The Westfield L the Westfield Leader
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Page 4 Thursday, February 19, 1998 The Westfield Leader and THE TIMES of Scotch Plains – Fanwood A WATCHUNG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. PUBLICATION POPCORN The Replacement Killers: TheThe WestfieldWestfield LLeadereader Killer With a Conscience TheTheThe Official NewspaperWestfieldWestfield of the Town of Westfield andLL the Countyeadereader of Union — Established 1890 — By Michael S. Goldberger Member of the New Jersey Press Association • Member of the National Newspaper Association • ATLANTIC One Popcorn, Poor • Two Popcorns, Fair • Three Popcorns, Good • Four Popcorns, Excellent Periodicals – Postage Paid at Westfield, New Jersey He’s Got The World 1 & 1/2 popcorns services of Meg Coburn, passport forger THE TIMES Bloodthirsty moviegoers, rejoice! If par excellence played, in a strange career On His Shoulders Official Newspaper of the Township of Scotch Plains and the Borough of Fanwood you’re the type who requires a regular fix move, by Mira Sorvino. Now guilty by There is very strong evidence to sup- — Established 1959 — of senseless slayings, right this way. association, Meg too incurs the wrath of port the theory that Atlas, “a mythologi- Mr. Wei’s minions. A former street waif cal Greek god and leader of the Titans,” Periodicals – Postage Paid at Scotch Plains, New Jersey This one’s for you. Violence doesn’t come much more with a rap sheet that matured as she did, was the source of our word Atlantic. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the offices of the newspapers at gratuitous than the buffet of murder and she soon has no choice but to ally herself There is another explosive story that he P. O. Box 250, Westfield, New Jersey 07091 mayhem served up in The Replacement to Mr. Lee. Happily for this film’s lim- was also the source of the name for the Killers. Lucky you. Life is good. There’s ited purposes, Meg knows her way around Lost Island of Atlantis. not even much of a plot to obfuscate the all manner of assault weapons. The sce- Atlas came from a Greek word mean- THE LEADER THE TIMES nario set, let the serious killing begin. P.O. Box 250 P. O. Box 368 production line slaughter in director ing “to uphold,” which he did quite well. Antoine Fuqua’s first feature film. But in fact, the homicidal rampage For, you see, it was Atlas who was con- 50 Elm Street, Westfield, N.J. 07091 Scotch Plains, N.J. 07076 started before the opening credits. Even demned by Zeus to hold up the heavens (908) 232-4407 • Fax: (908) 232-0473 (908) 232-4407 • Fax: (908) 232- For the rest of us, it isn’t all that simple. No thinking person can witness in its exposition, Mr. Fuqua’s non-stop and especially earth for having attempted E-mail: [email protected] 0473 this incessant butchery without wonder- massacre manages to bump off the requi- to storm heaven. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY WATCHUNG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. ing what it is about such nihilistic non- site number of victims. If the film de- Atlantikos, incidentally, was the Greek sense that regularly gains it an audience. serves any credit, it is for raising the ante adjective for Atlas. Legend has it that Horace R. Corbin Gail S. Corbin Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in multimedia assaults on the senses. about 1450 B.C., a volcano erupted on PUBLISHER GENERAL MANAGER (1971), with its theories about The choreography of mass murder, in the island of Thera (currently Santorini) “ultraviolence,” managed a novel thesis meter sharply sympathetic with the mu- which destroyed Knossos and perhaps Paul J. Peyton Suzette F. Stalker Joanna B. Marsh or two concerning rage among the so- sic applied by Harry Gregson-Williams, the fabled Atlantis. MANAGING EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR MARKETING DIRECTOR cially disenfranchised – the need for doesn’t miss a beat. The rat-tat-tat and Much later, a mountain in North West vicarious violence. But sitting in the ricochet bullet sounds assume a percus- Africa was named Mount Atlas, and the Karen M. Hinds David B. Corbin Debbie Geraci sion instrument counterpoint to the back- ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE movie theater, bombarded with the ki- sea that lay at its feet was called OFFICE MANAGER SPORTS netic charge of audio-visual carnage that ground score. The visuals — some may Atlantikos, later Anglicized to Atlantic. