ENTERTAINMENTpage 9 Technique • Friday, June 1, 2001 • 9 This Week: Nique Online Exclusive Coverage Exclusive coverage of this year’s Music Midtown Festival is on the Technique ENTERTAINMENT website. Also this week are reviews of Another Man Down and John Mayer. http://www.nique.net/ Technique • Friday, June 1, 2001 Pearl Harbor delivers war and romance but not history By Joseph Jeong love side backdropped against the on the other, we have Josh Hart- Professionally critical start of World War II. We are intro- nett, a relative unknown except to duced to our two male leads Rafe horror aficionados; who do you think MPAA Rating: PG-13 McCawley and Danny Walker, gets the girl at the end of the movie? Starring: Ben Affleck, Josh Hart- played by Ben Affleck and Josh Affleck’s performance was de- nett, and Kate Beckinsale Hartnett respectively, as two young cent, as he can play the suave hero Director: Michael Bay kids growing up together on a farm very well since it is familiar territory Studio: Touchstone somewhere. for him. However, he was not at all Runtime: 183 minutes The story moves forward to 1941 convincing as the bumbling hero Rating: yyy where Rafe and Danny are pilots with a country accent (which pretty for the US Army, essentially the much disappears completely when Epics usually either succeed be- predecessors of Maverick and Goose he switches to suave hero mode). yond one’s imagination (a la Brave- of Top Gun fame. Cue the entrance Jon Voight as President Roosevelt heart) or just flat out fail miserably of the female lead Evelyn Johnson, (a la Costner’s Waterworld and The a Navy nurse, played by Kate Beck- Postman). Pearl Harbor is an epic, insale. In typical Hollywood fash- but it does neither. The movie has ion, with two male leads and one The biggest flaw with its share of moments, but it is also female lead, a love triangle ensues. bogged down by its fair share of Setting up the whole love trian- Pearl Harbor is its flaws and inconsistencies. gle takes up about a third of the inability to decide if it The Michael Bay and Jerry Bruck- movie. Hence in typical Bay & heimer partnership is known for Bruckheimer fashion, we suddenly is a love story or a producing action-packed, explosion- shift gears to become an epic war war epic. filled summer blockbusters and not movie. The bombing of Pearl Har- award-winning, critically acclaimed bor begins, and big explosions fill Castle Rock-like movies. Randall the screen. This whole sequence can’t Wallace, the screenwriter, has con- compare to Saving Private Ryan’s proved somewhat inappropriate, as fessed, much to the chagrin of his- intense introduction, but it isn’t too he did play the part quite convinc- tory buffs, that he developed the shabby either. Perhaps the biggest ingly, managing to look too healthy plot line before doing his historical gripe might be that the horror and for a polio-stricken president. Hart- research. Hence the movie takes cer- emotional impact of the bombing nett’s part could catapult him into tain liberties with history to fit the isn’t conveyed as fully as the thrill the league of lead actors in Holly- Hollywood movie mold. Knowing and action of this big explosion se- wood should this movie become a this going into the movie, the his- quence. huge success. Beckinsale’s role doesn’t By Andrew Cooper / SMPSP torical inconsistencies or other flaws The aftermath of the bombing demand much besides looking pretty Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale) share did not detract from the enjoyment sees Rafe and Danny being selected on the screen and appearing to be an embrace in Pearl Harbor. Was there any doubt who would get the girl? in a manner that typically accom- for a “top secret” mission, or as Rafe love-stricken for much of the mov- panies action movies. describes it in the movie, “the kind ie, so it’s hard to pass judgement on the cook’s name was Doris “Dorie” Even with all this ranting about The problem that Pearl Harbor that gets you a medal, but the medal her acting ability, although she was Miller. the flaws of the movie, Pearl Harbor cannot overcome is not its histori- gets sent to your relatives”. excellent in Last Days of Disco. The Gooding tangent served as isn’t without its merits, which seems cal inaccuracies, but the inconsis- The training for the mission is This brings up another big flaw more of a distraction rather than an to be a problem with many recent tency of its story telling. The biggest very typical of any other action movie, with this movie, which is