C-5 Arts & Features
The Colgate Maroon-News
April 14, 2011
This Week at the Movies: Your Highness
By Will Hazzard
and the creatures encountered along the way are original yet familiar enough to recognize within the fantasy archetypes. What really makes this movie different is the way the lowWhat’s awesome about fantasy movies? They brow humor is mixed in. For one, there is the constant smokhave all the cool things we dreamt about as kids ing of “magical herbs” that lead to fantastic realms. Then like magic, sword fights and hot chicks in skimpy there are the naked wood nymphs and the overly exposed outfits. Now what’s awesome about raunchy minotaur. It’s a good mesh that one wouldn’t normally see comedies? They make us laugh because there’s a in a fantasy movie. It can definitely be a little much at times 13-year-old in all of us that’s just waiting to burst. though and the dialogue can be a little bumpy in places. It’s But the question remains, what happens when a barrage of jokes about the male genitalia that isn’t exactly you mix all of these elements together into one everyone’s type of humor. For those who do enjoy that style film? Well, then you get Your Highness, directed of humor, it’s a riot. by David Gordon Green and written by Danny There is also a good amount of technical excellence. ProbMcBride and Ben Best. It’s a drug-infused hybrid ably the most notable aspect of the film is the visual effects used that may not be winning very many awards, and to make the magic and monsters come to life. Warlocks shoot the humor may not be for everyone, but it has a colorful bolts of energy that look very nice, especially coming surprisingly high amount of laughs. from a movie that relies heavily on comedy for its entertainThadeous (Danny McBride) is a prince and CRUDE CRUSADE: Your Highness follows two princes journey to save an ment value. Costumes and makeup are put together well and the second born son. He’s foul-mouthed and has encaptured beauty. Unlike most medieval classics, this film includes plenty of thought out to really bring the fantasy world to life, as well as accomplished little in his life except engaging in vulgar humor, so make sure you watch it with the right company. the impressive shooting locations and expansive vistas. mvny.org explicit activities with dwarves. His older brother There’s not much better than going to the movies and Fabious (James Franco) is an accomplished adventurer who fits the stereotype of the noble prince. laughing the entire time and Your Highness is just the movie to do that. But more importantly, it does After recently returning from his latest quest and finding his bride-to-be, she is stolen away by the so in it’s own unique way that set’s it apart from most other comedies. The setting and story make it evil wizard Leezar. The two must then go on a journey to save her. Along the way, they encounter a special yet thoroughly entertaining at the same time. Just keep in mind who you end up bringing to series of betrayals, join forces with a female warrior named Isabel (Natalie Portman), defeat the evil the movie with you. It’s certainly not an intellectually stimulating film that relies on strong techniques wizard and rescue the maiden. to deliver comedy. It’s offensive to some, a delight to others, but overall a good time. It’s a pretty straightforward fantasy that works surprisingly well. It has a nice feeling of adventure Contact Will Hazzard at whazzard@colgate.edu. Commentary Editor
Hollywood on the Hill Hollywood News and Notes By Josh Glick Maroon-News Staff
“Turn off that techno.” “Play a song with words.” Any house music fan has heard these egregious liners from a buddy or parent who still does not simply understand the beauty that is house music. However, within five years everyone will understand. House music is the next big thing. How do I know? It is already big in Europe and we are always half a decade behind Europe in music taste. They started Rock n’ Roll and everyone said, “Yeah right.” Though I hated the music at first, now I can’t shower in the morning without listening to the latest house song. Similarly, when house music first came out it was nothing in the US. Now it is the background of every rapper’s songs. The music is computergenerated and beautiful. Why would Akon not want to sing with music that he knows is perfect? A house beat has the ability to be anything its DJ wants, as he has no human constraints. The art of Internet blogging has also increased the popularity of house music. Music fans are now turning to music blogs to find their beats, and these blogs have begun to include house music. People download the songs for free, listen to them and realize how great the beats are. Furthermore, the two most popular acts today in the pop world are mixing pop and house music: Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. Both use electro background music for their beats and
the Black Eyed Peas even had “dirty bit” parts of songs, which is straight house. Kanye has already announced his next album will revolve around house music beats, and David Guetta and Snoop Dog just came out with a progressive house song. If Snoop is doing it, why aren’t you? Forget the fact that house music is my personal favorite genre for jamming, it is also the most party viable and the most fun. House music festivals are now the new big draw for study abroad students and rich white kids. Ultra in Miami occurred a few weeks ago, and its line up included Tiesto, Avicii, MSTRKRFT, Deadmau5 and Kaskade. Another festival, Sensation White, in both the Fall and Spring semesters is what many Colgate students say is their highlight of studying abroad. Also, study abroad kids now make their decisions on where to travel based on which DJ is playing where. Kids are putting up as their facebook statuses “Avicii in Barcelona” or “Axwell in Europe,” and everyday it makes me jealous. How does this relate to Hollywood? Studios are now asking these DJs to do the soundtrack of their films. Daft Punk was the first house music team to do a soundtrack (Tron: Legacy), and they had the number one CD on iTunes for a week. Now the Chemical Brothers are doing the music for Hanna. Wait until Avicii does the soundtrack for the next Superman film or Deadmau5 does the soundtrack for the next Bond. It will be a trend that will grow exponentially. Contact Josh Glick at jglick@colgate.edu.
TANZANIAN PICS: On Tuesday, April 5, the exhibit “Hapa na Pale: Here and There,” which features the photography of Peter Stanley, made its debut in Case Library. The photos depict Tanzanian landscapes, towns and people.
KenKen Puzzle By Matthew Zaringhalam Directions: Fill each box with digits (1-4 for the first puzzle and 1-6 for the second) so that the sum of the digits in each heavily outlined box equals the number shown in the corresponding top left corner using the mathematic function shown. Each digit can only appear once in each column and row of the entire puzzle. Contact Matthew Zaringhalam at mzaringhalam@colgate.
Qiwa Tang