The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 10, 2006 Page: 10 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER
ARTS ft ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY. MARCH 10,2006
MONKEYS
Front page 9
barely 20; his smoky, Cockney singing voice does not
quite seem to match his lanky frame.
Turner's voice does mesh perfectly with the band's
youthful swagger. The Arctic Monkeys' sound is character-
ized by the jangle of distorted guitars and a precise rhythm
section. On "I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor,"
Turner croons something about "dirty dance floors and
dreams of naughtiness" over a thumping guitar melody
and falling bass line.
The best song by far is "When the Sun Goes Down," the
story of a scummy man with a "driving ban among some
other offenses." The song attempts social commentary,
but it ultimately succeeds because of a catchy hook and a
dancy guitar riff.
On "Riot Van," the band slows down the pace and turns
up the emotional intensity. Turner rasps a story about
being asked by a police officer, "Have you been drinking
son/you don't look old enough to me," to which he replies,
"I'm sorry, officer, is there a certain age you're supposed
to be?" The song is good evidence of the band's potential
and versatility, but the rest of the album blends together in
a blur of hi-hats and distorted eighth-note chords.
All the fancy playing in the world cannot make up for
uninspired songwriting and the stoic refusal to deviate from
a formula. The Arctic Monkeys are a very good version of
The Smiths for a 21st-century audience, but they do not
break any ground.
Thematically, Whatever People Say / Am sticks mostly
to vignettes of British teenage life, rough streets and rainy
drunken nights. As the band matures, it will find the right
lyrics for the right songs, but it is too early to say whether
the Arctic Monkeys will be able to rise above the hype and
turn sudden success into an actual career.
TSOTSI
From page 8
Frequent use of flashbacks
allows the viewer to gain insight
into Tsotsi's childhood. Instead,
the audience sees his mother on
his deathbed, her hand reaching
out for her son. This tender moment
is shattered by gunfire as Tsotsi's
father shoots the family dog to stop
it from barking.
The film focuses on Tsotsi's
life, so its success relies on
Chweneyagae's acting — luckily,
he delivers magnificently. With
repeated close-ups, the audience
sees every mixed emotion and
surprised reaction to scenes involv-
ing the baby.
I'Mill Tl( l\ riSK
Because the actors' facial expres-
sions convey a universal language,
there is little dialogue in the film.
Suspense builds quietly but effec-
tively. When a homeless man in a
wheelchair angersTsotsi.hequietly
follows the handicapped man from
the subway station to a deserted
area under a dimly lit highway. The
audience is forced to wait patiently
for Tsotsi's inevitable attack.
Despite the flashbacks and iso-
lated scenes of suspense, the film
flows smoothly. Even the goriest
of the film's pieces of social com-
mentary have a rhythmic sense of
cinematography.
Since Tsotsi strives to be realistic,
the movie is often blatantly violent.
Compared to U.S. films, the violence
in this movie appears quick and dis-
jointed. Hood's documentary-style
depiction of violence portrays an
unconscious acceptance of it. When
Tsotsi fires at the baby's mother, the
camera focuses less on the gun and
more on the woman's reaction.
But the blood does not over-
whelm the movie's great acting or
undercut its complicated situations.
Rather, the distinction between
right and wrong blurs until the
viewer wholly identifies with the
main character.
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The fields of entertainment, business and electronic media have converged It is
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ST. EDWARD'S
UNIVERSITY
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Petty, puerile portrayal
punctures Panther persona
COURTESY COLUMBIA TRISTAR ENTERTAINMENT
Steve Martin makes a mockery of Inspector Jacques
Clouseau in director Shawn Levy's remake of The
Pink Panther.
New ideas are rare in today's
Hollywood. It is cheaper to
update an already proven script
than to try to rely on creativity.
With a couple of fa-
mous actors, a large
enough budget and
a dash of bad taste,
a remake can be a
profitable, if forget-
table, blockbuster. So
this year's Ihe Pink
Panther, a bumbling
and juvenile comedy
loosely based on the
1963 film of the same
name, did not sur-
prise many critics; it
was simply more disappointing
than most remakes.
