Newspaper Page Text
Some Money' stand out) With Paul
Schaeler, Bruno Kirby, Fran Drescher.
Ed Begley, Jr and Howard Hesseman
among many others Highly recom
mended Showing Friday. 8/18 (Tate)
THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAIL
ROAD (G) Mara Wilson Alec Baldwin,
and Peter Fonda star in the big screen
debut ot the incredibly popular chil
dren's television series. "Thomas The
Tank Engine And Friends' and
“Shining Time Station." Ends
Thursday (Beechwood. Carmike)
WHAT LIES BENEATH (R) Is it ghost
story or a murder caper? Who knows 7
This weak thriller starts out like a
creepy love letter to Hitchcock, but sut
lers Irom too many preposterous con-
tr. /ances and eventually ends up like a
Friday The 13th sequel. Michelle
Pteitter and Harrison Ford are appar
ently a wealthy, happily married
Vermont couple, but trouble comes
alter their daughter's exit to college
The tilm ettectively builds up to some
very frightening moments but unfortu
nately relies loo heavily on the new
trick ot startling audience with a
loud, sudden blast of orchestral accen
tuation. Directed by Robert Zemekis
(Contact. Forrest Gump). (Beechwood.
Carmike)
X-MEN (PG-13) Based on the popular
Marvel Comics comic book series,
director Bryan Singer's (The Usual
Suspects) latest is an entertaining but
slightly unbalanced lirsl entry in what
is certain to become a sci-ti superhero
franchise At the center ot the story are
Rogue (Anna Paquin), a contused
young woman atraid ol her power to
absorb the memories of others by
touch and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman),
a gruff tough guy with a complicated
past, keen senses and a skeleton
enhanced by unbreakable metal. The
good guys, led by Professor X (Patrick
Stewart), include Jean Grey (Famke
Janssen). Cyclops (James Marsden).
and Storm (Halle Berry). The villains
are led by Protessor X's old Iriend-
turned-fiend Magneto (Ian McKellar).
and include Toad (Ray Park).
Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Mystique
(Rebecca Romiin-Stamos). Fans will
love this. Others may trown in confu
sion (Beechwood. Carmike)
§ v 1
1
Lf ss.j D
H* m ^\
fv> '
IB r
PICKING SCABS
THE REPLACEMENTS (PG-13) Director Howard
Deutch's (Pretty In Pink, Grumpier Old Men) big,
dumb comedy is a standard sports flick goosed
up with a few naughty surprises and a lot of on
field action.
The comedy takes a blurry look at pro foot
ball as it follows a gang of "never-been" misfits
on their way to gridiron glory. The result is little
more than a clumsy pile of macho nonsense...
but that's all it aims for. The film refrains from
taking itself too seriously and, thankfully, main
tains a lively tone and quick pace. We get some
very funny moments—a rare phenomenon on
screen this movie season.
The Replacements opens with a mid-season
NFL players strike (very loosely based on the
actual players strike of 1987). The floundering
Washington Sentinels organization has lost its
star players, and the crusty old team owner
Edward O'Neil (Jack Warden) is scrambling to
find a solution. He courts retired head coach
Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) to coach the
team. The coach's first choice is a scruffy kid
named Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a well-
known "failed" quarterback who bowed out of
football after a dismal showing at the Sugar
Bowl a few years prior. When he's not scraping
barnacles off of wealthy people's yachts, he's
guzzling Budweiser (nice product placement)
and playing fantasy football underwater.
McGinty rounds out the team with a wild
assortment of exaggerations: there's Clifford, the
slick-talking sprinter who can't hold on to the
ball (Orlando Jones); the rowdy, the over-zealous
L.A. cop Bateman (Jon Favreau); the chain
smoking, ale-pickled Welsh soccer star Nigel
"The Leg" (Rhys Ifans); the enormous Japanese
sumo wrestler Jumho Fumikc (Ace Yonamine);
two huge, loose-tongued bouncers from the
R8.B/Pop world (Michael Taliferro and Faizon
Love); a deaf wide receivei (David Denman) and
many others.
