Clackamas Print
Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007
Art^Entertainment J
Ghost Rider, Texas Ranger
David Stark
The Clackamas Print
News briefs:
Nintendo, BBC
nndAmazon.com
This week, in the inter-
st of getting the D-Pad staff
back to its roots, I thought I’d
look at what’s going on in the
jews surrounding the gaming
world.
First, in what’s probably
lie funniest news bit I’ve read
ha while, it turns out that the
|®C World News has fig
ured out an even easier way
if getting their hands on the
tssociated Press news wire,
luser over at the Gameworld
Network site sent them a
photo of a BBC broadcast
A the Nintendo Wii news
.fennel open on a TV in the
tackground. That’s right: the
SBC. one of the largest news
outlets on the planet, is gett
ing their news from their
Nintendo, I can’t wait until
fey do a news piece on how
you can use the Wii’s Web
browser to Google pom in
your living room.
In other news (I’ve always
ranted to say that), Sony con-
taes to be a bigger laughing
stock of the gaming com
munity than Paul Anderson
-that British director who
ceps screwing up video
same movies - and their lat-
st sales numbers at Amazon
ave proven that horsepower
leans nothing.
As it turns out, the Super
iintendo — the very same
.(¡-bit console from last
fcade - is ranked number
18 on Amazon’s recent top
IOO best-selling video game-
elated items list, where the
S3 is ringing in at number
3. Sony isn’t die only one
siting slapped by consum
ís, though, as the original
ray Nintendo 64 controller
¡outselling Microsoft’s HD-
)VD drive for the 360, but
«barely.
Finally, the folks over at
Same Informer (GI) are insist-
ig that they have a price and
native date for the rumored
lack, HDMI-capable X-box
(0 with a bigger hard drive,
s supposed price will be
ght around $479, and it’s
ipposed to be out by May
but GI won’t reveal their
tunees, which is making a
w people - including me
just a bit skeptical. May is
uly a couple months away,
>1 guess we’ll find out if I’m
áng to be cancelling my GI
Ascription soon enough.
Now, a quick announce-
ent: The D-Pad staff has
egun to grow again, and
ens are.in the works to get
n still-bom site finally up
k running. We should be
tie to launch in a couple
onths, but for now, I’m
dung for content ideas, and
Hove some feedback on
hat kind of stuff we should
!d to the site such as a forum,
mies, podcasts, news blog,
t.Any ideas from our three
aders would be great
Nicholas Cage sold his soul
to the devil for an entertaining
movie.
That’s what happens in the
movie adaptation of Marvel
Comics’ Ghost Rider.
When Texas stunt-rider Johnny
Blaze (Cage) finds out that his
father has come down with cancer,
he’s willing to do anything to help
him. That’s when Mephistopheles
(Peter Fonda) finds him and makes
a deal; Johnny’s dad will be cured,
and Johnny will become the devil’s
“rider” sometime in the future.
Old Scratch calls in the favor
when he needs to recover a contract
worth a thousand sinners’ souls.
The latter half of the movie sees a
reunion with Blaze’s old girlfriend
(Eva Mendes), a grave-keeping
mentor (Sam Elliott) and a series
of fights with Mephistopheles’
rebellious son, Blackheart (Wes
Bentley), who is also after the
contract.
Cage does a good, and more
than often over-the-top, job as
the morally-confused Blaze, and
Mendes does an adequate job as
Roxanne Simpson
— but Peter Fonda’s
performance
is
wicked and won
derful. But unfor
tunately, Bentley’s
performance is con
fusing as hell; half
the time I didn’t
know whether he
was supposed to be
scary or funny.
The script is,
well, better than
most
superhero
movies. The lines
and actors never
break
character
and are done well,
excepting the afore
mentioned Bentley
Internet Photo
problem.
Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) rides with his predecessor, dubbed the Western
What sets the
Ghost Rider (Sam Elliott), in the latest Marvel comic film Ghost Rider.
film apart from
other films featur
But sadly, the film doesn’t quite Hero with a flaming skull, vil
ing gothic heroes
are the remarkable visual effects. measure up. It seemed confused lainous son of Satan; what part of
The effects when Cage first trans about whether or not it was going that equation doesn’t equal horror
film?
forms into Ghost Rider are partic to be an action or a horror film.
However, my biggest question
In the end, it decided to be
ularly impressive; the flesh burn
ing off of his skull is perhaps the an action flick, but not a very about the movie is: Why would a
best done of the movie - although good one. And honestly, using the would-have-been excellent sum
the motorcycle deserves no small source material, Ghost Rider covid mer action flick come out two
have been an excellent horror film.
days after Valentine’s Day?
mention, either.
‘The Italian’ captures audience, opens eyes
Ott Tammik
The Clackamas Print
‘Italian ’raises eye
brows at the Portland
International Film Fest
Past the glorious streets of Tsarist
St Petersburg, and past still the crum
bling, gray cinderblock of Sovietproj
ects, is a place unknown to outsiders.
This land seems to lose itself from
the world’s eye into the swallowing
countryside fog.
“This is real Russia,” said the
Italian.
In a place of broken lives and
bleak futures, Director Andrei
Kravchuk’s The Italian explores how
bedtime stories and candy still find
a place in the harsh reality of a post-
Soviet orphanage. Kravchuk touches
the viewer without ever selling out
the film’s integrity, but unfortunately,
tiie plot is not nearly as intriguing as
the initial setting.
The movie’s strengths lie in the
portrayal of northern Russia’s austere
climate, and a fascinating hierarchy
of rich personalities. Set in a run
down building, headed by an inept
alcoholic, the impoverished orphan
age collaborates with the control
ling Madam (Maria Kuznetsova),
who traffics the children to Western
European families.
Vanya (Kolya Spiridonov) is a
cute, but often deceptive, six-year-
old who finds himself the envy of
the orphanage when he is chosen
to be adopted by an Italian couple.
However, when Vanya meets the
devastated mother of another recent
adoptee, he becomes obsessed with
his lost mother and runs away to
find her.
The children grow up around
the uncensored realities of alcohol,
theft and prostitution. Their fetes are
reflected by the older orphans, who
live a defeatist lifestyle in the mysteri
ous boiler room.
Kravchuk casts a darker tone on
the everyday life of the orphanage.
As an older girl reads Winnie the
Pooh to the children before bedtime,
one orphan whispers to another,
“There are good foreigners and bad
foreigners. The bad ones take kids
for parts.”
Although The Italian is themati
cally intense, the whole movie has
a subtle quality to it, and the director
gives us a sense of hope between the
contrasting nature of childhood inno
cence and the premature exposure to
the dark realities of life. In a struggle
for survival, the relationships and
motives blur the lines between good
and evil in a vaguely romanticized
but otherwise realist view.
The Italian is never spoiled for
cheap audience approval, but the plot
gets carried away. Vanya’s quest to
find his mother becomes a surfeited
chase, which adds little to the story.
The director takes the easy way out,
seeing too much necessity in creating
a grandiose plot There is an excess of
Home Alone-$y\e tricks, and by the
end of the movie, the viewer wonders
if The Kid’s Bruce Willis is going to
pop up from around the next comer.
Nevertheless, The Italian is an
eye-opening movie, and I would not
be surprised if it joins the classics of
Russian film.
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Internet Photo
A scene from Andrei Kravchuk’s The Italian, which was shown
at the Portland International Film Festival earlier this month.
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