WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
PAGE 5
HOROSCOPES
entertainment
Because the stars know things we don't.
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Today is a 7
Now and for the next few months, it's easier to find money for home improvements. It's better to maintain now than to fix it later (and cheaper). Your career moves forward joyfully.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Today is a 9
Your confusion at work is clearing up. Loved ones are even more supportive for the next few months. Allow yourself to be creative without concern for the end result
Gemini (May 21-June 21) Today is a 9
Get the house the way you want it, right now and over the next few months. A financial matter moves forward now. There's plenty of work coming in, so embrace it.
Cancer (June 22-July 22)
Today is an 8
You're lucky in love for the next few months. You have a lot to say, so say it with words, movement or pictures. Express yourself. Move forward on the basis of an
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
Today is a 7
Advance a work project. It's easier to get the money now. You can really be lucky in love and luck at games at the same time.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Today is a 9
You've managed to swim through raging emotional waters and now you're rewarded. Your effectiveness increases. Others are listening.
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Today is a 6
Don't get impatient. You'll advance in strides, especially around personal finances. Give the eggs some time to hatch.
Meditation brings peace.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Today is an 8
You're gaining confidence each day. Projects that had been delayed will go forward. Consider joining an organization that makes a difference.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Today is an B
Your dreams are prophetic.
Exercise muscles you normally don't use, so they don't atrophy.
Try something new. Increase your self-esteem and the influx of each
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Today is an 8
Career advancement is easier soon. You'll acquire wisdom with the assistance of your team. Be willing to listen to new ideas, and don't be afraid to take risks.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Today is a 6
For the next few months, you'll meet important, interesting people with powerful ideas that will stretch your mind. Pay close attention. Use your time with them wisely.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Today is an 8
It's all about your relationships.
You can get farther than expected
together. Organize your time
around the people you love.
CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Departed
5 "Goshl!"
8 Capri or Wight
12 Wheel-base terminus
13 Scepter
14 Mast
15 Punishing, in a way
17 Erstwhile acorns
18 Fares, at times
19 British P.M., 1945-51
21 "— the season ..."
22 Crucifix
23 Lived
26 AAA job
28 Grand tales
31 Rose fruit
33 Unruly bunch
35 Within (Pref.)
36 Give a speech
38 Kids' card
40 Understand
41 Hear the alarm
43 Decay
45 Film festival city
47 Rock concert staffer
51 Low-pH
52 Sending unwanted emails
54 Hindu royal
55 Work unit
56 Taro root
57 Indication
58 Born
59 Tofu
DOWN
1 Final
2 World's fair
3 Anti-aircraft fire
4 Doctrine
5 Astronaut Gus
6 A billion years
7 — Allan Poe
8 U-235, e.g.
9 Big name in sporting goods
10 Victoria, for one
11 Gaelic
16 Make bootees
25
27 "holly muck-ere尔!"
29 B-F link
30 Drunkar
32 Stunt double, e.g.
34 Rapid outpouring
37 — out a living
39 Space
42 German city
44 Domesticates
45 Lot ware
46 Anti-oxidant berry
48 "Thank You" singer
49 Race place
50 Hollywood clashers
53 Opposite
CRYPTOQUIP
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 ___ ___ ___ 13 ___ 14 ___ ___
15 ___ ___ 16 ___ 17 ___ ___
18 ___ ___ ___ ___ 19 20 ___ ___
___ 21 ___ ___ 22 ___ ___ ___
23 24 25 ___ 26 ___ 27 ___ 28 ___ 29 30
31 ___ ___ 32 ___ 33 ___ 34 ___ 35 ___ ___
36 ___ ___ 37 ___ 38 ___ 39 ___ 40 ___ ___
___ 41 ___ ___ 42 ___ 43 ___ 44 ___
45 46 ___ ___ ___ ___ 47 ___ 48 49 50
51 ___ ___ ___ 52 53 ___ ___ ___ ___
54 ___ ___ ___ 55 ___ ___ 56 ___ ___
57 ___ ___ ___ 58 ___ ___ 59 ___ ___
RGMN AMELMVKDRRD JE W'
NLCLZ MN ILKDCT AMNMICD
TJQ WMVGR NLT MR'N I
ZKDNNMEV ME ZMNVQMND
Today's Cryptoquip Clue: T equals Y
| | 7 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| | 2 | | | | | | 1 |
| | | | | | | 3 | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | 5 | | |
| | | 8 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 5 | |
| | | | 2 | | | | |
| | | 5 | | | | | |
| | 3 | | | | | | 7 |
| | 6 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
SUDQKU
Difficulty Level ★★★
1/30
EXCESS HOLLYWOOD Review
'Parker' offers familiar Statham thrills
This film publicity image released by FilmDistrict shows Jennifer Lopez, left, and Jason Statham in a scene from "Parker."
LANDON MCDONALD
imcdonald@kansan.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Full disclosure: I've seen "Parker" before. And I'm willing to bet you have too.
