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Movies
★ ★ ★ ★ Excellent: Movies this great are rare, so don't miss it.
★ ★ ★ ★ Good: At least worth the price of admission.
★ ★ ★ ★ Okay: See if you have nothing better to do.
★ Bad: If you absolutely have to see it, wait for the DVD.
no stars: Frickin' terrible; give us our two hours back, director from hell.
THX-1138
(☆☆☆)
R, 95 minutes, South Wind 12
Six years before Star Wars, George Lucas directed this terrifically cynical feature, his first in a career that would see just four more in 30 years. Of the five, THX-1138 is Lucas's most complete film, an experimental science-fiction spectacle that provides a glimpse at an altogether different filmmaking path for the beloved visionary.
THX is set in a dystopian future where the Department of Biological Flow keeps the citizenry heavily medicated. Structured in the timeless fashion of George Orwell's 1984, the plot concerns THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) and LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie), humans selected by a computer to be roommates whose feelings for one another threaten the system. THX is charged with "drug evasion" and "malicious sexual perversion" and put away in a formless prison of endless white light, where he meets up with SEN
5241 (Donald Pleasance) and plans his escape. Pleasance's performance as the humorous and anarchical SEN closely resembles Brad Pitt's Oscar-nominated turn in 12 Monkeys.
This remastered version of THX-1138 shows Lucas as one of our most gifted visual storytellers. Escalators and parking garages become astounding technological feats within his camera frame, and the climax, where robot police hunt down THX on motorcycles, is perhaps the most brilliantly edited chase sequence ever.
Lucas went on to direct square popcorn entertainments like American Graffiti and Star Wars, abandoning the cynicism and chilly satiere of his first film. In THX, the Dark Side wins, human zombies with shaved heads say "That was very funny" instead of laughing and machines tell consumers to "Buy, buy more now, and be happy!" This is a bold and politically subversive vision. As the American Empire revels in self-delusion, we need this George Lucas now more than ever.
— Stephen Shupe
Resident Evil:
Apocalypse
(✩)
R. 1 hour 33 minutes, South Wind 12
While the first Resident Evil movie was crap, it was watchable crap. There is a theory that there will never be a good movie that is based on a video game. Resident Evil: Apocalypse gives us no reason to think there ever will be. Like its predecessor, the second movie is crap, too. Just not as watchable.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
begins with a summary of what the first movie has told us. The Umbrella Coporation is the largest and most powerful in the world, and conducts secret experiments involving a virus that reanimates dead tissue in an underground lab under Raccoon City. Somehow, in a way that is never really explained, the people of Raccoon City become infected with this virus and become the walking dead, taking a chomp out of anyone left alive. Umbrella steps in and quarantines the city, leaving infected and noninfected to fend for themselves while evil men with German accents and business suits take the opportunity to study the effects of their precious virus. We
are introduced to several survivors, most notably Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory, looking pretty good) and Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr of the Mummy movies). Both of these characters are straight out of the
video games, which is obvious because they are just as two dimensional. Alice (Milla Jovovich), the heroine from the first movie, is back after being kidnapped and genetically altered by the corporation as a part of an experiment.
It is no surprise that Apocalypse is made of scenes designed to give the characters things to shoot at. Guillory and Olivera
both have likable, charismatic personalities, as cliché as they are, and it is fun sometimes to watch them play bad asses. But the movie is too many set pieces without any exposition. We watch the characters going through these motions, but we're not sure why we should care. The movie is over-edited, so even if this movie had the potential to be nothing but entertaining action, the cuts are so quick you can't tell what's going on half of the time. It's not really a disappointment that this is not a good movie, because expectations for a movie based on a game can't be that high, anyway.
Jon Ralston
Hill's Pet Nutrition proudly presents b.b. king
Back by popular demand and bringing his gal Lucille with him, B.B. King graces the TPAC stage on:
September 22 8:00 PM
With special guest Big Woody featuring Eugene Smiley
Tickets available at the TPAC Box Office M-F, 10:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m & two hours before shows Ticketmaster outlets, 234-4545 or ticketmaster.com
214 SE 8th Avenue • Topeka, KS 66603
785-234-2787 * www.tpactix.org
Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company Friday, October 1-7:30 p.m. "...this company remains a must for any dance lover..." The New York Times
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