effective is the way the film shows how young girls are bombarded by advertisements for beauty and sex everywhere they look. All the performances are outstanding, especially Hunter, who represents the kind of parent that is a friend to her daughter until it is obvious that what her daughter really needs is a mother.
The film is an honest, disturbing and powerful look at what happens when the sex and drugs of pop culture invade our innocent youth culture.
—Lindsey Ramsey
Grade: B +
Charlie's Angels II: Full Throttle PG-13, 105 minutes. Woodruff Auditorium Kansas Union
Before Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl came along, the summer movie spectacular looked to have died a greedy death via the sequel. If you asked me which movie has the most blood on its hands, I'd have to say Charlie's Angels II.
This time, the Angels battle a rogue agent played by Demi Moore, featuring a figure way too emaciated to be medically advisable. Craft, coherence, hell, even a story are eschewed for orgies of cinematic destruction. Readers are advised
to boycott SUA for the weekend, find a pen and write a strongly worded letter about the risks involved in showing films in an academic environment that can cause brain hemorrhaging.
—Stephen Shupe
Grade: F
Dorm Daze
R. 96 minutes. South Wind 12
It was reported in The University Daily Kansan that Topanga from Boy Meets World was in town to promote her film Dorm Daze, which seemed like an honor. It was a curse.
It is hard to sum up the plot of a movie such as this; it includes but is not limited to the following: a virgin, a prostitute, a bag of money, a criminal, cocaine, etc. If all this wrapped up in one film sounds exciting to you, then by all means subject yourself to this monstrosity. For the rest of us with more than two brain cells, I'm sorry I even took up this much space writing about it.
—Lindsey Ramsey
Grade: F
Duplex
PG-13, 97 minutes. South Wind 12
In dark comedies, subjects such as trying to murder the little old lady who lives upstairs are treated with a laugh and a smirk. The problem with Duplex is that it succeeds with the darkness but fails miserably with the comedy.
—Lindsey Ramsey
Grade: D
Alex and Nancy (Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore) just bought their dream house, only to realize that the little old lady (Eileen Essel) who lives upstairs is out to make their lives a complete nightmare. The film follows them as they try to lead the lady to her untimely death with few laughs and no charm. The only redeeming aspect is Stiller's ability to make even trash like this merely garbage.
Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
NR, 85 minutes. Liberty Hall
Cinema's most comically inept superhero, Ash (Bruce Campbell), returns to the woods to stir up some more ancient evil in Sam Raimi's gory second installment to the best horror trilogy in movie history.
A remake of The Evil Dead that's even more entertaining than its sequel, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead II features countless funny/squirmy set pieces, such as the shed where Ash battles it out with
his murderously possessed hand.
Inventive camera tricks and a blistering energy level made this a groundbreaking release in 1987, and it still holds up today. Few experiences can compare with seeing beloved old movies with hardcore fans in a darkened theater.
—Stephen Shupe
Grade: A
School of Rock
PG-13, 108 minutes. South Wind 12
Jack Black (Bongwater) teaches a fun and relatively clean lesson in musical comedy in the Richard Linklater (SubUrbia) directed School of Rock.
Black plays Dewey, a slacker with rock'n' roll dreams. After his band fires him, Dewey pretends he's his roommate and takes a job as a substitute schoolteacher at a prestigious school. Dewey teaches the class to rock, the class teaches Dewey to ... well ... teach, and the audience laughs and giggles as the plot unfolds.
While Black is hilarious, many of his younger cast members keep up with him comically and musically making for one of the most fun hour and 40 minutes seen on the screen this year.
—Cal Creek
Grade: B+
thursday, october 2. 2003
jayplay. 21