The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 17, 1997 Page: 10 of 16
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EDITORS'
PICKS
Tonight
Bod Margolin
Alligator recording artist
Bob Margolin will bring his
Dlyes to Houston for q^iive
performance at Billy Blues
Club on Richmond.
Margolin recently earned a
1995 W.C Handy Award
nomination for Best Blues
Guitar Instrumentalist.
He has played with virtually
every blues legend and many
of rock 'n' roll's biggest stars.
Last summer he toured with
B.B. King, Dr. John and Little
Feat.
"If your psyche twitches at
the sensual power of Muddy
Waters, you'll dig Bob
Margolin. Bob imparts a cool,
timeless feel. With a superbly
primitive tone and a rough
and-tumble guitar .style,
Mangolln makes his blues
as potent and exciting as the
roots he draws on."
— Guitar Player
Tonight at 9:30 p.m.
Billy Blues
6025 Richmond Ave.
783 0500
$ 7.
SATURDAY
Bl
Shepherd School
Symphony
orchestra
Tomorrow night I he
Shepherd School Symphony
Orchestra, with Larry Rachleff
conducting, will perform
"Symphonic Metamorphosis
on Themes by Weber" by
Hindemith and Symphony No.
3 in E flat Major (Erotca)" by
Beethoven
The concerts at othe
Shepherd School are of
excellent, quality. But the best
part is that it's free.
Tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Stude Concert Hail
Rice University
free
A is/ V,U /..//
For those of you living under a
rock furtive past two months during
tlie media blitz, the movie musical
Evita has finally debuted
Evita
Rating: * * 1/2
(oif? of mi)
Currently in theaters.
While the overall experience is
overwhelming, the musical was
much less striking than all the fan-
fere suggests.
You, jjave probably heard the
dance re-mix of "Don't Cry lot Me,
Argentina" on the radio, and I hope
that this absurdity has not turned
you oft to the score As is usual, the
music of Andrew l.loyd Webber
stands.otiI a* simply fantastic. Un
lorUitiately. a few of the songs' lyrics
were less than stellar. This may be
attributed to the director. Alan
Parker, who insisted on using his
own lyrics, coupled with Webber's
newly created music, for several of
the musical numbers in the show.
The.film does not follow the origi
nal operatic script, but was written
entirely anew for this production ---
so if you are expecting a film version
ol the theatrical production, you aro
m for a surprise.
Evita attempts to characterize,
through song, the stormy life of
Maria Eva 1 hiarte de Peron from her
youth as an illegitimate child, barred
from her own father's funeral at age
7, through one of the greatest politi-
co (Antonio Banderas) haunts Eva Peron (Madonna) with the concerns of the common man.
cal careers in history, to an untimely
death at age 33.
While exceptional individual
musical performances by Antonio
Banderas as Che, Madonna as Eva
Peron and Jonathan Pryce as Juan
Perbn offer as much character por-
trayal as possible, their passion fails
to salvage the weak script. Cinema-
tography and relative authenticity
in costuming and casting add to the
film's pros. Nearly all of the non-lead
characters were played by Argen-
tines, and most of the musical was
filmed in Argentina.
Hie innovative inclusion of the
"everyrnan" character played by
Banderas adds to the movie. He pops
up at the most unexpected times,
sometimes narrating, often criticiz-
ing but always adding that special
sign of the times which is necessary
in understanding such a politically
inflamatory age as that in which Eva
Peron lived.
'Hie film falls short of the hyped
up image that the media present. 1
found myself looking at my watch
several times throughout the show.
Character development was shallow,
and Eva Peron's motives were enig-
matic.
For instance,! left the theater not
knowing what she died from or
"whether she was ever sincere in her
actions or shalldwly-d#sired fame.
The film left many roles fuzzy
that could have been clarified
through the expressive medium of
music, but it seems that most of 20th
Century Fox's attentions were di-
verted to advertisings
'Space Jam' not a slam-dunk,
Peter DeBruge
\ VAJ / rUlUl t \ l:thnn
What do you get when you mix
Michael Jordan and five other NBA
superstars with the entire Dioney
Tunes gang and a half-dozen med-
dling aliens? You guessed it — the
big-budget, blockbuster kiddie
movie Space Jam
Space Jam
Rating: **★ 1/2
(our OF five)
Currently in theaters
Anyone who has been orbiting in
Pop Culture hand recently has prob-"
ably already seen the commercials,
posters and merchandise heralding
the arrival of Space Jam's unique
blend of NBA action and cartoon
craziness. But isil really that unique?