Maybe you caught it back when it was calling itself "Ronin",
"The Italian Job" "Payback" or any of the other myriad heist movies where a gentleman thief with a strict code of ethics is betrayed and left for dead by his crew, resulting in roughly 90 minutes of hard-earned retribution, the acquisition of a suitably feisty love interest and perhaps the promise of an even bigger payoff. It's also a good bet that the film you saw starred Jason Statham, the chrome-domed Cockney bruiser whose tireless commitment to the action genre allows him to crank out several of these babies each and every year.
Don't get me wrong. Taylor Hackford's new movie, adapted from one of the 24 Parker novels crime fiction mastermind Donald E. Westlake wrote under his Richard Stark pseudonym, is an agreeable serving of strained pulp, the sort of film you might see to pass the time between work and dinner. It doesn't have much depth or originality, but it certainly offers a serviceable amount of action, hardboiled dialogue and the comic spectacle of watching Statham attempt to pass himself off as an Ecuador-born oilman with a shaky Texas twang.
Here's the set-up: Parker (Statham) wants revenge on Melander (Michael Chikilis, "The Shield") and his gang for betraying him and making off with his share of the loot following the improbably lucrative robbery of the Ohio State Fair. He turns to his mob-connected father-in-law a craggy-throated Nolte (to track down the scumbags, who have relocated to Palm Springs to plan a new heist involving a dead heiress and millions of dollars worth of precious stones. In order to beat them to the score,
Parker joins forces with a spunky real estate broker named Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), who helps him get the lay of the land, so to speak.
Id be curious to know what moved Hackford, the reliable filmmaker behind "The Devil's Advocate" and "Ray" and the current president of the Directors Guild of America, to take on a project whose subject matter seems better suited to the limited tastes and paltry ambitions of an action journeyman like Simon West ("The Mechanic") or Oliver Megaton ("Taken 2"). When a talented director goes slumming, the results can be fearless and electrifying (think William Friedkin's "Killer Joe" or Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"), but Hackford seems either unable or unwilling to take the necessary risks.
Statham, one of the last action heroes to actually do his own stunts, sticks to what he does best here: mainly doing his own stunts and grimacing through the occasional morbid wiscrack. I've been a Statham fan from his early days with director Guy Ritchie through the lurid magnum opus that is "Crank 2: High Voltage", but I'd really like to see the former British national diver flex the dramatic chops he demonstrated in 2008's underworld
drama "The Bank Job" and last year's "Safe." In the meantime, though, he seems understandably content to keep doing what most of his "Expendables" castmates can only accomplish through CGI and legions of stuntmen.
Jennifer Lopez, a likeable actress without much in the way of range, seems to work best in projects like this. The pop star's post-"Anaconda" film career took off after appearing in Steven Soderbergh's crime thriller "Out of Sight," where she played a U.S. Marshal battling an intense attraction to George Clooney's dashing bank robber. Her chemistry with Statham is comparably solid, despite her annoying tendency to overplay Leslie's hysterical side. The scenes with her mother are particularly grating.
"Parker" may not be a film destined to linger long in the memory, but it certainly outclasses most action movies branded with the ignominy of a January release date. One sequence, a hotel balcony brawl between Statham and a knife-wielding assassin, is especially effective, even with the groan-worthy double clutch at the end. It's January, after all, and like this movie's pilfering protagonist, we'll take what we can get.
ENTERTAINMENT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Daredevil walks 500-foot span 200 feet above ground
SARASOTA, Fla. — Famed daredevil Nik Wallenda glided 500 feet across a wire suspended 200 feet above the ground on Tuesday, wowing several thousand people below in his hometown of Sarasota.
Without a tether or safety net, Wallenda was the lone figure against a blue sky, aided only by a balancing pole. He made the death-defying stunt easy, but the performance was anything but simple: it took dozens of circus workers to pull and release the thick black cables that controlled Wallenda's wire as he walked. The morning was winder than expected, and at one point near the end, Wallenda dipped down to one knee on the wire, which led to loud gasps among the crowd.
When Wallenda went to one knee, the drama reached a fever pitch.
75¢ Off Any Sub
"I have to get into a zone where I kind of forget about everything else and just focus on what I'm doing," he said shortly before he stepped on the wire. "Fear is a choice but danger is real, and that's very, very true for my line of work."
But Wallenda wasn't focused on the possibility of tragedy. In the hours before the stunt, Wallenda walked underneath the wire, which was suspended between a crane and a condo in downtown Sarasota. He spoke of his city, of the nearby sparkling bay and how he loved to hear the cheers of the crowd while hundreds of feet up in the air.
"Scary," said Neil Montford, a vacationer from the United Kingdom, while wiping sweat from his brow and looking skyward.
Wallenda, 34, wore a gold cross around his neck and prayed with his wife, children and parents prior to the walk.
The Sarasota City Commission allowed the stunt without a tether. Wallenda wore a tether for the first time last summer when he walked across Niagara Falls because the television network that was paying for the performance insisted on it.
"It's my job, it's my career, it's my passion, it's what I love to do," he said.
1814 W. 23rd Lawrence, KS
Wallenda is a seventh-generation high-wire artist and is part of the famous "Flying Wallendas" circus family. His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died.
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