18 ENTERTAINMENT ‘Pianist’ hits the notes
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TUES. FEB. 11, 2003
COMING SOON THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE
CAST Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney SYNOPSIS David Gale (Spacey) is a man who, in a bizarre twist of fate, is convicted of murdering a fellow activist. With only three days before his scheduled execution, it’s up to Pulitzer-hungry reporter Bitsey Bloom (Winslet) to piece together the shocking events surrounding the activist’s death, before it’s too late. RELEASE DATE February 21
OLD SCHOOL
CAST Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Elisha Cuthbert SYNOPSIS A raucous comedy about a trio of twentysomething buddies(Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson) who try to recapture the outrageous, irrepressible fun of their college years by starting their own offcampus frat house. RELEASE DATE February 21
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE
CAST Steve Martin, Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy SYNOPSIS Queen Latifah plays an imprisoned woman who breaks out of jail to meet her online date. Turns out the guy she met online is a straight-laced businessman (Steve Martin), who’s in the middle of a divorce. Needless to say, she ends up turning his life upside down. RELEASE DATE March 7
X-MEN 2
CAST Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos SYNOPSIS Mutants continue their struggle against a society that fears and distrusts them. There is a shocking attack that renews the political and public outcry for a Mutant Registration Act led by a former commander for the army named William Stryker. Stryker puts into motion his anti-mutant program— launching a severe attack on Professor Xavier’s mansion. RELEASE DATE May 2
BY ERIK ROONEY Staff Writer Roman Polanski’s gripping Holocaust drama The Pianist portrays the real life of Wladyslaw Szpilman and his struggle to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland. Polanski not only draws upon his talent as a director and visionary, but on his own experience as well: Roman Polanski escaped from a Polish ghetto through a barbed wire fence when he was seven years old. The story is set in the late 1930’s in Warsaw, Poland amid the German invasion. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a classicalMOVIE REVIEW pianist for the local THE PIANIST radio station is the main character. One day his whole world is shattered, with the sounds of German bombs deA POWERFUL, REALISTIC stroying the city. FILM ABOUT THE Szpilman and HOLOCAUST. his family are forced out of their home and into the Jewish ghettos. Just as he and his family begin to settle in, word spreads that the Germans are sending Jews to “work camps.” As the weeks
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go by and all of the Jews are being relocated, Szpilman and his family must leave for the camps. In a heart-wrenching scene at the train station, in which the Jews are being loaded in to storage cars, Szpilman is separated from his family. He is left all alone in the deserted city of rubble, waiting out the war and hoping for the Russians come. Roman Polanski, who directed such films as Tess and Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman’s (Adrien Brody) life is shattered by the Holocaust . The Ninth Gate, is no stranger to the pains of the Holocaust. In fact he was himself for the role, spent six weeks starvasked to direct possibly one of the greating himself and learning the piano. est cinematic portrayals of the Holocaust, The Pianist has the raw staying power Schindler’s List, but declined, saying that of Schindler’s List, but offers a colder, more it was too painful. In the making of The real look at the Holocaust. With the hauntPianist, he has come to terms with his past ing music of Wojciech Kilar and dark cinand his pain. Polanski sought out Adrien ematography of Pawel Edelman, The PiaBrody, who plays Polanski, for his roll in nist will be sure to strike a chord with you. Saving Private Ryan. Brody, to prepare
Award shows are rank The Emmies, the Grammies, the Golden Globes, the Peoples’ Choice Awards... Why do we subject ourselves to watching this nonsense?
BY KATIE STANTON Entertainment Editor Alone in my living room, poised before the TV with remote in hand, my eyes are drooping and my arms are slack; my mind is wondering, “Why am I here?” The only show on tonight, televised exclusively on my favorite channel, happens to be infested with backless strapless bras, high heels, sunglasses and self-gratification. Award season is here once more, and at least two of your favorite stations are rushing to get footage of celebrities patting themselves on the back for a job well-done and millions of dollars well-spent. The Emmies, the Grammies, the Latin Grammies, the Golden Globes, the American Music Awards, the Peoples’ Choice Awards, and so many others that nobody cares about; why do we subject ourselves to watching this nonsense? Sure, it may be yet another opportunity to gawk at your favorite stars and... Well, that’s pretty much it. Celebs get countless opportuni-
ties to flaunt their emaciated figures and questionable styling choices all over every kind of screen out there. Hundreds of people devote their lives to making these stars look gorgeous and sell themselves like good little icons in their usual multi-figure-salary-paying jobs. But these hours-long celebrations of self-satisfaction truly serve no purpose other than to give their lives some remote sense of accomplishment, as determined by supposed experts in a myriad of categories no one’s heard of. Not that I don’t give them credit. Granted, some very moving and exquisitely done performances have been given the recognition they deserve, like Norah Jones, fighting against the pop-remix tide with blues vocals and emotional depth, and Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar for his emotional performance in Gladiator. But there are countless more individuals who create more eloquent, touching and emotional pieces that have the genius
Album cover for The Young and the Hopeless, Good Charlotte’s latest cd.
