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'Volcano'erup LIGHTS! REACTION! DEMSE STOKES Staff Writer VOLCANO (out of four stars) Mick Jackson's "Volcano" is an explosion of special effects and never- ending action. "Volcano" aims to please those who crave constant excitement. Academy Award winner Tbrnmy Lee Jones portrays Mike Roark, chief of the Office of Emergency Management in Los Angeles. Roark is dauntless as he battles volcanic crises stemming from the active La Brea Tar Pits. Jones givesa commanding performance that transforms a snso film into something worth watching. Cast members who offer their assistance during this disaster are Dr. Amy Barnes and Emmitt Reese. Dr. Barnes is a seismologist who is portrayed by Anne Heche. Dr. Barnes usually contributes sparse, but somewhat expert advice on how to handle the emergency. Heche made a decent attempt to compete as a strong female co-star to Jones. Only a few actresses could do a better job. Emmitt Reese, portrayed by Don Cheadle, was the second man in charge at the Office of Emergency Management Cheadle gives an aggressive performance, i A !_ l i. _i_L i. i. i m out xua cunaiani aircmpis ai numur are luuie vneese; 'Elegantly Wa SOUND INXS tod HARCIS AMAKER failure Editor they do best ELEGANTLY WASTED INXS (out of four stars) gongg ^ the b Longevity is making a comeback in trademark rock music. Bands like Depeche Mode, Most of tl U2 and R.E.M. have remained popular material 1 by reinventing themselves and their "Need You 1 music for the 90s crowd. sounding tit So naturally, when word first came recalls olc that INXS were returning after a four songs, year absence, everyone expected "Fm Just Michael Hutchence and company to mirrors son do the same. But INXS' 10th studio work Fairb album, Elegantly Wasted, is anything on the Crai but a reinvention. It is a throwback To The Fc to their glory days in the 80s. Departed Elegantly Wasted doesn't sound out steady r of place next to classic INXS albums n 1 g n 11 g n like Listen Like Thieves (1985) and melodic a Kick (1987) because the band sounds ^Inexactly like they did lOyears ago. Just , like in their heyday, lead singer Michael Hutchence is still out to prove he's a r sex symbol, and the rest of the band ,Ip., ( still knows how to rock. ^ 8- F n . . , ? , is an in ten.' Surpnsingly, most of the songs on .., , Elegantly Wasted are different than Hrnmm- j the hit single the album is named after. Farriss The album shifts back and forth from If the overblown rock ("Show Me [cherry drawback t babyl," "Shake The Tree") to R&B- flie ^ inspired tunes ("Searching") to acoustic flius, Elegai songs ("Everything," "We Are Thrown 3,^ ^ tfo Tbgether"). "She is Risii Producer Bruce Fairbairn allows its in theaters "I wanna be like Mike"). A stronger script could intensify Heche Cheadle's characters and give them the hill ab to live up to Jones' performance. L A's busy Wilshire Boulevard (complete \ the County Museum of Art and the Peter Automobile Museum), were reproduced under direction of production designer Jackson DeGc The sites look authentic and are recreated dow the very last detail. Visual Effects Supervisor Mat Beck ("The N Professor," True Lies"), directs the digital lava bo that shoot through, the sky and the yards of lava roll through the streets and within undergro tunnels. "Volcano" brings viewers as close as posi to experiencing a real eruption. "Volcano" contains an underlying message a race relations during a geological disaster. Wh blacks and Asians ban together to hold off destruction of their city. In one scene, a young b male is arrested by a white police officer for haras him about sending fire trucks to his neighborh Eventually the officer releases him and he j in to help build a barricade to his neighborhood. I building the barricade, no words are uttered betv the black male and the police officer as he reti to his neighborhood accompanied by a fire truck, scene sends the subtle, but realistic message th disaster can be a temporary cure for racism. sted': new all ^ what ie track 3 fierce by John L*R| 'Km Fappi88> K1* Pengilly, HI Andrew Farrlm o this CD it's that some of are a little overproduced; lily Wasted's best material som^. stronges e form of slower tracks like INXS haveners lg" and "Building Bridges." oins Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche hang < ^fter for their lives as LA. burns in "Volcano." ireen jrjja Overall,Volcano is a good film with a somewh The original story line. Superb acting from Tbmmy L ^ a Jones and great visual effects turned this story 1 Jerome Armstrong into a winner. nun, old IWS SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOC lchael Hutchence, Jon Farrifls, Garry Gary Beer igs, along with the Andrew Farriss' and Hutchence's stro "own Tbgether," are point. t tracks on the CD. Aside from that, ifs safe to say tt jr been known for this album is INXS1 best collection igantly Wasted is new material in a long time. Even ii songwriting isn't sounds a little familiar. I Myers stars in !" retro-comedy LIGHTS! REACTION! TRENHOLM NINESTEIN Staff Writer AUSTIN POWERS 1/2 (out of four stars) With the millennium quickly approaching, the 90s seem to be desperately searching far and near for an identity. But what words have we found thus far that. rhflrarteriTP this dpradft? Retromodnooal miiunvooi * Following the success of numerous other warp flicks such as "Dazed and Confused" and the "Brady Bunch" films, Saturday Night Live alumnus Mike Myers has penned his latest effort since zk "Wage's World 2," "Austin Powers: m International Man of Mystery." Most moviegoers anticipate the release of comedies more than any other at kind of film( except for the summer 66 blockbuster action flicks) because they J-V want fVia mmria fn Via inot 99 hilflrimio k never explores runner possiDiiiues. Myers takes what he must feel is an easier route to comedy: through the K spoof gimmick, popularized by the ^ Zucker brothers with such films as x Airplane. But the spy spoofs that are ^ incorporated into the movie only render a smile, if even that, from the audience. For instance, there are several ng characters with similar, twisted names to those of one of the most popular James Bond Films, "Goldfinger" These of fit POWERS page 7 as the short one-liners in trailers. But don't get your hopes up about this movie because it fells woefully short of delivering more crazy antics than what can be seen from these 45 second spots. ?I Austin Powers (Mike Myers), 1960s 3winger (by day he's a heart-throb fashion photographer; by night he's a British spy) is brought into the 90s after being frozen to once again save the world from certain doom by the hands of his archenemies, Dr. Evil (also portrayed by Myers), who was also frozen. The film tries its best to spoof movies 1*1 i 1' 1.L . *!_ __ tnai ne wiimn me spy genre, sucn as the continuing saga of James Bond, but instead is more of a poor reproduction of Jim Carrey's pinnacle comedy "Ace Ventura." The times where one expects the movie to wort, there exists just a simple idea for a comedic gimmick that is never fully expanded into what could be numerous laugh-out-loud sequences. Just the premise of a 60s swinger having to face life in the "90s has the potential p* to be hilarious past the point of Austin I playing a CD on a turntable, but Myers I I , p a1 _