ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 25 Technique • Friday, March 17, 2000 • 25 The Regular Guys Sonique musters a cry ENTERTAINMENT For your reading pleasure, we begin a With her new album, Hear My Cry, series of morning radio show reviews. Sonique tries to continue her success Technique • Friday, March 17, 2000 This week: 96 Rock. Page 27 in the dance music genre. Page 29 No signs of intelligent life found in ‘Mission to Mars’ Jamie Schulz the big farewell party. Argh. We the sentimentality and dead wife Well everyone’s seen it already… have to sit through twenty min- thing. In addition to being con- utes of goodbye, I love you, I’ll stantly reminded of Maggie, we MPAA Rating: PG miss you. Blah blah blah. And it have to sit through ten minutes Starring: Gary Sinise, Tim doesn’t end there. The movie of McConnell watching videos Robbins, Don Cheadle, of her while he is going to Mars. Jerry O’Connell, Connie Please! If I want home videos, Nielson I’ll go to a family reunion. Director: Brian De Palma The premise behind There’s also the whole thing Studio: Touchstone Pictures between Woody Blake (Robbins) Running Time: 113 minutes Mission to Mars is and his wife, Terri Fisher (Niel- Rating: yy a good one. son), who seen to be trying to get the love back into their rela- One of the guys I went to the However, premise tionship. We finally witness it movie theater with overheard an and execution of in a very 2001-ish scene set in usher say to another while we the rotating commons area of were leaving the theatre “Boy, an idea are two the Mars station. the movie must be bad. No one different things. Which brings up another is talking about it.” Well, you point—the movie borrows very got that right, Chuckie. heavily from other movies. As The premise behind Mission I’ve mentioned, it uses the 2001 to Mars is a good one—get some just drips of sentimentality. rotating-thing, and it also relies good actors to try to cultivate We’re constantly reminded on Mars being a sort of HAL- Mars, then have bad things start of Jim McConnell’s (Sinise) dead like planet. When Luke Gra- to happen. However, premise wife, Maggie (Kim Delaney), who ham (Cheadle) and the first team and execution of an idea are two is given credit for beginning the try to set radar at a very mysteri- different things. whole concept of exploring Mars ous shape, a whirlwind appears The movie begins with what with the intention of inhabiting and eats up everyone, save Luke. By Rob McEwan / TOUCHSTONE PICTURES the usual mission-to-outer-space it. (So we have her to thank for When the first team to land sends a final, panicked transmission back to Earth, it’s movie has placed in the middle: the movie.) But anyway, back to See Mission to Mars, page 26 up to a second team led by Robbins and Sinise to save them in Mission to Mars. ‘Planet’ is‘ hospitable, hilarious Ørbit gives classics a new twist By Gus Ramage, IV en are from Venus,” but it is ed soon on campus. By Paul Egas Mascagni and two works by con- What planet am I from? actually far from it. This is a When he arrives on Earth, Floating through a serene sky temporary composer, Henryk great film to take a date to. Harold meets Perry Gordon Górecki. MPAA Rating: R The year is (Greg Kin- Artist: William Ørbit William Ørbit has been known Starring: Gary Shandling, 2999. Gary near), a co- Album: Pieces in a Modern Style throughout the music world as much Annette Bening, Greg Shandling worker at the Studio: Maverick Records for his music as his production abil- Kinnear, Ben Kingsley, Linda plays Harold [Shandling] delivers bank. Perry Tracks: 11 ities. His Strange Cargo series cre- Fiorentino, John Goodman Anderson, an shows him Running Time: 60:10 ated quite a stir in the English techno Director: Mike Nichols alien who must how to meet hilarious dialogue Genre: Ambient community, which quickly spread Studio: Columbia Pictures mate and pro- women at 12- while still conveying Rating: yyyy throughout the world. It was in Running Time: 100 minutes duce a child in step groups this series that Beth Orton gives Rating: yyyy order to save and other lo- a message about William Ørbit has been getting her debut on lead vocals for the his planet. the way men and cations. After a lot of press lately. He is the one phenomenally popular “Water Director Mike Nichols (The There are no encounters that is credited with remaking Ma- From A Vine Leaf.” It was Ørbit Graduate, Primary Colors) has females on his with