of the absolute lunacy that has taken place on "The Flavor of Love" since it premiered in January.

The Indiana Daily Student

It's all in the game

By C. Warner Sills and Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Aug. 23,2006 11:06 p.m.

What makes a good television show? Is it the powerful narratives, rich characters and twisty cliffhangers that keep us coming back for more? Or is it the ease and accessibility of television that we crave? Take a show like "The Simpsons" that requires mindless and casual watching instead of dedication? Whatever draws us to escape into a show on a weekly basis or throw down $50 for an entire season on DVD, television series, when done right, have the ability to take us to places that film often can't touch. Now while I could probably sit down and pour out a list of great shows of the past and present, I am writing to praise one particular program that you are most likely unaware of or haven't yet given a shot. Why devote an entire column to one show you ask? Because television just doesn't get any better than this.

The Indiana Daily Student

Bite not as big as hiss

By Alyson Brodsy and David Germain · Wednesday, Aug. 23,2006 10:59 p.m.

The Internet buzz over "Snakes on a Plane" turned out to be nothing to hiss about. The high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $13.8 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. With its campy, tell-it-like-it-is title and the star power of lead actor Samuel L. Jackson, "Snakes on a Plane" became an online phenomenon, prompting endless Web chat and parodies long before anyone saw the movie. That buzz proved fairly hollow when it came to showtime, with the debut weekend a respectable but unremarkable return for a movie with a production budget of a little more than $30 million.

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