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE The Replacement Killers spews so effec- call it acting — serve as little more than In the latter part of the 16th century, tively, one can’t help but to furtively light-show and shadow accompaniment Atlas was depicted holding the world on THE WESTFIELD LEADER & THE TIMES glance the audience. to the symphony of devastation. Exciting his back on the frontispiece of a book of One-year subscription in county $20 They don’t all look so alienated, hun- at first, these repetitious guilty thrills maps published by Flemish geographer One-year subscription out-of-county $24 gry for cinema savagery to assuage their soon evaporate into a numbing nothing- Gerhardus Mercator. As a result, any One-year college (September to May) $16 isolation. Some do. But not all. ness. collection of maps published since then Under the tutelage of Hong Kong ac- It is difficult to discern just what the has been called an Atlas. tion filmmaker John Woo (Face Off, filmmakers hoped to achieve when they We hope that Atlas continues to hold Broken Arrow), first-time director teamed Sorvino and Chow. The chemis- up his end. What a let down if he “drops Work Underway to Trim Municipal Antoine Fuqua tries to establish an inter- try is nil. Whereas John Lee as the killer the ball.” national aura for his gratuitous violence, extraordinaire is, gasp, really just a fam- taking the artistic pretense route for the ily man at heart, Meg Coburn is a little bit Budgets to Reduce Impact on Taxes first quarter of the movie. Some of the more of a challenge to type. While not Please See film frosh’s fancy footwork shows prom- particularly sexy, Miss Sorvino’s pur- In the past few weeks the governing bodies in West- as of now shows an increase of $44 per household. The ise, if not originality. But sadly, predict- veyor of passports nonetheless makes Another Column field, Scotch Plains and Fanwood have begun the task of average home in Scotch Plains is assessed at $115,000 ably, the highly-stylized balderdash is her fashion statement by insisting on a developing municipal budgets for 1998. Elected offi- with a market value $230,000. Based on $93,000 in painfully self-conscious. Boasting the black bra as her only top. If the erstwhile On Page 5 cials are currently working with department heads to spending per tax point, the budget represents an increase youthful arrogance of an extended music CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 video (Mr. Fuqua’s previous area of vo- find areas which can be cut without reducing services to of 3.8 tax points. cation), the sophomoric stabs at symbol- residents. Two-thirds of Scotch Plains property tax bills go ism play like bad poetry. "COMMENTING ON UNION COUNTY" Last week Westfield Town Administrator Edward A. towards the Scotch Plains-Fanwood school budget with The plot is even less ambitious. In an Gottko presented a budget proposal of $22.7 million the remaining third divided between the Union County unnamed North American city, hit man Freeholders Spearheading Multiple which, as it stands now, represents an increase of and local municipal budgets. John Lee (Chow Yun-Fat) is in the em- ploy of Mr. Wei (Kenneth Tsang), a Economic and Educational Programs $433,000 over last year. In 1997, Mr. Gottko presented The municipal tax rate in the township has risen 11 Chinese warlord for the ’90s. When the a $22.47 million budget with an incline of $667,000 cents per $100 of assessed valuation since 1990, an Oriental bigwig’s gangster son is killed By DANIAL P. SULLIVAN over 1996, due largely to an increase in state pension increase for the average property in town of $241, equal by nice cop Stan Zedkov (Michael Chairwoman – Union County Board of Freeholders funds. The final budget was trimmed by some $200,000, to 21 tax points, in the seven-year span. Last year the Rooker), John gets the call to even the score: execute the offending flatfoot and but still represented an increase of four tax points, or average township property owner paid $1,035 in mu- Union County is the gateway to the global economy; seeing to it that our his eight-year-old son. The usual orga- transportation infrastructure is up to date, $428,799, over the 1996 adopted spending plan. The nicipal taxes, an increase of $34 from 1996. nized crime lore, replete with eye-for- New Jersey/New York Metropolitan Area, the world’s center of commerce, clean and efficient; that people will have 1998 proposed budget is $16,000 below the state man- In Fanwood, the Borough Council is hoping to deliver an-eye prescripts about “family,” sur- a modern retail center, not only in which round the assignment. But it won’t be finance and communications. dated cap of 2.5 percent. another budget with a 0 percent increase in the amount It is imperative that our interdepen- to shop, but one that will provide em- This year the Westfield council has the option of using business as usual for Mr. Chow’s can-do ployment opportunities and learning ex- to be raised through property taxes, or as close to that killer this go-round. The police detective dent region of exciting urban areas, sub- funds as part of surplus which stands at $2,560,000 — goal as possible.