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the university daily kansan
friday
11.19.99
eight.a
Contributed art
B is for banality but Crows' album enjoyable anyway
By Bryan Anderson
Kansan music critic
If "Mr. Jones" is all you know about the Counting Crows, you have not heard the full extent of their musical sound.
That said, the Counting Crow's' new disc,
This Desert Life, is
This Desert Life, is not the Second Coming of innovative music. This disk is not "ear candy." It is neither filled with "infectious" drum lines, "droning" bass lines or "soothing" melodies, nor can
Film facts
Title: This Desert Life
Artist: Counting Crows
Grade: B
Label: Geffen Records Inc
it be described by any other music critic buzz words.
But I like it anyway.
The Counting Crows' latest release is full of their trademark easy-going mellow-rock styles. The music is a refreshing change from the rap-metal and other metal-type stuff that saturates the radio.
The first single, and the first song on the album "hanginaround" is a bubbly, drunken party romp, and it is destined for heavy rotation on VH1. On the slow ballad "Amy Hit The Atmosphere," the Crows capitalize on what they do best, harmonize and groove.
The Counting Crows have not missed out on the scathing lyric trend. On "St. Robinson in his Cadillac Dream," a languid song with a well placed banjo line, lead vocalist Adam Duritz sings "I may not go to heaven/ I hope you go to hell."
The best song on this album is "Colorblind," a slow, aching ballad so sad it had me reaching for tissues. After listening to the emotion in the vocals and the music, you want to run to someone for a hug.
The only blemish on this album is "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby," a hippie-rock, bluegrass-tinged song that is reminiscent of Widespread Panic or the Samples. However, this song drags on, and it would have been enough at four minutes instead of eight. The Crows make up for it by including a hidden track.
Adam Duritz's lyrics aren't particularly profound and his vocals are not extraordinary. The guitar work is not virtuoso. This album is not the most innovative or original music to be released this year. But it is a good, solid rock record and a mellow, easy listen.
Sleepy Hollow fails to forge a head
By Brendan Walsh
Kansan Movie Critic
An uneven film, Sleepy Hollow is typical of director Tim Burton's love of the cartoonish and macabre. Those looking to be scared, grossed out and generally horrified will see what they're looking for, and fans of Burton's cinematic techniques and period sets will not be disappointed. However, the film is far from perfect.
Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane, a police detective inhabiting a dark, gothic New York City on the eve of the 19th century. He's disgusted by what he sees as his peers' superstition and medieval behaviors and instead espouses the virtues of science and reason. The powers that be give Crane a chance to prove the usefulness of his scientific training when they send him to the upstate town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a rash of murders.
The small, quiet village of Sleepy Hollow is certainly not as dark and foreboding as grim New York City, but its inhabitants are just as backwards. They explain to the detective that they believe the murders, all beheadings, are the work of the ghost of a mercenary soldier who fought for the colonists in the Revolutionary War. The British beheaded this man, and 20 years later he apparently is still pretty unhappy about it. Crane, being the
man of science that he is, insists that there must be a mortal behind these brutal killings, and he vows to bring the person responsible to justice.
Depp's character is not the confident, sly, intelligent investigator of, say, *NYPD Blue*, but is instead a rather foolish dolt who scares easily and acts cowardly. Typical of a Burton film, what could have been a straight-forward, intense and interesting character is instead transformed in a cartoonish caricature who wouldn't be out of place in a comic book. The comic relief that Crane forces on the audience is usually unwelcome and often distracting.
What makes the idiocy of Crane worse is that he's paired with the subtle and mysterious Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), the daughter of the town's most prominent citizen. The character of Katrina is interesting, though undeveloped,
Top: No heads here. Ichabod Johnny Depp) searches for a mysterious murderer.
Above: Katrina (Christina Ricci) is looking to spice up Sleepy Hallow with romance.
which results in her romance with Crane seeming forced and unlikely. If only Burton could put the comic books down and enliven the movie's flat script.
These criticisms notwithstanding, there are great aspects of the film. Typical of Burton films, the settings, both in New York, Sleepy Hollow and the woods that surround the small town, are marvelously done. Burton can change the lighting, add a bit of fog rolling through the town or a put few extra leaves on the trees
and completely change the atmosphere that surrounds the locale. It's an effective technique, heightening suspense and providing an intriguing backdrop to the action.
Ricci is compelling and likable, and Christopher Walken is appropriately threatening as the headless horseman. Depp is not particularly remarkable — both his comic timing and displays of fear could be improved — but the problem may lie more with the character than the actor. Still an enjoyable film, a visit to Sleepy Hollow is worth the time.
World is Not Enough to save Bond bomb
Contributed art
by Stephanie Sapienza Kansan movie critic
Ian Fleming, author of the books on which the James Bond's films are based, says, "Give Bond the right clothes, the right background, the right girl and set the story in the most glamorous and beautiful of places, describing everything in minute detail while moving the plot along so fast that nobody notices the idiosyncrasies in it." The World is Not Enough, the latest addition to the 007 legacy, is chock full of these idiosyncrasies, and it doesn't really matter how fast the plot moves — it would take an idiot not to notice them.
The World is Not Enough stars Pierce Brosnan as 007, Sophie Marceau as Electra King the daughter of an oil tycoon, Robert Carlyle as apocalyptic super-villain Renard, and Denise Richards as stacked 23-year-old nuclear physicist Christmas Jones. No Bond film I've seen to
Film facts
Grade:D
Rating: PG-13
Where: South Wind 12, 3433 Iowa St.
Running Time: 2 hours, 8 minutes
date manages to slip in any new or interesting ideas and characters. It's not really necessary to rehash the plot — if you've watched any other Bond film, you can piece it together on your own. Basically, Renard is stealing a nuclear bomb to blow up Electra's oil line, and Jones is there to help Bond fix it.
I find it impossible to sit through 2 hours of mind-numbing masculine bravado and ridiculously over-the-top action sequences. As my 16-year-old sister so pleasantly spotted "This movie."
reeks of guvness."
Many guys probably will enjoy The World is Not Enough because being Bond is a dream for some. The action sequences, although completely outrageous, are easier to handle if you accept the Bond character as a well-dressed British superhero. Trying to classify him as an actual human does no justice to reality.
One of the most insulting things about the film is its characterization of women. Bond's doctor — whom he sleeps with to get cleared medically — looks to be about 25, and Richard's character, a physicist, can't be more than 23. Most intelligent people know that to get a Ph.D. takes years of schooling.
If you can accept The World is Not Enough as pure fantasy, then indulge. But those who desire a little more realism in action movies, or those who prefer to avoid lines like, "See, Christmas does come more than once a year," should stay at home.
billboard
Modern Rock Tracks
1. "Higher," Creed
2. "The Chemicals Between Us, Bush
3. "Learn To Fly," Foo Fighters
4. "Re-Arranged," Limp Bizkit
5. "Take A Picture," Filter.
6. "The Dolphin's Cry," Live
8. "Around The World," Red Hot Chili Peppers
7. "All The Small Things," Blink 182
9. "Guerrilla Radio," Rage Against The Machine
10. "Cowboy," Kid Rock
(c) 1990, BPI Communications Inc.