THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ED PRESS Saturday, in a Las
THURSDAY AUGUST 23, 2012
amor
oper
icken
l tool
ta-
ha"
oper
ar two
ats in
cks
ark
if a
ce?ce
ace
bound
body
and —
always,
verse
imson
ender
spring
tools
arrived
meri-
nion —"
matched
apricorn
taffter
two-
mers
ormerly,
ermerly
lee's
player
WEEKEND SUDOKU
man
8/24
| | | 9 | | | | 4 | |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| | | | 3 | 1 | 5 | | 9 |
| 5 | | | | 7 | | | |
| | 4 | | | | 2 | 5 | |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| | 3 | | 6 | | | 1 | |
| | 9 | 2 | | | | 8 | |
| | | 1 | | | | 4 | |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 4 | | 6 | 9 | 2 | | | |
| | 1 | | | | 3 | | |
to fame with "Let's Go"
as lead vocal-
or Nickelback in
1995.
marriage for
favour for Lavi-
vorce in 2009
tman Deryck
years of mar-
| | 8 | | | | 1 | | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | | 4 | | | | | 8 |
| | 2 | | | 5 | 9 | | |
| | | | | 7 | | 1 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | | | | |
| 8 | | 5 | | 3 | | | |
| | 6 | 4 | | | 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | | | | | 2 | 6 |
| | 5 | 2 | | | 7 | |
PAGE 7A
Difficulty Level ★★★★
AP PHOTO
Difficulty Level ★★★
AP PHOTO
at the Teen
aug. 7, 2011,
lift. A spokes-
confirmed a
report from
Wickle and
Kroeger were
month after a
8/23
CHECK OUT THE ANSWERS http://kansan.com/
entertainment/2012/08/22/puzzle-answeres-for-aug-23-2012/
MUSIC
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Quiet Corral band members pose for a photo. The group performs this Friday.
Indie rock band to play at Oread
HANNAH BARLING
h118b448@ku.edu
A back-to-school concert will be held on the 9th floor terrace of The Oread Friday night from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Quiet Corral and The Noise FM will be featured. The event is open to all ages and tickets are $5.
This concert gives students an opportunity to meet new friends while enjoing the indie music.
Flynn, guitarist and singer of Quiet Corral.
"I think it'll be a good night. It's the first big night back for students. We have a lot of friends coming and are definitely hoping for a big turnout," said Isaac
The 9th floor terrace of The Oread, referred to as The Nest, will allow attendees to experience local music with a view of the whole town. "It'll be nice to play somewhere in Lawrence that's non-traditional. It means a lot to us, especially for some of the guys who haven't been back on campus in a few years." Flynn said.
Everyone is welcome and the doors open at 7 p.m.
Edited by Sarah McCabe
FILM REVIEW
A Sixth Sense
LANDON MCDONALD
moviegeek57@gmail.com
The kids are all right, even the ones who talk to the dead.
On the surface, there's a lot about "ParaNorman" that seems familiar. Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a timid, lonely kid whose clairvoyant gifts have made him a pariah at school and a stranger in his own home. His parents, already concerned over his fondness for zombie movies, can't help but worry when they hear him conversing with his recently deceased grandmother (Elaine Stritch) and a host of other transient spirits. Norman's only friend with a pulse is the tubby, exuberant Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), who accompanies Norman on his quest to lift an age-old curse after a wild-eyed hobo (John Goodman) reveals a dark secret involving the town's infamous witch trials.
At first the story seems like standard kiddy fare, where the outsider becomes the hero after realizing some great destiny. Yet the spindly, careworn animation, coupled with pitch-perfect voice acting and a synth-heavy sound-track worthy of John Carpenter, transcend the deceptively simple narrative. "ParaNorman" may lack the emotional heft of "Monster House" or Laika's previous effort "Coraline," but it more than makes up for it in terms of style and vision. The painstaking process of stop-
motion, this time coupled with CGI augmentation, has certainly never looked better.
