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Show A&EDiversions Page 6 Pre-Emptive H Critics 'Stolen' It looks like a movie that I have seen over and over again. Now, don't get me wrong, a little action and the true-story plot definitely helps things out, but the plot of a father looking for his missing son - been there, done that. "Stolen" follows the story of a father who is investigating the disappearance of his son. While searching, he discovers 50 years earlier, another young boy disappeared. The movie seems to have its thrilling moments, and I will confess that at some times I was staring at the trailer, wanting to find out a little more. But hasn't this storyline been done a bazillion times? I definitely don't smell an Oscar with this one. But what appears to be the highlight of this film? It is when James Van Der Beek, aka Dawson from "Dawson's Creek," steps onto the screen. But you have to ask yourself, where in the world did he come from? I figured he would have been long gone with all the other '90s show actors. But you will not hear me complaining. If all other options for a Saturday night activity fail, "Stolen" might just be the plan "G." I pre-emptively don't like this movie but am grateful Dawson hasn't disappeared forever. - courtnie.packer@aggiemaiLusu.edu Friday, March. 5, 2010 'Brooklyn's Finest' 'Alice in Wonderland' "Brooklyn's Finest," rated R, seems like another typical cop movie. The preview makes it look good and kind of exciting, but in all reality, I think this movie will be only a B movie. Richard Geere plays a cop who is almost retiring. He overlooks things happening in the last two minutes of his job and is just ready to be done. In the preview, he tells a replacement cop that "today, a woman gets slapped. Tomorrow, it's murder." Another cop starts taking money that the cops take from drug people to get his wife, who is pregnant with twins, a new house. He's also apparently deeply religious, because it shows him in confession (which is totally ridiculous and unrealistic, I might add). The third cop is undercover, in some sort of gang or drug operation. His part of the story seems most promising. Really, this movie looks like just another cop movie, where cops are doing bad things and being corrupt, only instead of looking the other way for criminals, maybe become criminals themselves. The bad cop story is so worn out. It's practically my mom's leather pants from the 70s. I pre-emptively hate this movie. - april.ashland@aggiemail.usu.edu Leave it to Tim Burton to make a movie based on a book that is notorious for reminding people of an acid trip. "Alice in Wonderland" looks like it will follow the Tim Burton pattern of flashy colors, cartoon-ish actors - Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter - and an eerie, yet child-like, storyline. He will most likely use a fair amount of computer animation, excessive amounts of makeup on his characters and an equal distribution of good and evil. From what I can gather, Alice has returned to Wonderland, which means the movie should be titled "Alice Through the Looking Glass," since that was the sequel to the book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." That little annoyance aside, I'll have to see this movie. I love Burton and Lewis Carrol, but I'm unsure how the two will mix. Also, the previews seem to focus most of the time on the Mad Hatter, not so much on Alice or why she's back or the hint in one preview that she's running away from getting married. I'm guessing most people will go see this movie for one of two reasons. First, they read the books and want to see how Burton does with them or, second, they love Burton's directing and want to see how this one compares to the others. You can't get much information from the previews, and I doubt it will stray too far from Burton's usual style. I pre-emptively rate this a B-. - k.vandyke@aggiemail.usu.edu The pre-emptive critics write knee-jerk analyses of upcoming films based solely on hearsay, advance publicity and most importantly movie trailers. They have not seen the movies. Band: Sound comes before message Film draws on life's surprises Contrary to initial thought, become the stuff of the aver"The Private Lives of Pippa Jenny age human being's existence. Lee" is not a documentary Goodsell Remaining true to life itself, about multiple personality to the movie has gaps, incondisorder or a series of books sistencies and flaws, but as a whole, it is worth experiencabout Pippy Longstocking's ing. The film's lack of sugarlong-lost cousin. It is the title of a surprisingly pleasant movie coating is refreshing, and it isn't afraid to bring up importhat leaves an impression on a Grade 8+ viewer, whether expected or "The Private Lives tant issues that are quite comnot. So, whatever a person's mon and yet unspoken. of Pippa Lee" reaction to such an unusual One of the brightest spots of this movie is the perfortitle may be, it's recommended that they keep an open mind and adopt mance of Penn. Though the film contains the belief that a book should not be judged many talented actors such as Alan Arkin, Winona Ryder and Julianne Moore, Penn's by its cover or a movie by its title. As the title promises, "The Private Lives performance is by far the most memorable of Pippa Lee" focuses on the character of and presumably the most difficult. Like Pippa, played by the talented Robin Wright the character herself, Penn has the abilPenn. On the surface, Pippa is a caring ity to exert sophistication and a mature wife and mother, famous for her generos- confidence that is merely the surface of ity and loyalty, but at times, showing a delia deeper performance that isn't fully realciously enigmatic nature that elicits ques- ized until the movie is completed. tions about her past from those around The scenes in the movie do not produce her. The story begins with Pippa moving an adrenaline rush caused by the unrealisto a retirement community for the sake of tic, but rather the shock of the unpredicther husband, Herb, in hopes that a slower ability and corrosive nature of life experilife pace will help improve his deteriorat- ences. Making a movie of this caliber is ing health. Unfortunately for Pippa, her incredibly difficult