D A I LY A Z T E C Thursday, October 20, 2011
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
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BOOB TUBE SCOOP
Cowell’s ‘X Factor‘ slightly twists familiar Simon Cowell and crew are back with a new talent show Samantha Tollin contributor Watch out “American Idol,” “The X Factor” is up and running with its first season in the U.S. Originating in the U.K., “The X Factor” is a talent show series that has received an abundance of recognition worldwide. This year, in the U.S. version, more than 100,000 people auditioned to win a $5 million recording contract with Syco/Sony Music. Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, previous judges on “American Idol,” join Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger and record executive L.A. Reid as judges in the series. “The X Factor” process includes four stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges’ houses and the live show. Contestants are under the most pressure during auditions, when they must show off their best talents in front of the four judges. If the majority of the judges approve, contestants move on to the next round. In bootcamp, contestants are sorted into four categories: men, women, groups and performers older than 30 years old. Each person has to reveal his or her talent through singing, dancing and performing in front of the judges. They are evaluated individually and as a group.
MCT CAMPUS
The live show only includes the best of the best. The judges provide guidance to contestants in their individual categories on what to sing, what to wear and how to stand out in a crowd and ultimately win the competition.
If contestants survive bootcamp, they move on to an even tougher level of the competition: the judges’ houses. In this round, each category of contestants is assigned to perform at one of the judges’ homes. Each judge selects the best act to move on to the live show. The live show only includes the best of the best. The judges provide guidance to contestants in their individual categories on what to sing, what to wear and how to stand out in the crowd and ultimately win the competition. Every week, the judges
evaluate the contestants, but in the end it’s up to the audience to decide who has the “X factor.” The one significant difference between “The X Factor” and “American Idol” is that while “American Idol” is only open to solo artists, “The X Factor” is open to duos and groups. Additionally, the age requirement for “American Idol” is between 15 and 28 years old, while “The X Factor’s” minimum age requirement is only 12 years old. “The X Factor” airs on Fox on Wednesday and Thursday nights from 8-10 p.m.
PA S S T H E P O P C O R N
‘The Thing’ reaches for scares and relevancy Antarctic alien horror provides plenty of unneeded backstory Andrew Younger senior staff writer The prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 creature feature “The Thing” seeks to answer the burning questions that have plagued absolutely nobody in the last 30 years: What causes a hairy Norwegian to shoot a sniper rifle at an Alaskan malamute from a helicopter? Why does Kurt Russell’s character discover a hollowed-out block of ice in a fire-ravaged Antarctic research facility? Indeed, the prequel, which has all of the meticulous attention to detail
of a fan fiction while lacking any of the original’s message, will finally put these questions (along with a bored audience) to rest. Although meticulous attention to detail is perhaps an overstatement for professional fan-fictionist and screenwriter Eric Heisserer, whose previous credits include last year’s remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Final Destination 5.” A helpful opening intertitle tells the audience “The Thing” is set in Antarctica in the winter of 1982. Despite the fact that there is no sunlight during winter in Antarctica, the film opens with a daytime shot of a snowcat discovering a subterranean alien spacecraft. The Norwegian team driving the snowcat recruits the doe-eyed American paleontologist Kate Lloyd
(Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to exhume an alien encased in ice before a major snowstorm hits, even though Antarctica is the world’s largest desert and therefore too arid to have massive snowfall. Kate enlists the help of her American ex-military helicopter pilots to transport the block of ice back to the research station. With the ice containing the first alien lifeform known to man slowly melting away, how do these researchers and former military officials react to being on the precipice of the greatest scientific discovery in history? By getting drunk in the recreation room, naturally. However, the drunken revelry is short-lived as the alien breaks out of the ice and begins to absorb the researchers. Even worse, the cells of
the alien can spontaneously reproduce and mimic the appearance of any organic material. The researchers reach a stalemate as each one suspects the others of being aliens and subsequently brings Norwegian-American relations to an all-time low. Once lead scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) declares a radio blackout to keep other scientists from learning of their discovery, despite the mounting death toll, the film stops pretending to care about plot and instead devolves into an orgy of flamethrower-induced pyrotechnics. The beauty of Carpenter’s 1982 film, itself a remake of the 1951 sci-fi movie “The Thing from Another World,” was how it applied the ‘50s Cold War analogy of alien bodysnatching invaders for Communist
infiltrators and literally set it in the coldest place on earth. Carpenter depicted how mutual distrust between the citizens of two countries will ultimately lead to mutually assured destruction. Unfortunately, this year’s prequel is incapable of expanding Carpenter’s themes. With the Cold War concluded decades ago, a story too predictable to be scary and a twist ending with no character development, the deepest question “The Thing” asks is: Why does this film exist at all?
Movie: THE THING Directed by: MATTHIJS VAN HEIJNINGEN Release Date: OCT. 14 Grade: D-