Good Charlotte BY ALEJANDRO SALINAS AND CAROLINE FRIEDMAN
Entertainment Editor and News Editor Don’t let their many piercings, crazy hairdos, and behavior fool you, Good Charlotte is more about strong melodies charged with light pop touches than punk music. Their first single, “lifestyles of the rich and famous,” from their new album The Young and the Hopeless, sounds more like an attiCD REVIEW tude-infused THE YOUNG AND THE HOPELESS Blink-182 t h a n G r e e n d a y, not that there is anything wrong GREAT FOR THOSE WHO with that. ENJOY THE LIGHTER SIDE T h e OF PUNK MUSIC. Young and the Hopeless is perfect for audiences seeking the lighter side of punk. Every track in the album reflects the members thoughts and feelings on various issues: From the wealthy snobs that plague Hollywood, as described in “Lifestyles,” to teenage rebellion in “Anthem,” Good Charlotte uses their talent for music to express what we all think. The raw, get-tothe point lyrics of their music is what makes them such a stand-out band. Originally from Waldorf,Md., brothers Joel and Benji Madden were always interested in music. In 1998, accompanied by their friend Paul, they moved to Annapolis to join its thriving music scene. There they met Billy and officially became Good Charlotte. With Joel as lead vocals, Benji as vocalist and guitarist, Billy on guitar and Paul on bass, the band began performing in various concerts, including HFStival. The album starts with six explosive tracks, guaranteed to keep listeners amused: “The Anthem,” “Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous,” “Wondering,” “My Old Man,” “Girls and Boys,” and “My Bloody Valentine.” However, by the seventh or eighth track, the album becomes repetitive and loses its impact.
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to be worth it—without the money to be noticed. Shouldn’t the time and money be spent making quality music and movies more available, vs congratulating big names and giving them even more publicity? More to the point, the majority of these productions consist of big name celebrities paid to speak cheap one-liners in front of clips of movies you’ve already seen, followed by more A-list stars saying “Thank you!” with as much passion as can show through pounds of makeup and as much skin as can bounce around on primetime television. Not to mention that much of the media attention is focused on celebrity apparel over celebrity accomplishment. It really is possible to accept awards with succinct grace, fully dressed, minus the asinine banter of journalists desperately seeking work (i.e., Joan Rivers-heck, the entire E! staff.) The bottom line is that regular people like myself have lives to lead and things to do. Watching rich people feel good wearing clothes and earning millions in jobs that, when it comes right down to it, do little to advance society as a whole (what means more: playing a teacher who educates children in a movie, or actually educating the youth of today?) is useless and downright boring. When the only feeling remaining after subjecting myself to an hour of celebrity hedonism is shame, it can mean one thing: award shows are not worth the energy it takes to turn on the TV.
‘Devil May Cry,’ or at least I might BY PHILIPPE PODHORECKI Co-Editor in-Chief Devil May Cry, released in fall 2001, set a new precedent for action games, including clever level designs, thought-provoking puzzles, and difficult but fun sword and gunplay. In Capcom’s sequel for the Playstation 2, these three distinctive qualities have been dramatic a l l y changed-for the worse. Devil May Cry 2 has so many problems that it feels rushed and haphazardly designed for a Capcom cash-in on their newly popular franchise. The levels are much wider and feature little interaction with the player, the puzzles are absurdly simple and the story... What story? DMC2’s story makes no sense throughout the entire game, even after completion as both available characters, Dante and Lucia. The gist of the story is that a evil corporation president named Arius has joined forces with some unnamed force of evil and is trying to destroy the world. Dante and Lucia, who each have their own quest, join together to combat this new evil
power. The story is expressed through well-animated cut-scenes that unfortunately leave the player clueless as to who Arius is and what is happening. These cut-scenes, like most of the game, are well-drawn with beautifully sculpted WITH c h a r a c t e r models. Most of DMC2’s levels are large with inPhilippe Podhorecki tense fights. Co-Editor in-Chief However, the game tends to suffer from severe slowdown whenever many characters are on screen at once. Dante and Lucia look cool and mysterious, even with new costumes awarded upon beating each of their quests. The game’s enemies range from exploding flies to huge minotaur-like creatures that can topple the heroes with a single blow. But perhaps the most exciting are the huge bosses that look scary and difficult, but are actually pushovers that follow simple patterns. The fights are where the game hits its lowest point: Although they look amazing with the new wall run and cool jump-and-shoot in the air move, the
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fights are incredibly easy. No boss fight will kill a moderately skilled player until Hard mode or Dante/Lucia Must Die mode. Because the fighting is so easy the game takes merely three to four hours to finish per character, translating into 12-14 hours to beat the game as both characters on Normal and Hard mode, unlocking nearly everything the game has to offer. The GAME REVIEW levels where DEVIL MAY CRY 2 the nonstop basic fights take place are large and wideopen, but feature very little MAJOR FLAWS BRING THE in terms of GAME’S QUALITY DOWN. props or decoration. Another flaw in the game is the purple-auto-target system. At points in the game switches must be hit in the middle of a fight, but if there is an enemy nearby, the character lunges towards the enemy, not the switch. Despite all these drawbacks from the first game, DMC2 is still loads of fun for anyone with a high tolerance and desire for violent, fast-action fighting that never becomes tiresome.
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Dante is one of the main characters from Capcom’s new game Devil May Cry 2.