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Analyze This a gangster humor hit
By Brendan Walsh
By Brendan Walsh Kansan movie critic
Robert De Niro shouldn't be allowed to cry in movies. While it's good for actors to expand their range — De Niro is a prime example of type casting — the man just can't cry. On three
occasions in his new movie Analyze This, De Niro is called to bawl. It's laughable each time.
Thankfully, this movie also provides other laughs.
De Niro, who plays Paul Vitti an established New York Mafioso, is having panic attacks because of his stressful family business. Fearing a
MacNamara (Lisa Kudrow) in Miami.
Sobol does his best to get rid of Vitti,but the mobster and his hench-
casually juxtaposed with more humorous ones. This makes the audience's experience a little awkward.
That aside, it's still a pretty funny movie. The film does a great job of poking fun at gangsters, while avoiding mob satire, similar to last summer's Mafia! The humor becomes a little redundant (how many gifts can Vitti bestow on Sobol before the point is made?), but there are frequent genuinely amusing scenes.
Crystal gives his best performance since When Harry Met Sally. It's hard to believe that this is the same actor who starred in the flop My
Giant and the equally bad City Slickers 2. Crystal's stand-up and talkshow humor has revolved too much around his Jewish ancestry. That schtick is old, and it's refreshing to see Crystal go beyond it.
Kudrow's character isn't nearly as interesting as her character in The Opposite of Sex. Her performance is adequate if unremarkable. De Niro, whom people remember from films such as GoodFellas and Casino, has no problem acting like a gangster.
De Niro's comedic timing isn't completely there, but one wouldn't expect Crystal to play much of a gangster either.
Cruel Intentions is cruel punishment
Cruel Intentions Rating:D
by Brendan Walsh Kansan movie critic
Whether or not he intended to be cruel, screenwriter and director Roger Kumble has created a horrific movie. Cruel Intentions marks the fourth time the 1782 book "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" has been adapted for film, most memorably in the Oscar-winning Dangerous Liaisons.
Kumble's sophomoric version of the story is set among rich high school kids in New York City. Step-siblings Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) are both well-known for their sexual exploits. Kathryn is a playgirl, while Sebastian is just a little more dramatic in that he gets women to fall in love with him, sleeps with them, and then sends them packing.
Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) is the daughter of their high school's new headmaster. She has just written an article for Seventeen magazine that defends her plans to remain a virgin until marriage. Kathryn bets Sebastian that he won't be able to get Annette into bed. If he is not able to, Sebastian relinquishes the keys to his roadster. If the young beauty gets deflowered, he also gets the added bonus of anal sex with his stepsister. Where's Dr. Laura Schlesinger when you need her?
Kathryn also turns her attentions to Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair), whom an earlier boyfriend had dumped her for. This is a really weak point in the plot, but apparently Kathryn's beloved broke up with a vivacious sex friend for a 15-year-old virgin who acts as if she is two years old. Kathryn befriends Cecile, who confesses that she has never even gotten to first
base. Kathryn herself helps Cecile with batting practice, then has her brother hit a home run. Apparently this is all in the name of getting back at Kathryn's exboyfriend, but he's never around and is apparently unaffected.
appear in the play. Phillippe and Witherspoon do such a terrific job acting that this movie might last a week and a half in theaters despite the atrocious screenplay. Galler is best known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the WB network and does a great job of being sexy and manipulative in Cruel Intentions. Phillippe made this fall's 54 somewhat tolerable, and in Playing by Heart gave the best performance in a cast filled with great actors. Witherspoon starred in the critically acclaimed Pleasantville, and the cultish Freeway before she did this film. All these actors played their parts beautifully, especially considering the awful material.
There are more plot holes in *Cruel Intentions* than there are potholes in East Lawrence. Hardly anyone's actions are ever explained with motive, and when they are it usually doesn't make much sense anyway. The character of Cecile is horrendously mishhandled, so much so that her presence is simply distracting to the movie's already weak story line
There are a couple of great love scenes involving Phillippe and Witherspoon, but they're hardly worth sitting through the whole movie for. This is another movie following the recent trend of showing teens in incredible positions of power. What makes movies like Scream, The Faculty, I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc., so awful, is exactly the opposite of what makes movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High so good. While the former show teens with unlimited wealth of power and no restrictions in life, the clever Fast Times depicts teens at the mercy of their parents and society, which is much closer to the way things are. Teen flicks just aren't like they used to be.
dc Talk breaks free from Christian music market
By Matt Cox
Kansan music boy
The famous chameleons of popular music, de Talk, display sincerity with a rock and pop sensibility that leaves even skeptics
impressed.
dc Talk has been known to change with each album to conform to the current popular style. The Christian music industry made dc Talk its pet project to make sure it was remaining hip to the kids.