Smit-McPhee, so memorable in "The Road" and the supremely underrated "Let Me In," voices Norman with just the right level of oddball tenacity. Anna Kendrick channels bossy older siblings everywhere as Norman's sister Courtney, whose indifference toward her brother is only rivaled by her affection for neighborhood gym rat Mitch, played by Casey Affleck in a role that defines against-type casting. Goodman, one of our most valuable character actors, brings his usual husky, guttural gusto to the mysterious Mr. Prenderghast.
In the end though, the film's real impact comes from its ability to evoke the viewer's own inner weird kid, that part of us who still remembers what it's like to be alone, afraid or unwanted. Compassion, it seems to argue, is a two-way street. At one point a character asks Norman if he ever thinks about getting revenge on his schoolyard tormentors. His answer: "Sure, but what good would that do?" For a movie so taken with death, "ParaNorman" is often strangely life-affirming.
FINAL RATING: 3 $ \frac{1}{2} $ out of 4 stars
— Edited by Stéphane Roque
CRYPTOQUIP
ENIY H BVKI V ENMSI RDYFN
MA XMAG FNMFMSVG1
FVYKHIX, H SDQQIK GNIB
VOMDYK HY V GODAASI RVQ.
Today's Cryptoquip Clue: H equals 1
VL HCIKC SH SKDOA PHR
AHJ SH RMK D OHQDLIKC
NCHNKCQP, JHRQI PHR AVCK
D NKCMHLDQ MSCDVLKC?
Today's Cryptoquip Clue: P equals Y
ONRXJ S WZRSAXG ECAF O
FSHF GZKKOJ OVZCWR ZW
RFX ROQS'E VXRXJ, S
XQAKOSVXG “NOJX XWZCHF!“
Today's Cryptoquip Clue: F equals H
MOVIES
A Chuck Norris joke too many
LANDON MCDONALD
moviegeek57@gmail.com
Expendables 2 falls flat despite star-studded cast.
The "Expendables" franchise was founded on a seemingly noble desire to remind viewers of a time when action heroes were free from moral ambiguity, psychological complexity or anything resembling identifiable human emotions. All those Reagan-era supermen ever needed were big guns, bigger explosions, thick accents to compliment their Charles Atlas physiques, and an arsenal of one-liners to remind the audience it was all in good fun. Their best movies were cheap, cheerfully disposable entertainment. So why does Simon West's "Expendables" 2 feel disposable?
After a lackluster debut, this was supposed to be the big box office hit, the cheesey equivalent of "The Avengers", that would finally unite the entire pantheon, including the oily trinity of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, for a final shot at cinematic glory. The result is a fitfully plotted, borderline-nonsensical exercise in excess that is sure to please only the most undemanding fans. When the highlight of a movie is Chuck Norris telling a Chuck Norris joke, something has gone horribly wrong.
The story hinges, yet again, on Barney Ross (Stallone), his right-hand man Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and their merry band of mercenaries, a revolving roster of roustabouts including everyone from UFC legend Randy Couture to beloved Old Spice spokesman Terry Crews. The team is hired by CIA slewfoot Mr. Church (Willis) to hunt down a plutonium-pinching megalomaniac (Jean-Claude Van Damme), whose surname Vilain demonstrates the level of wit on display here.
Perhaps the film's worst offense can be found in its marketing, which promised a feature length team-up instead of a series of insipid, self-indulgent cameos. Blink and you're apt to miss Jet Li's Wushu master and Liam Hemsworth as the teams resident whippersnapper. Schwarzenegger is willing but wasted in his role as a rival mercenary, spouting recycled wirescrack before disappearing for long stretches of the film. Stallone, meanwhile, seems nearly omnipresent, slurring his way through indecipherable speeches about honor and loyalty that always seem to end with him
lighting an already-lit cigar.
West, a filmmaker whose career got off to a promising start with "Con Air," knows how to stage an action scene, yet fails to produce anything memorable here, with the possible exception of Jason Statham's monastery knife fight with several of Vilain's henchmen. Statham, the Cockney brawler who previously starred in West's entertaining remake of "The Mechanic," is the only Expendable giving a performance instead of an impersonation. His one-sided banter with Stallone marks an occasional reprieve from a film that otherwise smacks of contempt and compromise. Old-school action fans deserve better.
— Edited by Laken Rapier