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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2004)
Mad DuCkLing TChildren's hea tre With Support from the ASUO. •Join us on the lawn of the Robinson Theatre on the UO Campus! Limited free parkin# is available. Discounts are available for proups of 10 or more. All shows begin 11am $4 tickets for all ages V/: (LUcLflotte - t , c iJeb July 6-10 IZ~I? For information and reservations call O **5346-4192 an 492 E. 13th 686-2458 For the week of July 9th Sign-up for our weekly WebPage Update! www.bijou-cinemas.com THE MOTHER NEXT: THE CLEARING (ROBERT REDFORDi _ „ . 7:20 Nightly Sat Mat 2:40 pnr t~ir The Smash Hit from Prance sme. t T "Wickedly Delicious.. .an unbridled, mad-love masterpiece!" _ oMLYt In French with English subtitles. ONE '^E 9:40 Niqhtlv Sun Mat 2:40 Come in to buy advance tickets! Bo* office opens on meekdays 4:30 pm. #eekends-2:10 pm.fSorry, no phone or internet sales. MICHAEL MOORE |l I FAHRENHEIT 9/11 450,7:10&9:30 Nightly Sat & Sin Mat 2:30 “L 3 WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW!? 5:00 Nightly FINAL WEEK! BIJOU LATENITE Fr-Sat $4 Su S3 Flesh GordonW4> A parody of the serial Flash Gordon with a strong sexual campy tevor1 Fri, Sat, & Sun 11.50 pm so»» mro*&suh$usw toSThe Big Lebowski classic! Jeff Bridges John Goodman FriJ_SatJi^_Sun_1Jii40jQm_s~;_De*D^uvE__^ u MAC’S AT THE VET’S CLUB Great Music Great Food M AP’Q CPPPT A T Q. IfX Xa V M k/ Jl Ju v/ X X3L JLl kr « Whiskey Cured Prime Rib, Indian Baked Salmon & Chicken Piccata. Also Sandwiches, Salads & Burgers Thursday, July 8.9pm*$2 THURSDAY NIGHT BLUES JAM riRST COME, FIRST PLAY Friday.July 9,9:30pm* $4 WEST COAST RHYTHM KINGS SWING DANCE Saturday, July 10; 9:30pm • S4 PAUL BIONDI WITH PETER GIRI PROJECT SCREAMING SAX i-4 • (541) 344-8600 • 1626 WILLAMETTE ST. S2v: Plan Your Spring Party With Us! Hundreds Of Domestic & Imported Beers Available Cups, Ice,Taps, & Keg Coolers Available Last Minute Service Eugene's Premier Company Of Female Impersonators Shows Every Friday Night @ 10pm Full Cock.tA.il Service Pleivty OF Outdoor £eAti^ Qre^orv Video Lottery Coiweideivt Cam^u£ LocAtioAi M/7 VillArd, Eu^er^e IWt 2 E>lock.£ E&t OF Cam^u* r 4L333.0334 'Spider-Man 2' provides more action, plot intensity The blockbuster sequel improves upon the original in various ways JAMES EPPLER UNIVERSITY DAILY (TEXAS TECH U.) (U-WIRE) LUBBOCK,Texas —Af ter making his debut in the original and fairly decent "Spider-Man" in 2002, the web-slinger comes roaring back onto the silver screen in "Spi der-Man 2" with a fierceness that should make heroes like The Hulk, The Punisher and Hellboy run home crying to momma. M OVT F asPect of ^ ori8i‘ It's the quintessential summer movie. The original "Spider-Man" was more of a cookie-cutter comic book movie: A loner experiences a tragedy, (in Peter Parker's case, the death of his uncle) and decides to use his newly discovered superpowers to fight evil. It's been done many times, and even "Daredevil" (2003) gave the same material more depth. "Spider-Man 2," however, gives us more character meat to chew on. Moreover, the special effects are tighter and more convincing, and the adventure story and the love story gel more naturally. It almost feels like classic film noir watching Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) look deep into Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) eyes and command "Spider-Man 2" improves on every nal and brims over with edgy excite ment and genuine summer movie joy. him to kiss her to prove he has feel ings for her. Maguire's Parker spends much of this film feeling torn between his re sponsibilities as a hero and what he may be sacrificing because of it. His conflicted state is having an adverse effect on his web-slinging skills, as he sometimes finds himself in midair unable to get his web up. (Insert Freudian reference here.) Meanwhile, Parker finds himself fired from job after job. Being a super hero is great, but it doesn't pay the bills. He's constantly tardy because he's trying to save lives and deliver pizza in less than 29 minutes. Parker is also writing a paper for school about Dr. Otto Octavius (Al fred Molina), a brilliant scientist who is hoping to expand the boundaries of fusion. It’s a dangerous experiment; so much so that the good doctor has created four mechanical arms that at tach to his spine and take orders from his brain to do the work for him. Parker's best friend, Harry Osborn (lames Franco), is sponsoring the ex periment through his late father's old