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The Tuscan Market
Fine Italian Foods • Grocery • Cafe • Delicatessen
Specialty Food Items
Imported Olive Oils & Vinegars
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Imported Meats and Cheeses
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Italian Salads
Italian Desserts
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S5 Off Anv Grocery Order Over $50
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•nufX'in - empires 5/11/05
Come and Enjoy a Taste of Italy in Athens!
1063 Baxter St. (next to Eckerd) 613-3133
Mon-Fri: 10am-7pm • Sat: 10am-4pm • Sun: Closed
“Athens* First Authentic
Thai Restaurant"
149 N. Lumpkin St.
Downtown Athens
Full Menu
Now Available
for Lunch
Now Serving Lunch
on Saturday!
Thai (Noodle! Bowls
(706)548-9222
TEXAS
HOLD
POKER
NIGHT
EVERY
TUESDAY
NIGHT
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ii
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1
C’ min
XX Hosted by National
j^.;/ ^]Or«; Pub PDker League
www.nationalpakerleague.com
‘season final at end of year.
WINNER GETS
^ / WINNER GETS
OVER S300 VALUE IN PRIZES
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Si 120 MITCHELL BRIDGE ROAD
706 369 3924
EARN ONE POINT PER GAME. FINALISTS MUST MEET MINIMUM POINT
REQUIREMENT TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR SEASON FINALE TOURNAMENT*
KUNG FU HUSTLE (R) While the latest from
Stephen Chow, the master behind Shaolin Soccer,
fails to fly as high as he aims, this cinematic
smoothie, a blend of martial arts, musicals and
slapstick comedy, lands enough punches and kicks
to bring a doofy smile to even the most staunch
realist. Set in pre-revolution China, when well-
choreographed gangs ruled the streets and the
poor lived in large apartment complexes filled
with kung fu masters hiding out like they were the
galaxy's last remaining Jedi (this is the film
makers history lesson, not mine), KFH gleefully
recounts the destruc
tion brought upon the
denizens of Pig Sty
Alley. These residents of
the poorest neighbor
hood in a Chinese
metropolis have so far
escaped the greedy
attentions of the
reviled Axe Gang due to
their abject poverty,
until bumbling,
wannabe gangster Sing
(writer-director Chow) shows up. Don't think that
the neighborhood residents' lives had been all lo
mein and fortune cookies before that though. In
the gang's place, the people, known only by trade
(Tailor, Coolie) or physical characteristic
(Bucktooth Jane) and acted just as broadly, are
berated, and sometimes beaten, by their tyran
nical Landlady and her lecherous, timid husband,
Landlord (both played by former members of a
troupe once home to Jackie Chan), who reveal
their true identities as kung fu masters when the
Axe Gang rains ruination down upon their ghetto.
The battles between the masters and the Axe
Gang's hired killers, two mystical harpists straight
out of Little China and Tlie Beast, soar, bash ami
pummel all the while with a wink and a smile.
(Many of the performers are martial arts veterans.)
One sees Chow was as much inspired by Tex Avery
as Bruce Lee. The miraculously self-healing Sing is
Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny rolled up into one
flying roundhouse. Exciting and filled with visual
humor, this Looney Tunes with a black belt style is
very nearly ruined and made incalculably less
compelling by Chow's reliance on poor CGI in lieu
-of wires and stunt-
work. After seeing
Crouching Tiger and
Hero, where the impos
sible was made possible
(and believable), why
the director would go
all George Lucas is
beyond me. The film
also suffers from ’dia-
logy" exposition, only
made more static by
the subtitles. Stilt fun
martial arts films are a necessary part of a bal
anced cinematic diet KFH is our martial arts
multi-vitamin where most of the film will not be
absorbed, memories of the boring exposition and
the pitiful computer effects eliminated only hours
after viewing, yet just enough of the good stuff—
the Landlady's "Lion's Roar," the tremendous
battle between the three masters, the sweet final
bow in which the film's rather disjointed narrative
is all tied up—will be absorbed and remembered.
Drew Wheeler
PEACE & UN-DERSTANDING
THE INTERPRETER (PG-13) Adults sure love their
thoughtful thrillers, chockfull of political intrigue,
beautiful depressed professionals, and sexual ten
sion thick as Ragu. With its murder at the UN plot
and the most dour duo since Batman and Robin
went off anti-depressants. The Interpreter sheutd
satisfy the inner adult in us alL Translator Sylvia
Broome (Nicole Kidman so luminous she must be
coated in Day-Glo paint) overhears a threat
against the murderous leader of an African nation,
leaving Secret Service
Agent Tobin Keller
(Sean Penn), charged
with the dignitary's
protection, questioning
his own motivations. Is
his belief in Sylvia,
whose innocence is
shredded by each new
piece of incriminating
evidence, caused by the
recent widower's attrac
tion to her complemen
tary emotional fragility?
Director Sydney Pollack
delivers a well-paced film packed with relevant
political machinations. In spite of the film's
flashing neon arrow pointing to each due, the
race to uncover the truth before a foreign presi
dent known to be despised by the U.S. govern
ment can be murdered on American soil, is grip
ping. The final act is a doozy, filmed on the floor
of die General Assembly, quite a coup considering
no other film has ever been allowed such access
to the UN's New York headquarters.
Getting to that breathtaking dimax is the
chore, a humorless one at that Kidman and Penn
both deliver the expected stunning performances,
tailor-made for Academy Award recognition (were
it not April), but as written by screenwriters
Charles Randolph, Scott Frank (Out of Sight), and
Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List), Sylvia and Keller
are so serious, so emotionally wrecked, that
spending this much time with them is the last
thing you want to do on a Friday night. Alas, the
bitterly witty Catherine Keener, as Keller's partner,
is given far too little to do. Her presence is like a
dry autumn breeze, chilly but refreshing, after
being cooped up in suf
focating scenes with
her partner and the
interpreter for so long.
Interesting enough,
with a plot so rife for
politidzing. The
Interpreter speaks more
in generalizations
about diplomacy, geno-
dde and terrorism;
even its slant on the
UN, pro of course, feels
blunted. Many of the
film's black hats are UN
employees and the tension between the U.S. gov
ernment and the international peace organization
is personified by a UN security guard, who reminds
Keller he is on international, not American, soiL
Yet sequences where the political hot potato is
tossed back and forth are the exception. Pollack's
reticence (cowardice?) to grandstand aside, his
film is an intelligent detective story that depicts
peace the victor in the battle against violence
while leaving the more important question unan
swered. Who is going to win the war?
Drew Wheeler
Nicole Kidman '
22 FLAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 27. 2005