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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2000)
Friday, October^,,; y B-Hippjj DIDN'T MEAN foT' r [fc C ?l?A £ r 0W Friday, October 6, 2000 AGGIES THE BATTALION NOBODY DOtl i/ Festival of lights, earner A star-studded event of Texas-sizeproportions is coming to the. a, ac 'state capital next wee byKylew I My legs!! I cm | feel my legs! ^ . )RIOUS L. 'ou Know I'm st: doing it to ck up ChiCKS, right? TTALIGN Beth Miller Edit Chief #1055-4726) is published daily, MoniJ? | ng the fall and spring semesters 0 rsday during the summer session (M nd exam periods) at Texas A&M Univest. Paid at College Station, TC 77840. PO? ess changes to The Battalion Jem M1 IU, College Station, IX 77843-1 111. 1 1 news department is managed by Stu rt University in the Division of Student Department of Journalism. News office Donald Building. Newsroom phone: 845-1 47; E-mail: Thebattalion@hot^nail.co! 1, talion.tamu.edu tion of advertising does not imply spy ent by The Battalion. For campus, loed advertising, call 845-2696. For class I 845-0569. Advertising offices are it !. and office hours are 8 a.m. to5p^ ay. Fax: 845-2678. rt of the Student Services Fee entitles dent to pick up a single copy of M free, additional copies 254. Mail sub- er school year, $30 for the fall orspmf r the summer and $10 per month.lo || erCard, Discover, or American Express. to be! formances ment... music, and t!! 5,2000 - > at Green mroe Texas Conroe . £ X '' « Dr. T and The Women! Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Liv Tyler Oct. 12, Paramount, 7 p.m. Billy Elliot Jamie Bell, Julie Walters Oct 14, Arbor I, 7:20 p.m. By Matt McCormick T/je Battalion The world has had a fascination with the silver screen ever since Char lie Chaplin first donned a derby and a fake mustache. Today, few institutions celebrate the spiritof motion picture production like the film festival, where indepen dent film projects square off with pro duction-company movies to produce a lineup of the best material currently showing. , The Yams Mark Wahlberg, oct oa iV2 Phoen * 9-4o‘ lra,,,OUnt > p.m. Duets Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis Directed by Bruce Paltrow The joys and perils of karaoke singing do not come to mind when one thinks of poten tial blockbuster material. Lucky for the viewers of this nearly two-hour film, Duets manages to reach beyond the theme of karaoke to follow a dif ferent fad altogether — the cur rent Hollywood trend of taking so-called searing looks at the cur rent state of American society. Duets is the story of six peo ple and how their lives interact with the karaoke circuit. In many respects. Duets begs to be compared to Pulp Fiction or Two Days in the Valley. The aforementioned films were both movies that attempted to follow an oddball group of people over a short time period and illustrate the similarities between the su perficially different storylines. This is what Duets attempts to do; unfortunately, it never re ally connects these separate sto- These festivals draw not only film enthusiasts, but also professionals from within the industry who participate in panel discussions to give the enthusiasts an inside scoop on the Hollywood- style dirty work. Texas A&M students need not travel to Holly wood to experience this carnival of characters — just to the town down the road, Austin. Spanning eight days, Oct. 12 to 19, the seventh annual Austin Film Festival will host a variety of different films, many of which have already re ceived rave reviews from other festivals, such as the Cannes Film Festival. Of particular interest will be the regional pre miere of the much anticipated film, Crouch ing Tiger, Hidden Dragon, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Directed by Ang Lee (The Ice Storm), this period piece/martial arts flick blew away audi ences at this year’s Cannes Festival. The new film by David Mamet (The Spanish Prisoner), State and Main, boasts an exceptional cast, including Alec Baldwin, /IftSSX Win Mal kovich Oct ftp Def °e V^r ,o, ' nt ’ Sarah Jessica Parker, William H. Macy and David Paymer. Robert Altman’s Dr. T and the Women will also be showing at the festival. The film, which stars Richard Gere, Helen Hunt and Liv Tyler, soon will be opening locally. The pride of the Austin Film Festival is its Screenwriter’s Conference, held Oct. 12 to 15. In those four days, more than 70 industry pro fessionals will participate in more than 45 pan els on a variety of screenwriting subjects. These panels are unique because the meeting rooms are usually small, allowing for a more one-on-one experience than some festivals, like Toronto, where people are jampacked into a single, huge room. Many of these panels will offer a set ting conducive to asking questions and re ceiving feedback from people who are successful in the movie business. Among those attending this year’s festival are screenwriters Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight), Bill Broyles, (Apollo 13, En- State and Main Alec Baldwin, Charles Burning Oct. 14, Paramount, 7 p.m. trapment, Cast Away) and Academy Award-winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, A Civil Action). “I really enjoy the Austin festival,” Black said. “When I