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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Daily Cougar
life+arts
EDITORS Travis Hensley E-MAIL arts@thedailycougar.com ONLINE www.thedailycougar.com/arts
showtime
WARNER BROTHERS
BOX OFFICE
The Town
Rating:(R) Strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use. Director: Ben Affleck. Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively.
Alpha and Omega Rating: (PG) Mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material Director: Ben Gluck, Anthony Bell. Starring: Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Dennis Hopper and Danny Glover.
Easy A Rating: (PG-13) for mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material Drector: Will Gluck Staring: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes and Dan Byrd.
Emma Stone stars in "Easy A" as Olive, a girl who pretends to sleep with her friend so people will stop harrassing him. Others start asking for the same service, and soon the entire situation gets out of hand. The movie is just one of many teen comedies this year. | Sony Pictures
JACK'S FACTS
Losing fake virginity is fun Movies like these make us happy to be in the indecent college life Jack Wehman
THE DAILY COUGAR
EPITAPH
CDS
Weezer "Hurley" 1. Memories 2. Ruling Me
With not one but two coming-of-age movies releasing this week, it seems it’s once again time to compare them against the all-time greats. While “The Virginity Hit” and “Easy A” look to be decently entertaining films, they don’t hold a candle to some of Hollywood’s best offerings. Coming in on the bottom of the list is the McLovin-filled hit “Superbad.” Every single person at UH has probably seen it by now at least once, but as a coming-of-age tale, it’s actually quite good. Instead of losing their
virginity, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera somehow end up in a healthy relationship at the end, but McLovin’ gets down to business big time — until the cops show up and pull him off and out of the girl of his dreams. With a name like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” it’s pretty obvious the focal point of the movie is getting laid. Steve Carrell does a great job playing the most lovably awkward virgin since Dustin Hoffman (more on that later), and the supporting cast is absolutely brilliant. Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and Craig Robinson are all top-notch, and the crazy Indian guy (Gerry Bednob) is the icing on the cake. While there are quite a few insanely hot girls in all of these movies, few rival Elisha Cuthbert in “The Girl Next Door.” She plays the down-to-earth porn star that — for some reason — has a thing for innocent
high school guys. Not to judge or anything, but usually stories like that end up with “I swear, officer, I thought he was 18.” However, the story is solid, and the ending is hilarious. Going into the 1980s can sometimes bring some questionable things back, but in the case of “Revenge of the Nerds,” it’s quite another issue. The movie has aged quite well, considering being a nerd is back in style. It’s the raunchiness that saves this one, though, because as soon as the cameras go up in the sorority house (something every man on the planet has thought about at one point), all hell breaks loose. Add in some classic scenes — like losing your virginity in a Darth Vader costume on a moon bounce — and you can see why “Nerds” still makes JACK'S FACTS continues on page 7
MUSIC
Two can be as lonely as one, and good
3. Trainwerecks 4. Unspoken
Travis Hensley
5. Where's My Sex?
THE DAILY COUGAR
7 Hang On 8. Brave New World 9. Time Files 10 Time Files
Blonde Redhead "Penny Sparkle" 1. Here Sometimes 2. Not Getting There 3. Love or Prison 4. Penny Sparkle 5. Everything is worng 6. Black Guitar 7. Pain
With some reluctance, the statement that bands with only two members are good seeps into print. It’s not that they are instinctually dreadful bands, but they just seem like the acoustic guitar. Yeah, it’s fun and beautiful in the right hands, but sometimes a little John Belushi comes out, and the urge to hulk smash them into little pieces occurs. Bands like White Stripes and Black Keys have been forbidding additional members without depreciating in sound for years now. Even with their lack of members, the ethos of rock still remains in the blues scale backbones of the bands. Lackluster garage bands that drop members who don’t pull their weight (like people who just sing) will always sound
Tenacious D is a prime example of band that is a bit of a joke, but still rocks. | Red Hour Films like they’re missing a piece of a larger puzzle. It would be nice to imagine a musical world where Captain and Tennille didn’t exist and somebody actually wanted to
play the bass in Houston suburbs. So here is a list of great two-people bands, besides the two more popular ones you BANDS continues on page 7