Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1996)
Aggielife ssan K Battauos the ?ek IIV. e to tlit HIV and :ting HIV. ve unpro hare net- nd breasl lit HIV. )urse and s, includ- ot at higli ontad of dividual; condoms infracting sx to be- the only , wareness -1341. he Battalion onday i 2, 1996 oruary Missed Target Predictable plot kills Broken Arrow Movie Review Broken Arrow Starring John Travolta, Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis Directed by John Woo Rated R Playing at Hollywood lG * 1/2 (out o By Kristina Buffin The Battalion The trailers lie. Twentieth Century Fox is promoting Broken Arrow as movie where two friends areU.S. Air Force pilots that fight some kind of evil threatening the United States. Instead, what audiences get is a trite storyline about two friends, one turns out to be twisted and evil and the other teams up with an innocent bystander, usually a woman, to fight this evil force. Vic Deakins (John Travolta) is an Air Force major who has been passed up for promotion several times. Capt. Riley Hale (Christian Slater) is his friend and partner on a mission to fly the top se cret B-3 Stealth bomber with two nuclear war heads in tow. This is supposed to be a routine assignment to test the aircraft. However, Deakins has other plans. Deakins is a little bitter about the fact that he has been in the Air Force for 20 years and is still a major. Instead of handling his problems like most other I normal people, Deakins decides to make money off the U.S. government by hijacking the nuclear war heads and bribiii'k the government into buying them back for the low, low price of $250 million. What ensues is the typical storyline of most ac tion movies these days. Hale decides it is his duty to save the world and find the nuclear weapons be fore Deakins. Hale employs Park Ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) in his quest, and the movie quickly becomes a cat and mouse game. Director John Woo has been critically acclaimed for his work in action films after he made his Hol lywood debut with Hard Target in 1992. Woo tries to differentiate Broken Arrow from the other action films with the use of slow motion at what he deems climactic parts of the movie, and gives each character their own theme song. What ever effect Woo is going for falls short. The only ef fect is annoying. The only two redeeming qualities of the movie are that the word “clus- terf—k” is used, and for all you Volvo lovers out there, Deakins said he would take the $250 million and invest it in Volvo stock so he could live off of the dividends for the rest of his life. He feels he is making a contribution to the world by investing in the safest cars on the planet. Travolta and Slater give good performances, con sidering their characters have absolutely no depth. Mathis does a good job portraying the hard role that seems common these days in action films — the woman who follows the man around hoping to help him save the world. Howie Long’s acting debut is just as equally im pressive, considering all he does is stand around, look pretty and fire his automatic weapon. It’s not hard to do a bad job when you don’t have any lines. The government uses the term “broken arrow” when it loses a nuclear weapon. It is an appropriate title for the movie because the whole sense of purpose for the movie is lost. Page 3 Story of Albatross disaster lacks depth, emotion in White Squall Members of a floating prep school find disaster in White Squall. By Wes Swift The Battalion The truth is often much more amazing than fiction. Look in the annals of history and you will find wars filled with more vio lence than a Tarantino film; more debauchery than a pom flick; or, in the case of the fall of 1960, more tragedy than Romeo and Juliet. In the fall of 1960, 13 boys boarded the Albatross, an ocean going prep school, to explore the South Pacific and the Caribbean in addition to the traditional study of English and biology. The ship was led by Christo pher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges), a hard-as-nails sea dog whose aim was to turn the rag-tag young sters into a crew. As the vessel cut across the waves, the boys bonded and dis covered their true selves. Every thing was fine until the ship, on its homeward journey, ran into a white squall, a mythic storm of destructive force. When the storm passed, four boys and two of the crew had died, trapped in a watery grave. Now, director Riddley Scott chronicles the Albatross’ demise and its aftermath in White Squall, a solid film reminiscent of Dead Poet’s Society. The premise is similar. A group of well-to-do youths follow a charismatic leader and discover themselves. Along the way, tragedy engulfs them, and the entire lot must come to grips