Volume 54 Issue 2 Article 8 December 2002 Reviews Ethos Magazine Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos Recommended Citation Ethos Magazine (2002) "Reviews," Ethos: Vol. 2003 , Article 8. Available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos/vol2003/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ethos by an authorized editor of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ethos I entertainment THE WR 1\IFTVVnRI( review by I TIM PALUCH o, I'm not kidding. This isn't a joke. Would said daughter be really, really hot? Seriously, I'd appreciate it if­ Would she wear tight, revealing clothing, espe­ c'mon, now- stop laughing. cially during fight scenes? N I'm telling you, the WB network is Batman has left New Gotham, leaving three good, solid programming. Quality entertainment. gorgeous woman with keen technical wizardry, And I'll tell you why- it's because nary a witty comments and names like "Oracle," Wayans is anywhere to be found. "Huntress" and "Dinah" to watch over the city. The WB is no longer just an entertainment Throw Everwood, Do Over, Angel and Gilmore graveyard, where third-rate actors, fourth-rate Girls onto the list. All are unique, watchable comedians and fifth-rate musicians go to die, hours of television, something not often said slain by the two-headed beast that is public about other networks. acceptance and the ielsen Rating . Don't throw 7th Heaven or Dawson's Creek any­ Oh, these people still have shows on the WB, where near the list. In fact, put them on a new and they are truly terrible, terrible wastes of list. Now burn that li l. And make sure none of half-hours- how else do you explain Reba? the ashes fall anywhere near that other list. But the network brass wised up and accepted 7th Heaven -about a minister, his wife and that the next Seinfeld or Frie11ds -hell, even the their seven children -is a sterile and pure next Becker- isn't coming from the writers that examination of drug u e, violence in school, dat­ brought you The Parent 'Hood and Nick Freno: ing, teen pregnancy. All through the watchful Licensed Teacher. eyes of Rev. Camden, who isn't even boning one These 30-minute laugh tracks are joined in the of little Lucy's high school fTiends after Bible WB's prime time lineup by a few solid, thought­ class. Where's the drama, WB? provoking and downright entertaining dramas. Dawson's Creek is equally unwatchable. ever At the top of this list is Smallville, a dark and mind the fact that the teenage characters in the introspective glance into the life of an adolescent show are actually somewhere in their mid-40s in Clark Kent. He's an awkward teen, tripping his real life- I think James VanDerBeek was way [Tom boyhood to adulthood- girl , high Du tin Hoffman's fTiend in The Graduate- the school, girls, girls- while al o trying to come to show also misrcpre ents teen angst. Someone tell grips with his unsettling superpower . Pacey when we were 18 we weren't depres ed Birds of Prey isn't a intelligent or smart as because we couldn't decide which hot girl we Smallville, but it' equally entertaining. wanted more. We couldn't get any. From anyone. Continuing the trend of pulling a contemporary Don't abandon the WB for its checkered past. twist on classic comics, the show answers those No one's telling you to watch Reba. But the four questions every Batman fan has asked. WB's got Katie Holmes. And she's in commer­ Did Batman and Catwoman get it on? cials on the network, too. That alone makes this If Batman and Catwoman did indeed get it on, network a must-see. It just took me 500 words would their daughter, too, fight crime? to get to that. e 14 I www.ethosmagazine.com illustration by I CARM EN CERRA CASH Book Review Movie Review HOW TO BE ALONE HARRY POTTER AND THE JONATHAN FRANZEN CHAMBER OF SECRETS review by I PAUL KIX review by I SARA TENNESSEN i · ~ ast year, Jonathan Franzen's third ordes of spiders. Mysterious novel The Corrections won the creatures crawling through L National Book Award and was H ancient plumbing. Iowa selected for Oprah's Book Club. Franzen State dorms or the Hogwarts School Music Review didn't like the "corporate logo" on his of Witchcraft and Wizardry? "high minded literary art" and soon The parallels between Harry AMERICAN IV: Oprah uninvited him from her show. In Potter's magical boarding-school THE MAN COMES AROUND How to be Alone, the 6rst collection of adventures and the less-than-magical Franzen's essays, he talks about le' affaire happenings here in Ames could be JOHNNY CASH Oprah, but, disappointedly, writes noth­ one of the reasons Harry Potter and ing of Fame and Money and how the the Chamber of Secrets is so appealing review by I BETHANY KOHOUTEK two have changed him. He does include to college students. "My Father's Brain" in the book, which It's a fantasy about how cool life ohnny Cash is the only musician won the award for best magazine essay would be if only we had magical pow­ alive who can sing a cover better after it appeared in The New Yorker, but ers, a homicidal archnemesis and J than the original artist. He's inappropriately - because Franzen real­ understanding administrators. It's a proved it again with his latest album, ly is a good writer - the rest of the fantasy you should see, if only for the American IV: The Man Comes Around, a reportage in the collection fails. glorious moment that occurs after combination of genre-bending cover However, How to be Alone, when it isn't Harry soundly defeats a certain mon­ tunes and a handful of originals that Franzen as Reporter, succeeds. Just not ster: 6nals are canceled "as a reward." cement his standing as one of the great­ as much as his next novel will. We need more monsters around est songwriters in history. here. The 70-year-old Cash reinterprets everything from Nine Inch Nails' Hurt to The Beatles In My Time to Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus, with help from the likes of Fiona Apple, Nick Cave and Best Movie ... You've Never Heard Of Smokey Hormel. True to form, he imbues each cover with a darkness and BOONDOCK <iAINTS profundity that only the Man in Black can summon. review by I ANDY TU Yet it's the originals that stand out. The title tune contains a mix of biblical oston Catholics. Vigilante brothers. Killing spree. Damn. Sounds like a imagery and foreshadowings of death good flick. Add the ugliest man in Hollywood, Willem Dafoe, into the encased in a hook that simultaneously B mix, and it's great. Boondock Saints is a story of two brothers who take hits you in the gut and stirs your heart. the law into their own hands to avenge the death of their mother. The commu­ Cash's voice trembles a bit more than nity is torn between condemning the brothers' murderous acts or praising it used to. The photos within the liner them for cleaning the scum from Boston's streets. Also torn is the investigator notes reveal a white-haired, bespecta­ (played by Dafoe) who must ask himself the same question. cled old man. Yet somehow he will The action and investigation scenes are arranged in a nonlinear format that always be the rogue who flipped main­ keeps the viewer guessing. Cameo appearances by porn star Ron Jeremy and stream Nashville the bird and recorded Billy Connolly spice things up like Emeril after a commercial break. Check it his best album inside the walls of out for a dose of intelligent adrenaline. Folsom Prison- the Man in Black. december 2002 I 15 .