go to other festivals, I often spend a lot of time in my room or walking around the town. At the Austin Fest, I spend all day at the seminars, listening to my heros and my friends and picking up information that I can use myself.” There are a variety of passes available for those interested in attending the festival. For those interested in just watching films, there will be a $41 pass good for all films shown during the festival, and individual tickets will be sold at all theaters prior to showtime. Of particular in terest to college students is the all-inclusive film pass. With $195 and proof of college enrollment, students will be able to attend all showings and participate in all panels during the eight-day festival. The normal registration fee is $410 for other at tendees. More information concerning films and panels at this year’s Austin Film Festival, is avail- [ able by calling 1-800-310- FEST or by logging on at www.austinfilmfestival.com. rylines in a way that is clever or complete. As is the case in many ensem ble movies, most of the characters are one-dimensional and totally dependent upon the actor’s charisma for any originality. Make no mistake about this, even though her daddy is direct ing, this is not a Gwyneth Pal trow movie. In fact, she is only on screen for about 20 minutes of the picture, but during that time, she reaffirms why Ameri ca is so smitten with her. Huey Lewis is appropriately funny but vastly underused. Maria Bello is one of this film’s sweetest surprises, managing to play the tough, yet vulnerable, woman to perfection. Director Bruce Paltrow cre ates fairly competent scenes, but the overall storyline wanders and rambles, failing to come to gether in a manner worthy of such a cast. The music, of course, is su perb, with many of the cast ac tually performing their own karaoke routines. Chow y,, r w? 0j Mi chelieY~ a L> Oct 1% a Y 00 * 1 ^ 7:20. Duets is one of those films that is superficially entertaining and great until one thinks about what actually happened. Then one realizes, had it not been tor the solid acting, they would have bailed on the movie long ago. Do not expect too much, because this film fails to deliver all that it promises. (Grade: C-) — Matt McCormick Meet the Parents Starring Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro Directed by Jay Roach Every once in a while, a movie comes along that is so silly and slapstick that the pain from laughing distracts from the fact that viewers’ minds have received a wel come reprieve from thinking. ■ This is the case with Meet the Parents, a new comedy that proves a successful comedy only has to do one thing — make the audience laugh like hell. Parents is the story of Greg Focker (Stiller), who is in love with the perfect woman, or so he thinks, until he travels home to meet her parents. Greg quickly discovers that his po tential father-in-law, Jack (DeNiro), is not really a retired florist, but an ex-CIA agent. Hilarious hi-jinks ensue as Greg’s attempts to impress Jack go horribly awry. This movie is not long on plot, but the jokes are fast and furious — including a running joke involving a play on Greg’s last name, which is one vowel away from — well, you know... ill. Director Jay Roach (both Austin Powers and Mystery, Alaska) keeps the tone of the film light. He shamelessly ex ploits a vast array of absurd sit uations to get more laugh for the buck. Stiller continues to demon strate a general likability cou pled with an excellent sense of comic timing. But, much like his performance in Analyze This, DeNiro serves up most of the comedy. This film really does not try to be anything other than a first- rate comedy. Forget romance, forget being moved by perfor mances — the only movement a person is likely to experience during this movie is a bowel movement from laughing so hard. (Grade: B) — Matt McCormick Need to get some “real world” work experience? Attend the Co-op Career Fair and see how you can benefit from participating in co-op... Co-op Career Fair October 9 & 10 Zachry Building Floors 1&2 8:30 AM — 4:00 PM Cooperative Education TAMU Career Center | http://co-opweb.tamu.edu ^ 209 Koldus ♦ 845-7725 Evolve into your career! October 9, 2000 October 10, 2000 3M Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. Advanced Micro Devices American Airlines Alcatel Carrier Corporation American Electric Power Central Intelligence Agency Anheuser Busch Dupont Applied Materials Ethicon Baker Oil Tools Ericsson BMC Software Flowtronex Inti. Celanese Freese & Nichols Chevron Phillips Chem. Co. GE Commercial Transformer Cirrus Logic General Services Admin. Delta Airlines Halliburton Dow Chemical Halliburton-Sperry Sun Eastman Chemical IBM Emcon/OWT Kimberly-Clark Corporation Entergy Corporation Lockheed Martin Lyondell/Eguistar Fisher Controls M&M Mars FMC Corporation Marconi Frito-Lay Motorola m tz grocery NASA Hewlett Packard National Security Agency Legerity, Inc. Nokia Mobile Phones Lucent Technology Nortel Networks Lyondell-Citgo Parker Hannifin National Instruments Pervasive Software Omega Airline Software Reliant Energy Raytheon ST Microelectronics Solatia, Inc. SMI Texas Instruments Solar Turbines Union Carbide United Space Alliance Vetrotex America Vignette Walt Disney World Wyman-Gordan
