Battalion '
sday • June;
The Battalion • Page 3
Tuesday • June 20, 1995
*a>*. - nil'
i of the playefi
jmmer jobsa r
ill illegal rr
s a flat rate
rcollegiate o:
said thatr
it would alsc
. a lot of talks:
;r some athler.
of money, ami
better players
ly its players.’
\yers not only
r their person
g the problen
as, kids thit
think thereiss
, except to re:
k that mostcc
,his area arer.
TS URDU!
irs this si
11 need to I
lys) for to
id repainM
arking arf!
reet
will
d)
d)
lue)
PA
h of
Rd.
ling
47,
When y Q]}
>lease
;aivadOi
Holy-hype, Batman — FOREVER is here
Film deserves its huge audiences Seal, U2 make soundtrack soar
Movie Review
Batman Forever
Starring Hal Kilmer, Jim
Carrey and Tommy Lee
Jones
Rated PG-13
Playing at Hollywood *16
and Schulman 6
★★★ 1/2 (out of five)
By Wes Swift
The Battalion
Director Joel Schumacher
said in a recent interview that
he wanted his newest picture.
Batman Forever, to feel just like
a comic book.
He succeeded.
The third installment of the
caped crusader’s saga is easily the
most dazzling, stunning and en
tertaining Batman film yet.
Where the first Batman left audi
ences oohing and ahhing over the
scenery and cinematography.
Nicole Kidman play's Batman's
love interest in Batman Forever.
Batman For
ever uses
high-tech
computer ani
mation and
superb light
to climb up
another rung
on the visual
ladder.
Val Kilmer
takes over the
lead role as
thg D ar k
Knight, Gotham City’s protec
tor and local billionaire, Bruce
Wayne. This time he battles
Harvey “Two-Face” Dent (Tom
my Lee Jones), a former district
attorney who blames Batman
for the incident that turned
him into a psychotic freak, and
the Riddler (Jim Carrey), a
criminal genius bent on the
demise of billionaire Wayne.
The gruesome tag team con
cocts a complex scheme that will
make the Riddler the most pow
erful man in the world and end
Batman’s crime-fighting days.
At the same time, Wayne falls
in love with Dr. Chase Meridian
(Nicole Kidman), a criminal psy
chologist obsessed with his
crime-fighting alter-ego, and
takes in Dick Grayson (Chris
O’Donnell), a young circus per
former who watches his family
die at Two-Face's hands.
The plot rolls along like a
comic book storyline. Each sub
plot seems to stray in its own di
rection, giving the audience a
look at Dick Grayson’s thirst for
revenge against Two-Face, the
love “triangle” between Batman,
Wayne and Meridian and the
Riddler’s schemes. But as the
film moves along, each situation
becomes slowly woven into an
action-packed tapestry.
Kilmer plays a much more
convincing Batman adding a
darker, more romantic, gothic
side to the Dark Knight that
predecessor Michael Keaton
lacked. Jones and Kidman give
solid performances, and O’Don
nell as Grayson/ Robin plays
the roll with a surprising
tough-guy quality.
As Dr. Meridien, Kidman
plays the good-girl-who-loves-
dark-mysterious-men type and
adds a little something extra to
the film’s token romance. Two-
Face gives Jones a chance to
shed the conservative, tough-as-
nails personality he usually gets
stuck with. Two-Face is off the
beaten path, and Jones lets
watchers know that he enjoys
playing the role.
i wf' i '
Album Review
Various Artists
Batman Forever
Atlantic Records
★★★ (out of five)
V. - t
^ % /
Chris O'Donnel plays Robin in
the sidekick's first appearance in
the Batman movies.
While no one role dominates
this film, Carrey’s performance
stands above the rest. He care
fully tip-toes down the line be
tween his trademark zaniness
and a dark psychosis that should
surprise audiences. Carrey’s
Riddler iipnit just Ace Ventura in
a green suit.
Joel Schumacher has succeed
ed in making Batman Forever the
world’s first cinematic comic book.
By Michael Landauer
The Battalion
All good superheros need a
rhythm section. And Batman
has one of the best.
The Batman Forever sound
track offers a wide variety of
artists and sounds and will lend
a few hits to this summer’s mu
sic charts.
U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me,
Kiss Me, Kill Me” is a standout
full of energy. Lead singer
Bono’s voice is full of power and
feeling, and the music gives the
song its thrust.
Other songs lack U2’s energy
but serve to create a mellow
mood for the soundtrack.
Seal produces the best of the
soulful songs with “Kiss From A
Rose.” Seal’s lyrics are the most
poetic on the soundtrack. Seal’s
voice works well with the music
to make “Kiss From A Rose” the
collection’s most gripping song.