the role of interesting subplot. This anecdote Bay and Bruckheimer efforts (i.e. flaw with Pearl Harbor is its inabil- and the resolution is somewhat sim- Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding plays a seems more an afterthought than Armageddon). ity to decide if it is a love epic or a ilar. Take a quick guess how the cook on board one of the ships who anything else, a misguided attempt But as for this summer’s first war epic. Hence, the movie doesn’t love triangle is resolved. On one earns a Medal of Honor by man- to convince audiences that Pearl epic, Pearl Harbor, certainly there flow quite as smoothly as it could. hand, we have Ben Affleck, an es- ning one of the guns during the Harbor is really historically accu- are worse ways to spend three hours Pearl Harbor starts out with the tablished $20 million superstar, and attack. This actually occurred, and rate. of your time this weekend. Blues Traveler’s Bridge stands up By Alan Back track “Back in the Day” starts Things get a little soggy and off Edits with a machete up; John Popper sounds unusu- balance at times, especially dur- ally mellow and puts his har- ing the last third of the disc, but Band: Blues Traveler monica into the back seat. when it all comes together, the Album: Bridge (Unthinkable to longtime fans, five-man lineup delivers on its Label: A&M but here you are.) promises and even recalls the Rating: yyyy The first single, “Girl Inside original group’s work. “You My Head,” follows this up and Reach Me” and “All Hands” carry The last offering from Blues is sure to leave you asking, “Are strong echoes of the early-’90s Traveler, Straight On Till these the same people who did albums Save His Soul and Trav- Morning, was four years and one elers and Thieves, respectively, bassist ago. Founding member and are two of the best cuts of Bobby Sheehan died of a drug Are these the same this latest bunch. Chan and overdose in 1999, leaving his drummer Brendan Hill leave lots three bandmates wondering people who did of fingerprints all over these. whether they still had a future “Run-around”? Of Frustration and sadness at By Anton Corbijn / WARNER BROTHERS together. Sheehan’s death bubble to the R.E.M., one of the best things to ever come out of Athens, serves up another They were right to think long course not. Bridge surface on several cuts, with “Pret- album. Long-time fans will especially enjoy Reveal, R.E.M.’s twelfth album. and hard about this; the jam- trades the band’s ty Angry” being the best exam- band scene they helped to launch ple. This one feels very much R.E.M.’s newest album Revealed in the early 1990s has changed earlier approach like a rehearsal, with everybody greatly. Three of its for a chance to playing a few licks to warm up By Jason Dean itation of Life,” marks a return to cornerstones—Phish, the Spin before Wilson starts in with a Wanted to go for a swim their early 90s style with an eerie re- Doctors, the Dave Matthews refine its songs. quiet piano line and nicely sets semblance to 99’s “The Great Be- Band—have either closed up the example for everyone else to Band: R.E.M. yond,” off the Man on the Moon shop or moved away from the follow. It’s good enough by it- Album: Reveal soundtrack. loose, open atmosphere they rode ‘Run-around’?” Of course not. self, but with the upbeat “The Label: Warner Brothers Records The album follows a theme of as- yyyy to stardom. The focus of the album leans Way” immediately following, it Rating: cension – ironic considering their last This crew chose the latter toward precision in songwrit- becomes even more effective. album was titled Up. Says Mike Mills, option, adding guitarist Chan ing, trading in the band’s past Bridge is Blues Traveler’s way R.E.M. is back on the shelves with “we built those songs brick by brick in Kinchla’s brother Tad on bass shower-of-notes approach. It’s of getting past the problems that Reveal, their twelfth full-length stu- the studio, with plenty of overdubs. and Ben Wilson to cover keys the same mindset they used for have plagued them in recent years. dio album. With it, they offer up a For the new album, we played togeth- and expand the sound. Bridge, Straight On but not to such an It’s not what die-hard followers taste of the classic sound they’re known er in the studio, and I think the result their sixth studio album, came extent that the end result sounds are expecting—not by a long- for, while meshing in string arrange- has a warmer and more human di- out last month and finds them too intricate and overdone.