ENTERTAINMENTpagerob&cheryl 21 Technique • Friday, October 20, 2000 • 21 A hop, zip, and a jump A new Spike Lee joint ENTERTAINMENT The Squirrel Nut Zippers stay ahead Bamboozled takes an interesting look of the bandwagon and go back to at a very un-poltically correct topic— Technique • Friday, October 20, 2000 basics with Bedlam Ballroom. Page 23 minstrel shows of the 1800s. Page 25 Pay it back? It’s better to ‘Pay It Forward’ New roads for By Carter Green good deeds like rabbits makes Second ugliest man on campus the film difficult to pull off. Once Trevor begins doing good deeds, old masters MPAA Rating: PG-13 his circle of influence gets very Starring: Kevin Spacey, Helen large, very fast. Hunt, Haley Joel Osment Once again, Haley Joel Os- By Alan Back Director: Mimi Leder ment steals the show. After his Case Closed Studio: Warner Brothers captivating role in The Sixth Sense, Rating: yyyy Haley portrays a middle school What a difference a year makes. kid with big ideas. His enthusi- Ask the members of Blues Traveler and “Think of an idea for world asm sells the “pay it forward” they’ll tell you some stories. Personal trage- change, and put it into action.” idea to the audience, almost dy, health problems, and a long break from Eugene Simonet gave this as- against their will; the plan seems performing add up to a triple whammy signment to his junior high stu- to be an idea destined for fail- that could sideline most other bands built dents every year. Each year, some ure. After all, it operates on the on relentless touring and dedicated fan sup- would find ways to clean up the honor system. port. For one of the pioneer groups on the neighborhood, or make small Hunt does a good job of bal- modern jam scene, though, it’s been a chance change, but no one had ever had ancing a difficult role. Arlene to figure out where to go next and how to an idea with global implications McKinney is an alcoholic, rais- keep everybody coming back for more. until Trevor. ing a child on her own while After Bobby Sheehan, the group’s orig- This movie has a simple working two jobs to make ends inal bassist, died of a drug overdose in New premise. Trevor McKinney took meet. Hunt delivers everything Orleans last August, rumors of a breakup this junior high school social stud- that the audience has come to began to spread among the fans. However, ies assignment to heart. His idea: expect. Compassionate, yet eas- the three remaining members (lead singer/ do something nice for three peo- ily frazzled, Hunt does the best harmonica virtuoso John Popper, guitarist ple. These people are not allowed she can to match Osment’s en- Chan Kinchla, and drummer Brendan Hill) to pay him back, however. They ergy. chose to push on and look for new blood. must pay it forward instead to While Kevin Spacey is an im- By David James / WARNER BROTHERS Several people sat in on bass during a short three more. The very strength Haley Joel Osment gives another spectacular performance as a private tour last November; Chan’s young- of Trevor’s plan to reproduce See Forward, page 22 junior high kid trying to change the world—literally—in Pay It Forward. er brother Tad ended up with the job. He had been involved with a band dur- ing his time at Brown University and con- tinued with them on the New York music scene, also touring up and down the East ‘Jurassic Park’ roars again in divine DVD Coast. After the group broke up, he began By Jayson Wehrend provided an interesting vision Due to the legal entangle- Movie: Someone deserves a to play with other bands around the city Yay, he’s back! of the events chronicled there- ments involved with the possi- lot of credit for this film trans- while considering his options. in. For the average moviegoer, bility of a fatal accident, he needs fer. It’s not often that I find a “I was kind of at a point where I was Before the worlds of movies they got a movie with mind- experts to sign off on the park to DVD that’s practically flawless. thinking, ‘I need to be making some more and video games finally took over blowing spe- continue con- Where are all the specks? Surely money; I’ve been in the city five years play- my mind, my chief obsession cial effects and struction. He there has to be some pixeliza- ing around’—I was going to pull that back was dinosaurs. I could rattle off a soundtrack gets them in tion somewhere! Good luck find- a little and start trying to make more mon- an enormous number of dino that was equal- the form of ing it. Like most avid DVD ey free-lancing on the computer stuff.” He names, behaviors, and descrip- ly dazzling. Every