Eddi Reader comes closer to
matching Seal’s efforts with
her pleasant voice on “Nobody
Lives Without Love” than
Mazzy Starr’s mellow song,
“Tell Me Now.”
“Where Are You Now?” by
Brandy also fits the quiet mood,
but it just can’t compare to
Seal’s accomplishment.
The Offspring offers a con
trast to the mood songs, adding
a much-needed punk element to
the compilation. Although it
starts as a bouncy tune, “Smash
It Up” does just
what it says.
Lead singer
Dexter Holland
sings, (or
screams) “We’re
gonna scream
and shout till
my dying day.”
“Smash It
Up” carries the
same amount of
energy as U2’s track and does it
with a kick.
Nick Cave’s “There is a
Light” is a dramatic, rhythmic
tune that gives this soundtrack
a dark side.
The Devlins offer a similar
song with “Crossing the River,”
but it is a little less mellow, re
lying more on its steady rhythm.
Method Man’s “The Rid
dler,” the album’s only rap
song, creates a deranged pic
ture of Jim Carrey’s charac
ter in the movie. Unfortu
nately, Method Man’s sound
is hollow, and “The Riddler”
ends up lacking depth.
Michael Hutchence (INXS)
contributes a remake of an old
Iggy Pop song, “The Passen
ger.” The song has a steady
beat, and combined with
Hutchence’s vocals, it creates
an intriguing sound. The song
grabs the listener’s attention.
Few other songs are able
to draw in the listener.
Sunny Day Real Estate’s
“8” and The Flaming Lips’
“Bad Days” carry some ap
peal, but neither song adds
much to the mood or the en
ergy of the soundtrack.
At times the music is just
too slow. But the slower
tracks may be preferred by
listeners when compared to
the noise offered by PJ Har
vey on “One Time Too
Many.” Given the other high-
energy offerings on this com
pilation, listeners could do
without Harvey’s distorted
screaming voice.
The contrast between the
songs makes this soundtrack an
interesting compilation. It suc
ceeds in bringing together a good
mix of mellow poetry and loud,
penetrating tracks. Considering
the film for which these songs
were chosen, the broad mix
should be no surprise.
Although the whole collec
tion is unremarkable, certain
performances make it a solid
soundtrack.
U2, Seal, The Offspring and
Hutchence all offer songs that
do more than just create the
soundtrack’s polar moods. Each
of these performers has taken a
Batman project, given it wings
and made it fly on its own.
Seal
Screaming Fields fails
at pop-culture publicity
Album Review
Sonic Youth
Screaming Fields
of Love
DGC
★★ 1/2 (out of five)
By Libe Goad
The Battalion
Sonic Youth seems to be just
out to make a buck with its April
release. Screaming Fields of Sonic
Love.
The sonic clan catalogs its pre-
DGC recordings on a nifty compi
lation released in time for the Lol-
lapalooza tour that it’s headlining
this year.
Coincidence?
Don’t think so.
Despite the
band’s question
able intentions,
this album
guides the lis
tener through
the highlights of
the band’s un
derground
sound, covering
I Dreamed I Dream”
songs like
from the band’s 1982 self-titled.
The band seems to follow cir
cular trends in its music, alter
nating between hard-core noise
and more melodic guitar and
singing.
“Teen Age Riot,” “Eric’s Trip”
and “Candle” capture Sonic
Youth’s melodic, atonal sounds
that Sonic Youth fans have come
to know and love.
Screaming Fields of Sonic Love
features an edited version of
“Teen-Age Riot,” which Moore
says in a press release is “about
the kids who don’t give a f—k
about the prez and his pals, but
they hang on every solipsistic syl
lable floating frothily from J.
Mascis’ [of Dinosaur Jr.] lipz.”
The band also has a satirical
version of Madonna’s “Into the
Groove,” a humorous deviation
from the band’s usual straight
forward speak against pop cul
ture’s apathy.
Moore sings like a sarcastic,
lazy Madonna, randomly adding
ssimples of her voice.
But this pop-culture marketing
attempt contradicts Sonic Youth’s
underground image and appears to
be diversion from its “riot trail.”
Moore goes solo but does
not depart from Sonic style
By Amy Uptmor
The Battalion
Album Review
Tfiurston Moore
King
DGC
*** 1/2 (out of five)
Thank the music gods for
Thurston Moore.
Not only has he fronted Sonic
Youth, but he has come into his
own as a musician and songwriter.
Psychic Hearts does not quite
have Sonic Youth’s characteristic
abrasiveness, but it is by no
means a large departure from the band’s sound.
