The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, May 16, 1997, Page 6, Image 4
'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 _