scene on the Dr. Grant watchers, I flinch at using the had been working on Web page design and tions like any other good child A rich DVD came off clear (Sam Neill), words “reference quality,” but programming as a side job before being of the 80s. amusement Dr. Sattler this disc came blessedly close. asked to audition for Blues Traveler. When I was in junior high park owner sets and clean; even in (Laura Dern), Every scene came off very clear On the other hand, new keyboardist (and already starting down the out to make the brightest and Dr. Mal- and clean, which is quite a task Ben Wilson had been thinking about going dark path of video games), I en- the greatest colm (Jeff when you think about this mov- into carpentry after leaving his own group countered the book Jurassic Park park ever cre- daylight, the Goldblum). ie. You have multiple indoor and in Ann Arbor, Mich. When Popper and by Michael Crichton. I enjoyed ated. Through grassland picture In a severe case outdoor scenes both in bright company visited Austin in February to start writing songs for their upcoming sixth stu- it immensely but soon went back some techno- remained pristine. of deja vu, light and almost utter darkness. to other pursuits. wizardry, he Steven Spiel- Even in the brightest daylight of dio album, they flew in a handful of pro- Like millions of other fans I manages to berg again the grassland area, the picture spective players to audition. Before Wilson eagerly awaited the upcoming create living bi- teams up with remained pristine. found out about the opening, he had been movie and I can proudly say I ological attractions in the form John Williams to create an in- Before I ever got this DVD, I planning to head for the Far East and then saw it at the very first showing. of dinosaurs, freshly resurrected credible movie of animal versus start swinging a hammer back in the States. “He was the last one to come in,” Tad For fans of the book, the movie from extinction. man. See Jurassic Park, page 24 recalled. “It was a unanimous decision— the band just said, ‘You’re the guy.’” The new five-piece lineup has given rise to a different sound, both in the studio and in Hurley is bedazzling devil; film falls short front of an audience. By Gus Ramage, IV ters the Devil, in the shapely “My influences are a lot of old soul Parking IS Satan form of Elizabeth Hurley. songs, like Parliament and their funky bass Satan seduces Elliot into sign- playing. And to bring in the keyboard and MPAA Rating: R ing away his soul by offering organ with Ben, it fills the space where Starring: Brendan Fraser, him seven wishes to improve his Bobby used to be. He was almost organ- Elizabeth Hurley life. After a mere glance at the like in his playing, very wandering and Director: Harold Ramis enormous contract, he signs it psychedelic, and he really filled up a lot of Studio: 20th Century Fox and is given the wishes. To at- that sound while Chan and John used to Running Time: 93 minutes tract women, Elliot decides that solo,” Tad explained. “Now it’s like we’re a Rating: yy he to wish for riches and power. little more rooted in the groove, and Ben Seizing this opportunity to fills a little bit of that space. It’s kind of a Bedazzled is a mildly funny turn his life into hell, Satan puts rootsy, little older sound.” movie about the lengths a man him into the life of a Colombian However, he readily pointed out that would go to get a woman. Elliot drug lord with business and the other elements that make Blues Travel- (Brendan Fraser) is a technical marital difficulties. Once Elliot er what it is are still very much present— support staffer at a San Fran- realizes that things are not going Popper’s limber voice and harp, Chan’s cisco tech firm. His “friends” the way he planned, he always masterful guitar work, and Hill’s dead-steady can’t stand him, and Elliot finds has the option of pressing 666 drumming. The loss of a founding mem- it virtually impossible to talk to on a beeper and be whisked back ber couldn’t break up the act, and neither an attractive woman. to his normal life. could a serious medical crisis. After an embarrassing inci- Elliot finally visits a church Popper checked into the hospital last dent when trying to ask a partic- to talk to a priest about his deal summer, complaining of chest pains, and By Francois Duhamel / TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX ular woman out, he begs for God with Lucifer and see if the pas- Elizabeth Hurley plays a beautiful and ever-seductive version of to help him get the woman of See BT, page 27 Satan in Bedazzled.