a steward- women view dating donna. Ørbit, along with Madon- that discovered her and encour- really delivered a great film in world, and the ess, topless and relationships. na, received two Grammys in 1998 aged her to sing. His other efforts, What Planet are You From? It is only way they waitress, and (for “Best Pop Album” as well as such as Bassomatic, have met with one of the best romantic come- reproduce is Perry’s wife “Dance Recording”) for his work similar success. dies since Notting Hill. I was through clon- (Linda Fioren- on Ray of Light. For those of you Ørbit spends almost as much laughing most of the way through ing. Harold and others are given tino), Harold finally meets Sus- who are accus- time making his own music as he the movie and thought it was a training on how to talk to Earth an Hart (Annette Bening) at a tomed to his work does working with great. I was expecting this film women and lure them into bed. meeting. Susan is a recovering on Ray of Light, you others. Along with to be something along the lines Some of the pickup lines are very are in for some- the Madonna’s of “Men are From Mars, Wom- funny, and will likely be repeat- Ørbit tackles the See Planet, page 28 thing different “Ray of Light,” her with his new al- classics with this forthcoming re- bum, Pieces in a endeavor and lease, and her sin- Modern Style. gle “Beautiful This latest ef- reinvents them. The Stranger,” Ørbit fort shows exactly synthetic rendering has produced the why he is called En- likes of Beth Or- gland’s finest am- breathes life into ton, Blur and All bient-house the classical pieces, Saints’ “Pure pioneer. Ørbit Shores,” from the tackles the classics while keeping the recent release, The with this endeav- original intricacies. Beach. He also co- or and reinvents wrote and co-pro- them, as the title duced the Ricky suggests, in a mod- Martin/Madonna ern style. The smooth, synthetic duet, “Cuidado Con Mi Corazon.” rendering breathes life into the clas- William Ørbit is equally hailed for sical pieces, while keeping the orig- his abilities a remixing works, and inal intricacies. has done so for Kraftwerk, Seal, This CD pairs Ørbit’s electron- Prince and Depeche Mode. ic ambitions with the works of clas- Pieces in a Modern Style, howev- sical composers from the past to er, suffers the curse of most of Ør- present. Along with the “classical” bit’s work; while some pieces stand classics—pieces by Beethoven, Rav- out, the others are mediocre. The el, Handel and Vivaldi—are early first single, “Adagio for Strings” by By Francois Duhamel / COLUMBIA PICTURES twentieth century pieces by Sam- FAA Agent Roland Jones (John Goodman) suspects that there is something more to Harold Anderson uel Barber, John Cage and Pietro See Ørbit, page 26 (Gary Shandling) and Susan Hart’s (Annette Bening) engagement in What Planet Are You From? 26 • Friday, March 17, 2000 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT Mission to Mars from page 25 ØØrbit from page 25 Next, a string of debris strikes nal back to the hill, and unlock the Barber, is by far the best, and the the ship occupied by the second mystery of Mars. Some big mys- reworked dance version has already (and now rescue) crew, nearly keeping tery—the Martians “seeded” Earth reached the Top 5 in the UK. The Woody and his crew from getting after it was destroyed, meaning we fact that the CD also includes a to Mars in the first place. And so on are they, or they are us. I find that a bonus disk with two remixes of this and so on. little hard to digest. track is an additional treat. In the beginning of the movie, And then there’s the product Other good tracks are Handel’s Jerry O’Connell’s character , Phil placement. We’ve got Pepsi (Dr. “Xerxes,” Cage’s “In A Landscape” Ohlmyer, seems to be too much a Pepper), Pennzoil, Kawasaki, Isu- and Beethoven’s “Opus 132.” The copy of Ben Affleck from Armaged- zu, and of course, Mars, for the other track, and CD as a whole, are don. Then there’s the similarity to M&M DNA chain that Jerry good for relaxation but fail to have Contact when Luke deciphers a code O’Connell constructs which repre- the draw of the aforementioned in the signal he picked up from the sents his “perfect woman.” Won- tracks. The Vivaldi piece, “Triple mysterious Martian “hill” (which der if she’s a blonde? But a Georgia Concerto” reminds me of the mu- turns out to be a really big alien Tech bumper sticker does sneak its sic usually heard on some kiddie head).