with their fate. But the innocence, charm and emotion that marked Poets, unfortunately, is lost in White Squall. The viewers are only given snippets of each character, not enough to get interested in their lives or their fates. Bridges’ performance draws mixed reactions. His character seems to sway too much between rigid seafarer and sensitive fa ther figure. The boys, led by Scott Wolf as Chuck Gieg, who narrates the story, tend to get jumbled up. Halfway through the film, the names don’t always match with the faces. Each character is mentioned, gets a chance to tell his problem and then fades anonymously into the background. The only emotion comes in the latter scenes, especially dur ing the storm, when the chaos reaches a climax. Few scenes are as powerful as watching someone trapped in a boat as it sinks to the ocean’s floor. Such moments don’t happen enough in White Squall, a shame considering Scott’s excellent sea footage makes viewers seasick. Movie Review White Sqtmtt Starring Jeff Bridges and Scott Directed by Riddley Scott Playing at Pop Oak Mall m **★ Cow* offive) Fizzy less than refresh in AlbumReview The Refreshments Fizzy Fuzzy Big&Bm ** tout of Hve) ■SsE By John LeBas The Battalion Mediocrity in music sells. Pop culture will often pick up on a catchy-if-meritless tune, propel it to the top of the charts and move on to something else when bore dom sets in. The cycle repeats. Less fortunate bands get left by the wayside in the process, usually due to piecing their sounds together from worn-out acts, instead of keeping up with the times or developing a unique style. The Refreshments are bound to be one of these less- fortunate bands. The Refreshments sometimes sound like The Presidents of the United States. The Refresh ments sometimes sound like The Heights (that cheesy Fox Televi sion creation that spawned the horrible ballad “How Do You Talk to an Angel?”). The band sometimes sounds like a lot of other 1990s pop rock bands, too, and “refreshing” does n’t exactly describe the band’s second release, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy. These guys do have a melodic Southwestern flavor. There are no steel guitars here, but country influences Eire obvious. Despite a lack of originality, this sound may have salvaged and even cemented the band’s in dividuality. But The Refresh ments were signed by its label, Mercury, less than a year and a half after playing its first gig, and this obviously wasn’t long enough for the band to devel op a consistent, unique style through practice, practice, practice. Consequent ly, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy seems to have been infected by re cent mediocre rock. The album is often cluttered with unnec essary and boring percussion and overlaid Bon Jovi-esque guitar licks. The 12 tunes are rhythmic and guitar riff-driven, and they lose their potential power through overproduction. The lyrics are better than av erage, but simple and angst-rid den (the legacy and “lyrical ge nius” of Kurt Cobain lingers). Of ten, as is the case with much pop rock, the words don’t complement or seem appropriate with the mood of a song. A few things do lend Fizzy Fdzzy Big & Buzzy a bit of credi bility. Although not very inven tive, guitarists Brian Blush and Roger Clyne and bassist Buddy Edwards can play their instru ments, and they are actually pretty tight. The melodies are good, albeit unoriginal. Clyne’s vocals are raw and re spectable. His voice is probably The Refreshments’ best asset. Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy showcases The Refreshments’ honest attempt at making like able, unique music. However, it is incohesive and annoying, stumbling through too many contrasting and worn- out ideas, and falling far short of impressive. It looks like The Refresh ments will have to settle for the wayside. The Refreshments are debuting on the music scene with Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy irom Mercury Records. The Bride Weighs 600 lbs. The Groom Is 9 Inches Tall. Join us for Messina Hof’s old-world "Marriage Of The Port" ceremony. You'll enjoy the traditional European blending of brandy with superb red wine to create our Gold-Medal winning Papa Paulo Port. The ceremony takes place with each free tour: Mon-Fri: 1 & 2:30 PM; Sat: 11 AM, 12:30, 2:30 &4 PM; Sun: 12:30 & 2:30 PM It's fun. It's romantic. You might even shed a happy tear...and watch a barrel blush. "Marriage Of The Port." February 8th through February 18th DELIGHT YOUR VALENTINE You can put your personal message on a custom private wine label for only $11.99 ...which includes the Blush wine. Choose from three different labels. (Labels while you wait-Phone orders OK-We ID) Messina Hof 4545 Old Reliance Road Bryan, TX (409) 778-9463