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Show Friday. March 31.200611 TKe Utah Statesman Diversions Smart and fresh, 'Inside Man' stays one step ahead There isn't a lot of violence in this film and there Director, Spike Lee ("She Hates Me") has treated us to another turbulent drama. His latest "joint" is are very few scenes with heart-pounding action. genius. With a bank robbery serving as the throbbing It is mostly relies on intellect ana figurine out the nucleus of the story, things are not always what they well-concealed motives of the three main characters. Which one will be able to outsmart seem in this smart, entangling film. .^__—_—_ the rest? Who is in control? And Clive Owen ("Derailed") plays the •""~^"" Casey T. Allen who will survive? These questions determined antagonist with startling inch their way further and further frankness and we see him carry out into your mind until we get to the his heist within the first three minutes perfectly composed ending. of the film. We get to an awfully quick start with this story and the pace never Lines that divide the good from slows down. Denzel Washington the evil are slightly blurred through("Man on Fire") plays the tough, New out the story's development. And we "Inside Man" York City cop who soon arrives on the are shown the dark, as well as the Rated R, Grade A bustling street to catch the criminals. better, halves of each person (which But plenty of complications erupt and further adds to the reality). This cast many hostages are at stake, which of intriguing characters is due in causes the robbery to be drawn out over a 24-hour large part to the amazing actors. Owen is packed period. To make matters even more unstable, Jodi fullof unbridled energy as he becomes less and less Foster ("Flightplan") appears as a scheming, smirking like a crazed criminal and more and more like the power broker with an agenda of her own. ideal mastermind. Washington is clearly the star, who Your mind gets totally exhausted from this film. conveys his anxiety nicely while juggling weighty And thafs good evidence of how smart it really is. decisions, a stained past and a string of unexpected With lots or sweeping camera shots and lots of clever problems. Foster doesn't steal the show by any means plot twists, you keep on guessing for what seems like but she fits into her role fine as a condescending every minute. But every guess you make proves to be businesswoman. None of these performances are futile, for you never remain even one step ahead of new or super fresh, but great integrity exists behind each character's conniving plans. After the film was everyone's portrayal. over, I was still marveling at its brilliance and trying This film is not only praiseworthy for its perforto piece every part of the puzzle together. mances but also for its sharp style of storytelling. The Reel Reviews "PREEMPTIVE ^CRITICS 'Basic Instinct 2' More than a decade after the release of the original, Sharon Stone is back with "Basic Instinct 2" this Friday. The film, however, won't be opening immediately in Cache Valley. While moviegoers tend to get upset or angered by the limited number of films shown in Logan, the preemptive critics would like to take.a minute and remind all of us why we should be.glad we don't have to see "Basic Instinct 2",anytime soon. , \ :5 Gravity. Newton's law of gravitation states that "every particle-in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them." We're all familiar with the original film's most famous scene and, let's face it, we're dealing with an additional 14 years of gravity here, folks. Not a pretty,sight I"'m preemptively glad this film is nowhere near 1 me rig right now. -, -by Aaron Falk/acf@cc.usu.edu 'Slither' *;-.;* -V-.: THE NATIONAL BUZZ "Here is a thriller that's curiously reluctant to get to the payoff, and when it does, we see why: We can't accept the motive and method of the bank robbery, we can't believe in one character and •*.-,, can't understand another." -.^ 4 / v - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times -" V.fr "Inside Man marries some ingenious caper ideas to Lee's superb feel for ethnic politics *" - Colm Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune Compiled from roUentomatoes com plot unfolds simultaneously at the beginning and the end of the police investigation. And through this construction of events, we slowly realize how everything connects. Full of revealing, subtle dialogue and bits of surprising humor, this is a guaranteed wild ride for anyone at the theater. Casey T. Allen is a critic for the Utah Statesman. Comments can be sent to caseyal@cc.usu.edu. 'Ice Age 2: The Meltdown' Sequels are not allowed to be as good as the movie they're following. It's a rule of Hollywood. But lately, Hollywood hasn't even cared if the V This classic anthem of the American playground, original movie was any good. It thinks that simply teaches children the important lesson that you can by making a sequel it will validate the original. gain social acceptance by placing foreign objects into your mouth. Take "Bad Boys 2" for example. Does anyone Tragically, this song does not address the issue even remember the first one? of what happens if the worms turn out to be alien Then came "2 Fast 2 Furious." The original was worms that burrow into your brain, turning you into already a cheap rip-off of a better film ("Cone in an alien zombie or a giant blob full of more alien 60 Seconds"), so the sequel to that movie proworms and the other kids still make fun of you. vided absolutely nothing new. Fortunately, to help awkward youths everywhere, Then came "XXX: State of the Union." As terthe film "Slither" tackles this tough issue. Don't rible of an actor Vin Diesel is, Ice Cube made worry kids, your true friends, the ones that really him look like Tom Hanks with his mind-numbing care about you, will love you no matter what kind performance. freak of nature you turn into. And most recently, we were given "Underworld: Evolution." The Holy Grail to Goths around the Remember kids, ifs the cops you need to worry world. about. They'll shoot you. A lot of people I've talked to have said this movie All of these movies featured fake stunts, unreal Jooks scary ana/or disgusting. These people are miss- guns (or cars), an excessive amount of cheesy ing the forest for the trees. one-liners and some of the worst acting in history. ^."Slither" has a simple plot, puppet monsters and important lessons. Don't hate it just because ifs a Which brings us to "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown." children's movie. Like any sequel to a comedy, it has all the same I bet the same people say "Ice Age 2" looks too jokes, the same plot, a new love-interest and low box-office returns. kiddy also. As for me, I intend to get some kids form the playBut although this movie was totally unnecesground and take them to both. sary and will probably suck, I preemptively love ,"• For reminding children not to put alien larvae into any movie that has a pre-historic squirrel kung-fu their mouths, I preemptively love this film. fighting a school of piranhas. by Steve 5hinneyMeveshinney@cc.usu.edu -by Bryan Hinton/bhhinton@cc.usu.edu "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms." THE PREEMPTIVE CRITICS WRITE KNEE-JERK ANALYSES OF UPCOMING FILMS BASED ON HEARSAY AND MOVIE TRAILERS. THEY HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIES. |