The movie never quite digs its cleats into the
"scab vs. players union" story, but it definitely
paints the pro players as overpaid, selfish,
greedy bastards who've lost the heart to play the
game.
As in any good "underdog" sports or war
flick, the heroes are scraggly lowlifes-turned-
good who face seemingly insurmountable odds.
In this case, it's a gang of male stereotypes who
bicker, drink, fight, high-five and... sing and
dance in unison to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will
Survive." Yeah, whatever: it's that kind of movie.
Deutch adds an obligatory love interest for
some unexplained reason, too. A romance
between Shane Falco and a sweet, grossly-under
paid cheerleader named Annabels (Brooke
Langton). On the sidelines during games, she
leads a pack of strippers-turned- cheerleaders
(when quizzed, one buxom pom-pom girls asks,
"uh, is lap dancing a style?") whose lascivious
choreography on the sidelines distracts both tne
opposing team and the officials on key plays.
Most of the jokes and gags either involve the
rivalry between scab players, their inadequacies
and fears, or the foul behavior of the striking
players. Amid all the talk and swagger, two key
performances stand out: Hackman bounds
through each of his scenes with genuine warmth
and emotion, making the best out of what he
has to work with clinching his fists and teeth at
just the right moments; and the wiry Rhys Ifans,
who was so funny in Notting Hill and Twin Town,
is iiilarious as the half-inebriated, garrulous
place kicker who doesn't mind puffing away on
his rig whilst on the field. Reeves, as expected,
looks and sounds as dim as ever.
There's nothing surprising or inventive about
The Replacements, but it's amusing and easy to
watch—which is more than most can say for the
rest of the crud in the multiplexes at the
moment
Bailard Lesemann
COME DOWNSMBS,
OUT OF TIE HEAT
•Magazines ,
•Newspapers
•Snacks
•Cold Drinks
•Local Art
•T-Shirts
•And Morel LOCATED downtown klo*
ESPRESSO ROYALE CAFFE
plus: 1 ~
LOTSA CHEAP SMOKES!!
LOCATED DOWNTOWN BELOW
ESPRESSO ROYALE CAFFE
ATHENS GEORGIA
16 oz. Pints of
Harf or Guinness
$2.75
Daily from 6-!Opm
199 N. Lumpkin St.
353-4721
buildiru) a new nest?
redoing the old?
one of a kind originals
by locsl Mists
prints
pottery
paintings
wood
glass
THE
LOEF
GALLERY
&46 7580
320 E Clayton St.
Your
Alternative
Health Source
Dr. Paul Wickster
Athens Kinesiology
190 Hawthorne Park • 706-227-3325
wickster@athens.net
lime Fop Youp Checkup! |
SPECIAL
$22.95
• Oil change
(includes
filter and
up to 5 qts.
of oil)
-AND-
27 point safety inspection bv an ASt certified
technician (not by Freddie Quick Change!)
WITH THIS COUPON «p«s9/30/00
IITIP0RT DIAGN0STI.CS
l
I
I
Mi www.importd.com
import Specialist of
Downtown Athens
Concerned Maintenance & Repair of Fine
Swedish, German and Japanese Autos
945 College Ave. 543.7982
VUGA-J=M present?
‘Once. In A
BLUE.
MOON
■f—rielcaq, /\u^u?t 25, 2000
7:45 p.m.
Mutrrt MaO
T^r (Jrnverirtij of C rnlrr for Ojntinuiru; Qducaton
+—eotuT-ing V'C. C^I"l e Snutt
or.J ot*r<rr fjjnt£J5tic 'CCol p^rj-ermon
0*t mor» infc online ot WWW.WUg3.org
"Tickets, S IO, available:
• at WWW wuga.org (foJ-t Cft-J)
• ^oom 158, C* or-gia CLntwr (9 an,-I f.m M
• Ucni*pL»co G.ft« (c4Kk zkwet, onlfcf)
• N*t.v. A. m # r, C0 onl^)
• 9 S pknw 706-W2-964? ( crnJit cord)
AUGUST 16, 2000 FLAGPOLE ED