company. Harry has also vowed vengeance on Spider-Man for killing his father, who, unbeknownst to Har ry, was the Green Goblin. Octavius' experiment is a disaster, however, and the apparatus attached to his spine turns into an angry dreadlock-looking monster with a mind of its own. The battles between Doc Ock and Spider-Man are terrific, especially one involving a clock tower and a train. The Doc Ock villain is a vast improve ment over the Green Goblin, who looked more like something a bad "Power Rangers" episode coughed up. Amidst the eye-popping special ef fects and chase sequences, it's the lit tle things that make this comic book movie a keeper. J.K. Simmons steals every scene he gets as the fast-talking Jameson, edi tor of The Daily Bugle who pays Parker for pictures of Spider-Man. Rosemary Harris adds nicely to the tender side of the film as Aunt May, and Molina's Octavius matches the hero step for step in terms of a con flicted psyche. Maguire proves he is still the right man for this job, even though he reportedly almost lost the gig to Jake Gyllenhaal ("The Day After Tomorrow") for this second film. We get more of an opportunity to actu ally see Maguire in the Spider-Man uniform (no fair telling how), which makes the computer-generated hero of the original film seem more human. 1 also appreciated Dunst’s Mary Jane refusing to simply be a damsel in distress. Dunst gives her character a genuine emotional center, which elic its similar results out of Maguire. It's a good match. Director Sam Raimi, who also helmed the original, has turned all as pects of this franchise up several notches. By the end of "Spider-Man 2," he has readied the franchise for the third film, perhaps dangerously treading on a trap of predictability. It also begs the question, could any future "Spider-Man" movie im prove on "2"? It's hard to imagine. GUITAR continued from page 9 reader what internally and superficial ly happened to the guitar, but the rea soning behind each venture. The al most year-to-year coverage of Strat changes is as in-depth as the photo that depicts what the guitar looks like completely disassembled. Some information in these pages is probably mundane for the aspiring musician but tantalizing for the Strat collector, or unbelievable for the mu sic historian but common knowledge for the rock 'n' roll fan. The point that becomes vividly clear in "The Strato caster Chronicles" is that there is something within the detail that will intrigue every reader. Besides attention to details — such as why the logo location on the Strat changed in 1985 — Wheeler does well to feature the guitar's influ ence on American culture. This gui tar is as popular as the hot rods of the 1960s and the Playboy bunnies of the 1980s. Most of what influenced the cul tural impact of the Strat was the mu sicians who picked, bent, or slide pressed the strings. Similar to the interviews from the guitar's creators, there are numerous stories from mu sicians that tell how they obtained their first Strat, or even when they first heard Hendrix play a Strat. There is also intriguing information about debut performances using Strats and, probably most fascinat ing, tracking the influence of the Strat through evolving genres of mu sic. The Strat alone is a crafted elec tric guitar, but Wheeler tells us of the musicians who took it with them to THE STRATOCASTER CHRONICLES CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE FENDER STRAT **V / BY TOM WHEELER FOREWORD BY ERIC CLAPTON Courtesy The latest book by School of Journalism Associate Professor Tom Wheeler, ‘The Stratocaster Chronicles,’ celebrates the 50th anniversary of Leo Fender’s famous electric guitar. Wheeler teaches magazine journalism courses and is a former editor of Guitar Player Magazine. Sunday church, "Lawrence Welk" and numerous music festivals. "The Stratocaster Chronicles" is probably exactly what the people at Fender were looking for in an an niversary collectible book. There is even a foreword from Eric Clapton and a CD including interviews and Strat sounds. Wheeler attacks his newest guitar book with the same precision and work ethic that created the legacy of the Strat in the first place. Wheeler's chronicle is at worst an interesting coffee table book, but flirts with the idea of being a treas ured encyclopedia of the Fender Stra tocaster guitar. "The Stratocaster Chronicles" is available at the University Bookstore for $50. Toshio Suzuki is a freelance reporter for the Emerald. Your place for NEWS classifieds a 5 reader polls www.dailyemerald.com
