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l _1 0 N P E 0 P L P L A C E S Top Box Office Hits FOR THE WEEKEND OF JULY 6-8 1. 'Legally Blonde’ $20.3 million 6. ‘Fast and the Furious' $7.3 million * 2. ‘The Score’ $19.0 million 7. ‘Dr. Dolittle 2’ $7.0 million 3. ‘Cats & Dogs’ $12.0 million 8.‘Kiss ol the Dragon’ $5.8 million 4. ‘Final Fantasy’ $11.5 million 9. 'A.I. Artificai Intelligence’ $5.1 million 5. ‘Scary Movie 2’ $9.5 million 10. Tomb Raider' $4.0 million -. - ^ ,.y Wednesday, July 18,2001 TOlC 09111 CCOCk Page 5 Special to The Gamecock As the Deep Eyes look on, scientist Aki Ross collects one of the eight spirits — a tiny green plant — she believes will save the planet. by Tug Baker The Gamecock “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” STARS: Voices of Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods PLOT: A female scientist makes a last stand on Earth, with the help of a ragtag team of soldiers, against an invasion of alien phantoms. OVERALL: Gives a new outlook on moviemaking. ☆☆☆☆ of ☆☆☆☆☆ There are certain films whose technological achievements stand Out in history. “The Jazz Singer” was the first “talkie.” “The Wolf Man” combined makeup and camera tricks to transform Lon Chaney from man to beast. ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” gave us the most homogenous attempt to mix 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' A new outlook on the future of moviemaking animation and live action. “Jurassic Park” brought computer generated dinosaurs back from extinction. ‘Toy Story” saw the first full-length movie completely rendered by computers. All these films stand out, not only for their aesthetic merit, but also because they offered the world a neoteric way to make and see film. “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” is the latest among these revolutionaries. Based on the popular video games of the same name, “Final Fantasy” is completely computer generated, much like ‘Toy Story” or “Shrek.” However, it surpasses their efforts by striving to create realistic computer images. Written and directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the video game series, “Final Fantasy” takes some of the basic concepts present in all the games and uses them in a completely new tale set on Earth in 2065. In this dark future, humans live only in the larger cities that are surrounded by special energy shields while the rest of the world is filled with invisible aliens called Phantoms. The story follows Dr. Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) as she races to find a way to rid humanity of the Phantoms — a way she believes is hidden in her dreams. She is accompanied by a group of Deep Eyes (Marine-types who specialize in killing Phantoms), led by her ex-lover Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin). Aki’s teacher Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) has helped her to gather all but one of the eight spirits of Gaia, the mystical force that Aki and Sid believe controls all life. Laughing at their dogma is General Hein (James Woods), who has developed his own plan to wipe out the Phantoms by using a powerful satellite cannon, an idea which is unacceptable to Aki and Sid because they believe the cannon would kill Gaia as well. Ine plot ltselt is reminiscent of tales by Asimov or Bradbury, and while it does have some points where more clarification or deeper meaning is needed, the story itself is quite suitable and will delight any fan of the video games or science fiction. As far as the voice actors go, everyone in the film has done a Fantasy seepages Through the Looking Glass ■ You think you know someone A Connecticut woman who had a sexual encounter with her lover in a hotel was dismayed to see a videotape of their passionate tryst posted on the Internet. She had a rather intense confrontation with the guy about this, after which police charged him with voyeurism and disseminating voyeuristic material. He pleaded innocent. To make matters worse for the woman, it was revealed in court that the man has another girlfriend — and a wife. ■ If you have to steal, do it sober After stealing a rifle from a home in Wheeling, W.Va., a man then went to the local Wal-Mart, where he shoplifted a box of ammo. But he was so drunk that he took the wrong size bullets. As a result, his subsequent attempt to hold up an adult sex toy shop failed when he fired the rifle and it didn’t go off. At the sound of the “click,” the clerk jumped the guy and held him for the cops. Deputy Sgt. David McGlothlin said, “This guy has to go down as one of die idiots of the year.” ■ No loss of life, thank God Exterminators who set off 18 bug bombs to kill the cockroaches in a San Diego apartment forgot to turn off the pilot light in the stove. The resulting explosion blew the cabinets off the kitchen walls, shattered windows and ripped a hole in the ceiling. No cockroaches were killed. ■ Get up kid; you’re done A 17-year-old brandishing a toy gun robbed a bank in Fort Worth, Tex., and then ran from the scene and into the Total Tan salon to elude police. Seeing that he was out of breath, the owner asked if someone was chasing him. He replied, “No, I just want a tan.” So the woman assigned him a tanning bed and called the cops, who quickly showed up and arrested him. Mike Pingree/College Press Exchange