We've all seen our fair share of mov
ies combining live action and anima-
tion (from Mary Poppins to Who
Eramed Roger kahbit?), and the simi-
larities are rather obvious, Remem-
ber the soccer, game in Disney's
Hedknobs and Broomsticks?
I have 110 doubt that basketball
and cartoon lovers will go crazy about
Space Jam, but no one can deny that
the movie is really aimed at the wee
ones. Almost all of the jokes have
been recycled from the Looney
Tunes vaults, and thij "new mate
11a!" looks remarkably similar to
scenes from recent Disney movies.
Then again, it is easy to forgive the
-. i • -enwi Hi 1 s because they are less
likely to upset the die-
hard l.oohev Tunes
talis by reusing the
classic jokes.
So whaj does the
movie -have to offer?
Plenty It's most no
t ice,able achievements
,11 ethree dimehsiotiaT
looking cartoon char
actersand impressive
computerized back
grounds. While Jordan tried to
sound convincing in front of a green
screen, animators and computer
graphic specialists were busy trans-
forming the fiat Looney Tune char-
acters into shadow-casting.' round-
bodied cartoons that can compete
with more modern characters like
Buzz Lightyear. When the story
starts to bore you (and believe me, it
willr. you'll find vodrself marveling
at how much cooler Bugs Bunny
looks now than before.
If you grew up watching lx>oney
Tunes, you know the importance of
the characters' voices. I'm still
amazed that.Mel Blanc was able to
do the voices of so many different
characters. Unfortunately for the
makers of Space Jam, Blanc died of
heart disease iif 1989, taking the
voices of the most memorable
Looney Tunes characters with him.
Even though the creators of Space
Jam were able to make the charac-
ters look better, they weren't able to
make them sound better. It took
more than half-a-dozen voices to
perforrirwhat Mel Blanedid by hirre
self, and none could deliver a con-
vincing "What's up, doc?"
It gives the "real"
reason behind
Jordan's decision to
start playing in the
NBA again.
If you are asking yourself why
Jordan would team up with the
Looney Tunes crew to play basket-
ball against a bunch of aliens, you
are probably ignoring the reason
that together Bugs and Michael can
.make box-office gold. When a hand-
ful of pip-squeak alienscomelo Earth
TtTK'tiflhap the .^art&- Uuffl 'ButiHy
challenges them to a game oHias-
ketball. If the l ooney "Tunes win,
they get to stay on Earth. If I hey
lose, they will be carted away to
Moron Mountain, the Nerdlucks' in
tergalactie amusement park where
they will become the newest attrac
tion. The puny Nerdlucks rob five of
the NBA's best players for their bas-
ketball skills (one of the movie's
best scenes shows Charles Barkley,
unable to catch a basketball after the
aliens steal his talent).
"Hie Nerdlucks use the players'
abilities tobecome the Monstars.
hugejjaskejball pros whose foot
jpteps split the ground, What else
could the Looney TuneS do but grab
Jordan from his pathetic life of golf
;tlidba8C'lyaH?,;FtH,yc invtneeMbl wel
that he should forget all that mushy
stuff about his father dying and start
playing basketball again
Like all recent cartoons, Space
Jam introduces another animated
babe in hopes of outdoing Jessica
Rabbit. Unfortunately, lx>la Bunny
is not even a close second. Never-
theless, it is nice to see Bugs Bunny
kissing a female after all those years
of smooching Elmer Fudd.
As a whole, Space Jam puts a new
look on a lot of old jokes but still
manages to come up with enough
original ideas to keep the audience
trappy. Best of all, it gives the/real"
reason behind Jordan's decision to
start playing in the NBA again. Take
your little cousins to see 1|jfe one.
YtHtwimTbeasdisappoinUmwheii
you hear them laughing. Besides,
isn't that the perfect excuse to see it?
You know you want to.
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Beard, M. Margaret & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 17, 1997, newspaper, January 17, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246556/m1/10/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.