because the majority husband is 30 years her senior, and he fits of audiences do not run to the theater to the criteria for the community of seniors learn about the hardships and mysteries of much better than she does. Along with this life; they go to be entertained. But in realrequirement of adaptation comes an unex- ity, there are many who would find compected wave of nostalgia, and Pippa finds fort in movies of this nature. People have herself thinking back to her childhood and a deep desire to be recognized and undertrying to follow the events of each year as it stood, so it is soothing to a viewer to see leads up to the present and, hopefully, find a character that goes through experiences answers to recently developed questions that are painfully familiar, and let them about her life. After rediscovering demons know that they are not the only ones who from her past that have managed to remain are trying to power through unpredictable undefeated throughout the years, Pippa times. So if people feel a desire to break struggles to maintain her identity, all the their routine of watching cookie-cutter while trying to avoid the potential existen- movies, "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is tial crisis lurking behind every memory. an ideal movie to do so and will hopefully "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" doesn't remind them that life is not like the movies, have chase scenes, shootouts, a quick-wit- but perhaps movies should be about life. "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" was ted sidekick or a superhero that swoops in and saves the day just in the nick of recently released on DVD. time. Simply put, it is about life. The heart- jen.goods@gmail.com ache, the monotony, the joy, the fear and the unpredictability that accumulate and Reel ,1 Reviews ietreit/Wg J• • continued from page 5 The sound of the band is professional, but people have a hard time putting their finger on what it is exactly. Nguyen said that several times people have asked her what they sound like. "I've been trying to think about that all week, and all I know is it's super poppy," Nguyen said. Vickery said, "Lots of people have described it as taking a '50s rock band and '80s pop band and putting them together. Our sound structures are very simple like the '50s songs, and they dissolve to be very poppy. We have synthesizers over the top, and we have female vocals and male vocals." Nguyen said, "The average cool indie kid would like them." The band has been influenced by groups such as The Flaming Lips and Belle and Sebastian. Vickery said any song that has "hyper danceability" or "pop wonderfulness" has influenced the band. "That's what we try to do," Vickery said. "We try to recreate it and throw our own something on it." Vickery writes most of the parts himself and then teaches it to the rest of the band. The most interesting step is how he comes up with the lyrics. "I write all the music first, and the lyrics is last, and I decide on the consonants and sounds that I want," Vickery said. "I'd rather the music be memorable than the message that I'm trying to put across." Vickery said what's interesting is that a lot of the band's lyrics are sad, but the way the song sings is happy and dancey. "Maybe we're really screwing people up, with subliminal messages," he said. Spondee has played all over the Northwest -ern parts of the U.S. "We've played down from Provo to Spokane, Washington," Vickery said. "We've played all through Idaho, northern half of Utah and quite a bit of Washington and Oregon. We're going to be going down to California, so we're excited to expand our horizons." The band started in the fall of 2007 at Idaho State University. Vickery had a roommate named Blake who played the drums. He explained how they recorded tracks of the parts on his loop pedal. He sang and played guitar, and Blake drummed. "A spondee is a poetry term that means a word that has two stressed syllables," Vickery said. "We started that because there were two of us in the band." When they started adding more members, people still knew them as Spondee. "We decided not to change the name, even though it has absolutely no relevance to us," Vickery said, "but the name goes well with the sound." Vickery continued writing songs as they pieced their band together, adding more people to play the parts. They had a rotating lineup of drummers and bassists until they released their first CD, "Creaky Step," in March 2008. The five-song EP was put together with fourtrack recordings from Vickery's bedroom and a few other local studios. The band members continued playing, writing and fine tuning their sound until they reached a point where they decided it was time to leave Pocatello. "It was hard to find bands and venues to play with so that's why we moved to Boise." Vickery said. Vickery transferred to Boise State University, losing some band members, who were soon replaced by people they met. Then finally they released their first real album, "Pop Your Socks Off," in March 2009 as a six-piece band, adding another guitarist and a female vocalist. "It ended up being a longer process than we thought, but we're just happy that it's out," Vickery said. Spondee will be selling their album for half price when the band comes to play at USU, along with other merchandise. "We have slap bracelets as well as CDs," Vickery said. "If you come you might get free stuff." Spondee will play at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 6, at the Lundstrom Student Living Center. The band members are Vickery, Gia Trotter (vocals), Noah Jensen (bass), Kylee Pearson (keys and vocals), Cody White (drums) and Sam Hill (guitar). -j.budd@aggiemail.usu.edu SEE IT. HEAR IT. FEEL IT. BELIEVE IT. ASSERMANN2olo CONCERT SERIES "World-Class Pianists in a World-Class Setting" TOMORROW Women vs. Hawai i 4 go Haochen Zhang, ; pianist 3 PM Tuesday, Warch 9, 2010 7:30 p.m. Men vs. New Mexico St. USU Performance Hall 7 PM DEE GLEN SMITH SPECTRUM Admission is FREE with USU Student MI WWW.UTAHSTATEABBIES.COM 1 Reserved Seating Tickets: Adults $20, Students $8 Tickets: (435) 797-8022 or http://csaboxoffice.usu.edu Additional information, including concert programs, at www.usu.edu/wassermann |