2006's The Pink Panther
stars Steve Martin (Father of the
Bride) as the bumbling Inspec-
tor Jacques Clouseau. Martin
plays Clouseau exactly as Peter
Sellers played the inspector
in the original Pink Panther.
oblivious, unintelligible and
slightly effeminate. It is hard
to blame Martin for a lack of
creativity — Clouseau's char-
acter is too well-established
and idiosyncratic to leave much
wiggle room in the script. But
something is lost in his imitation.
Sellers had the privilege of being
Clouseau first, soi'no surprise
he did it better.
Sellers made
these long
physical jokes
entertaining if
purposeless,
but the remake
has lost most of
the CHARM.
The big joke of The Pink
Panthers characterization is
that Clouseau is French, and
so flamboyantly French that it
is funny. Martin exploits this
xenophobic idea up to and past
the limit: Tirelessly repeated
lines such as "I zee" and "zank
you" serve to establish Clouse-
au's Frenchness, and the joke
quickly wears thin.
The movie also makes light
of Europe's penchant for small
and efficient cars — Clouseau
tools around in a microscopic
Smart Car to a techno remix of
the instantly recognizable Pink
Panther theme song. Somehow
the classic saxophone line does
not have the same charm when
layered over a drum machine.
Most of the movie takes place
in Paris. Director Shawn Levy
(Cheaper By the Dozen) creates
a city where Tour-de-France-
style bicycle races are going on
at all times and people actually
wear berets. It is important to
remember that lampooning
everything French has always
been a part of Hie Pink Panther
franchise. But in the 1960s, the
social satire had more relevance
— or at least a little more bite.
France has changed, yet the
producers of this year's Pink
Panther remake did not bother
to update their stereotypes.
levy's Pink Panther is not
satisfied with ridiculing indi-
vidual societies. A large amount
of the movie's slapstick centers
on crude sexual humor: It is too
unsophisticated for adults and
too risque for children.
Sexual harassment and ho-
mophobia are fair game for the
remake's highly sensitive and
creative director. In one scene,
Clouseau slaps his secretary's
derriere, and in another, Clou-
seau and Ponton dance to pop
music iii skin-tight
bodysuits, allowing
the audience to see
the actors' packages.
And the new Pink
Panther has even
less politically cor-
rect moments. At
one point, Clouseau
asks a suspicious
casino owner to take
a look at his "big
brass bowls." The
casino owner starts
to remove his pants, but it is
revealed that Clouseau meant
to ask for his bowls and not balls
— my congratulations to the
writers for successfully integrat-
ing both adolescent sex humor
and France-bashing.
In another scene, Clouseau
makes an advance toward inter-
national pop star Xania. Xania is
played by, well, international jx>p
star Beyonce Knowles. Her oth-
erwise irrelevant presence in the
movie is best justified by Clou-
seau himself, who comments,
"Can't you see she's sexy?"
Clouseau is in the "mood
for love" when Xania enters the
picture, but in a valiant effort to
offend every potential viewer in
the audience, the film's writers
throw in another unfunny twist:
He loses his Viagra down the
drain. Of course, an awkward
disaster ensues — viewers
can picture the writers being
ordered to turn up the uncom-
fortable physical comedy in an
effort to compensate for the lack
of original content. In the 1963
film, Sellers made these long
physical jokes entertaining it
purposeless, but the remake has
lost most of the charm.
The pink panther cartoon
character — which first ap-
peared in the opening credits
of the 1963 film and is one of
the most recognizable ele-
ments of the Pink Panther
franchise — makes a cameo
in the remake. However, like
everything else, the cartoon
has been "updated" to its detri-
ment. A thick-outlined modern
art style and the persistent
recurrence of the techno-
remixed Pink Panther theme
song suck the appeal out of this
empty animated throwback.
The movie's
slapstick
centers on
crude, sexual
humor: It is too
unsophisticated
for adults and
too RISQUE
for children.
I jevy's Ihe Pink Panther\stri\e
and painful, an exercise in all that
is wrong with remakes. It is both
uncreative and offensive to good
tastes; its target demographic
appears to be 12-year-old boys
with little resjxTt for European
culture. Save the money or buy
a bottle of whiskey: A good stiff
drink will be necessary anyway
after 90 minutes of Martin's awk-
ward mimicry of Sellers.
Bryce Gray is a Jones College
sophomore and assistant arts and
entertainment editor.
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Obermeyer, Amber. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 10, 2006, newspaper, March 10, 2006; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443086/m1/10/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.