The 15 songs are moody, occasionally angry and
always noisy.
Thurston Moore does not have as much of an
edge without his fellow bandmate, Kim Gordon. But
Moore has created a hybrid Sonic Youth style on
this album that is good enough to keep fans from
missing the band’s traditional style.
Moore brings nothing short of rage to the album’s
title track, where he threatens to take revenge on
people from an abused loved one’s past. Despite the
apparent fury in Moore’s voice and lyrics, this song
is surprisingly poignant — not exactly what listeners
would expect from the leader of a ground-breaking
punk band.
But Sonic Youth fans will love "Hang Out,” which
has the band’s trademark sound.
Thurston Moore
The album
might be better
off without the
last track, “Ele
gy for All the
Dead Rock
Stars,” a noisy
19-minute long
instrumental that cycles through three-minute
repetitive guitar riffs.
Although most of the instrumentation on Psychic
Hearts sounds the same, it is still outstanding with
the contributions from Moore’s bandmates from Son
ic Youth.
Psychic Hearts exposes Thurston Moore as an im
pressive songwriter who is more than capable of
standing on his own. He runs the spectrum of emo
tions without ever sounding pathetic or whiny.
The MTV Movie Awards
Show succeeds
where Oscars fail
Michael
Landauer
Aggielife
Editor
A nd the
golden
popcorn
goes to ...
It just doesn’t
seem like a pres
tigious trophy.
But that is what
makes the MTV
Movie Award
show so fun to watch because
it doesn’t take itself seriously.
When you consider all the
show has to offer, it doesn’t
seem like it should give the
Oscars much competition. The
two shows don’t compete, of
course, but if I had to live on a
deserted island and could only
take one movie award show
with me (I’ve been faced with
this question many times), I
would take MTV’s.
In short, the MTV Music
Awards kick Oscar’s ass.
MTV has cooler stars, an
incredible stage, complete
with an elevated phone booth-
type entrance for presenters,
and Courtney Cox (even if she
did look worse than anyone
ever thought possible).
The Academy Awards has
some things that MTV is lack
ing. Take the opening act
every year, for example. Wow!
It never ceases to entertain
people. Or is it that it never
entertains people? I forget.
But the Academy Awards
does have Price Waterhouse
to protect the sealed en
velopes that contain the su-
per-top-secret winner’s
names. Now that is prestige.
But who cares? MTV had
1-900 numbers. That may not
be prestigious, but it is funny
to think that MTV actually
made money off of poor saps
with nothing better to do
than call up and vote 100
times for Keanu Reeves and
Sandra Bullock as the best
on-screen couple.
Now that’s democracy.
And what
do we get from
the Oscars?
Pure dictator
ship. Yeah,
they say they
vote, but
rarely does a
film win big
and do well
with the public. It’s all a con
spiracy led by Paul Newman
and a conglomerate of other
salad dressing companies.
MTV chooses to honor the
bad movies that we all like.
Speed was not a good movie.
Neither was Dumb and
Dumber. But we don’t
always like good
movies. If there is one
thing that MTV taught
us as we grew up, it is
that crap entertains as
much as quality.
However, it is impor
tant to take note of which
award show honored
Hoop Dreams this year —
MTV’s. Sometimes when
justice isn’t done, it takes
the rebellious, young
award show to do the de
cent thing and recognize
innovative work.
Aside from a few mo
ments of seriousness, the
awards show stuck to the
crazy categories and
raked in the best accep
tance speeches we have
ever seen. Seeing Jim
Carrey share his award
with himself — both he and
himself were nominated in the
same category for different
movies — was truly touching.
The most notable differ
ence between the Oscars and
MTV’s awards lies in how
each show presents the nomi
nees for best song. While the
Oscars take the cheesy
Broadway-style route, MTV
chose one band with three
chords and gave them 2 1/2
minutes. In retrospect, how
can you have an awards show
without the Ramones singing
Madonna’s “I’ll Remember”
as part of a melody?
And never would the Os
cars think to have the cast
from “Welcome Back Kotter”
act out a Fkilp Fiction scene
when presenting it as a nomi
nee for best picture.
But we should beware —
this is not our fathers’ award
show. The MTV Movie
Awards is for people who
have gotten a taste of the
channel’s creativity and can’t
Jim Carrey shows that Dumb and
Dumber is winner — on MTV.
settle for anything else.
If someone would just beat
up whoever did Courtney
Cox’s hair and make-up, the
award show would be poised
to make America forget the
Oscars.
And when forced to choose
an award show to take with
us on our trip to a deserted
island, we would all agree —
“We want our MTV.”