With each album, the singer/songwriters who share the limelight, Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait and Kevin Max, have broken out of their constructed shell in large increments.
My Friend speaks about holding a friend accountable for his decisions in the music industry. The guys express their concern accented with an alternative post-grunge music structure likened to that of Weezer. The melody is catchy but not awesome.
Now, with Supernatural, dc Talk is on the Virgin Records label, breaking out of the ironically private Christian music market, but still remaining true to the faith.
A more nivana-ish rock track,
It's Killing Me, flaunters harsh guitars during the chorus to stress
the theme of a friend who can't tell them the truth about his true feelings. The guys sing. "I think I gotta let go' cause it's killing me."
The title track, Supernatural, begins with an atmosphere reminiscent of Filter, then explodes in the chorus with a harder angst. The lyrics attempt to kill the misconception that Christians think they're perfect. Actually, McKeehan, Tait and Max say that it's incredibly hard to be a Christian. They sing, "I need an intervention, a touch of providence. It goes beyond religion to my very circumstance."
The album is not all rock, though.
Wanna Be Loved sounds like it came out of a Shaft movie with the effects of the bass and guitars. The title suggests the theme of the song, but the music surpasses the line of cheesiness just a bit.
The final track is a poem to music called There is a Treason at Sea written by Max. It serves as a reminder why there are at least two other songwriters for the other tunes. Max unemotionally spouts predictable, conventionalized ideas that shouldn't have been part of this otherwise well-crafted album.
Besides Wanna Be Loved and Max's poem, the album is a journey into the mind and life of the three Christians. They indirectly set out to correct misconceptions about true Christianity while directly sharing their faith.
And this time de Talk doesn't seem to be constructed by the industry.
EVENTS CALENDAR
Friday. March 5
Matt Merkel-Hess
Latin American film festival. "Four Days in September." 2:30 p.m. Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. Sponsored by Latin American Studies. 864-4213.
Nature and culture colloquium. "Industrial Adaptation: Modern Business, Natural Resources and the Law in Early 20th-Century Montana." Kent Curtis, history, 4 p.m. Hall Center conference room. Call 864-4798.
1999 Asian American Festival
Living the American Dream. Jocelyn Enriquez, speaker. Filipino-American dance music diva with such Billboard hits as "Do You Miss Me," and "A Little Bit of Ecstacy." 6 p.m. Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union. 864-3576.
ECM Benefit. Jim Hurst & Missy Raines with Christopher Grundy. 7:30 p.m. Ecumenical Christian Ministries. $10 concert, $20 for concert and preceding reception. 843-4933.
Concerto Concert. KU Symphony Orchestra. Brian Priestman, conductor. 7:30 p.m. Lied Center. 864-2787. $5 adults, $4 students and senior citizens.
Student recital. Stacie M. Lightner, organ.
7:30 p.m. Bales Organ Recital Hall. 864-
3436
University Theatre. "The Way of the World" by William Congreve. Ronald A. Willis, director. 8 p.m. Crafton-Preyer Theatre. Murphy Hall. 864-3982. $12 adults. $11 seniors. $6 students.
Saturday, March 6
Bettersmith Design craft area senior show. Art and Design Gallery. Show ends March 12. 864-4401.
*Easy Rider.* 2. p.m. Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. 864-4710. Free.
University Theatre. "The Way of the World" by William Congreve. Ronald A. Willis, director. 8 p.m. Crafton-Preyer Theatre. Murphy Hall. 864-3982. $12 adults, $11 seniors, $6 students.
1999 Asian American Festival
**Taste of Asia.** Sample cuisine from various Asian countries. 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Equenical Christian Ministries. Tickets available at SUA in advance only. $4/person or $6/couple. 864-3576.
Cultural presentations from different Asian countries. 7:30-8 p.m. 5th floor parors, Kansas Union.
Cultural performances and fashion show of different Asian countries. 8-10 p.m.
Kansas Union Ballroom.
Dance Party featuring Jocelyn Enriquez.
10.pm to 1 a.m. Kansas Union Ballroom.
$4/person. Free with admission to Taste of Asia.
Sunday, March 7
Lecture. "Talking About Photographs." Terry Barrett, Ohio State University. 2 p.m.
Spencer Museum of Art. 864-4710.
University Theatre. "The Way of the World" by William Congreve. Ronald A. Willis, director. 2:30 p.m. Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall. 864-3982. $12 adults, $11 seniors, $6 students.
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