The Towerlight, October 12, 1995

tl19951012_028 "U NOW PLAYING Kevin A. Perkins The Towerlight Mathematicians will tell you that there is a beauty in an equa-tion, and the more an equation explains in its very simplicity, the more beautiful it is. If Strange Days were reduced to an equa-tion, it would fill a book. All of which is not to say it doesn't work; in it's own way, it does. Produced and written by James Cameron � but directed by Kathryn Bigelow � it has the Cameron stamp all over it. Coming in at nearly two and a half hours long, he throws every-thing into this film but the kitchen sink. Futuristic technolo-gy, race relations, the coming of a new millennium, drug abuse, grisly murder mysteries, and if that wasn't enough, the L.A. Police force. Ralph Fiennes plays Lenny Nero, an ex-cop turned street hus-tler who sells the drug of the future. ""The Wire"", as it's called, allows anyone to experience any-one else's life experiences first-hand. Anything that can be remembered can be recorded and sold as ""playback"" � sex, vio-lence, love, the whole range of .ernotions and sensations. Nero, unfortunately, is becoming in Strange Days addicted to his own memories and spends his free time remem-bering the one that got away. Angela Bassett is Mace, a security agent and driver for an armored limo company, and one of Nero's few friends. Nero's only other friend, Max (Tom Sizemore), is also an ex-cop, and currently a bodyguard of sorts. In ,the days preceding the biggest party of the century -- New Year's Eve, 1999 � Nero stumbles onto a ""playback"" clip that everyone seems ready to die for. In the tangle of conspiracy that follows, he discovers that his ex-girlfriend, Faith (Juliette Lewis) is somehow involved. Faith is an up-and-coming singer, and knows more that she's telling. It's too much. A militant rap star is murdered, things all over are falling apart at the seams, and yet with all of this, director Bigelow (who also did the atmos-pheric vampire flick Near Dark) takes way too long to get the ball rolling. The brutal murders of those who know what's on the ""playback"" disc � remembered in full-intensity by the person under the knife � would have been interesting (and unsettling enough) alone to carry the film. But so much is introduced and IN FINE ARTS Angela Basset and Ralph Fiennes star in Strange Days. then left to sit on the back burner, that nothing is explored in the depth it could, or should have been. Perhaps if Cameron had directed the film himself, he could have pulled it off. His films are generally masterpieces of pac-ing, even when some of them come in well over two hours. The only other real problem with Strange Days, is the ending - . although it wraps up tightly, it just kind of falls ""thud"" at your feet. Things tie up too neatly � and arepot entirely believably. The glaring sore thumb of the Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox film is Lewis. Stand as a group, America, and say ""No!"" to her. Has she ever acted like she wasn't bored with what she was doing? It was cute in Cape Fear, but now it's getting annoying. Everyone else acquits themselves well here, but don't look for any Oscar nom-inations. Despite being overly-long (and plodding in places) Strange Days is a flashy, smart sci-fi flick. There's a party at the end of the world, and everyone's invited. Only too many people want to tell their story all at once. TORU AWdrd-WiRRirlg dilIMRLIS John glover visits TSU th.eintre department Wendy S. Waldsachs The Towerlight How often do theatre students get to work one-on-one with a famous actor who just happened to haunt the same halls as they do? Not very often. However, this week, Towson State theatre majors have enjoyed quite a treat. Tony Award-win-ning actor and TSU alumnus John Glover (Love! Valour! Compassion!) has been teaching classes and coaching students, thanks to Marvene Loeschke, theater chair and Glover's former classmate. He will receive an honorary doc-torate from the university on Sunday in a ceremony which will take place in the Towson Center ati p.m. Glover is no stranger to the stage; his Broadway credits include the role of Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest, as Well as parts in Frankenstein and I'Vho Dunit? Glover has starred in such films as Scrooged and Robo cop 2. He has been called one of Glover and TInney pause for a photo opportunity. stage, film and television's most versatile actors. Glover was raised in Salisbury (on the Eastern Shore), and was the first to graduate from the TSU theatre program in 1967. He made his New York stage debut in A Scent of Flowers with Katherine Houghton. Afterward, he joined the New Phoenix Repertory Company, and made his Broadway debut in their produc- Dan Richter/TSU Photo Services tion of The Great God Brown. Since then, Glover has made his way up the proverbial ladder to win the hearts of NY critics, as well as the 1995 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Drama for his perfor-mance in Terrrance McNally's play Love! Valour! Compassion! In the play, Glover gives a superb Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde perfor-mance in the roles of brothers John and James. With all of these successes under his belt, why does he con-tinue to return to his alma mater? ""It's rewarding for me because it lets me get back to the roots of what I am and what my goals are ... why I do what I do,"" Glover said. Other theatre alumni also return to the university from time to time. Charles ""Roc"" Dutton (Roc ), Dwight Schultz (The A-Team, Star Trek � The Next Generation) and Howard Rollins (Ragtime) have also paid visits to the university in the past. John Glover � teach? ""It start-ed when Mar asked me to come back and teach something at the school. The thought of teaching terri-fied me,"" he explained. The actor decided to lecture about some-thing in which he was familiar. In the past, he has visited the uni-versity and worked with students on auditions. ""I decided that I would like to come back and do that again,"" Glover said. See GLOVER, page 31 00E53 WHAT*? Kevin A. Perkins The Towerlight Our generation hears a lot about the good old days. ""In the good old days,"" our elders are known to say, ""things were different. Things were bet-ter."", And you nod your head, maybe in agreement, maybe just to get the hell out of the conversa-tion. If you are unlucky, or dumb enough to actually show interest, you'll also get to hear a story about walking uphill just to get to . school, both ways. The cinema is no exception to nostalgic scrutiny. ""They really knew how to make 'em back then,"" my grandpa would say. ""Those were movies. No foul lan-guage, no nekked teenagers being chased by guys with chainsaws, and no cars blowing up every time you look."" Of course, Grandpa never misses an episode of Hee Haw either. Were the good old days really so good? If quality over quantity is a measure of worth, things weren't so great. In 1921, the United States produced 854 fea-ture films. (A feature film is defined by the Cinematheque Francaise as a commercially made film over one hour long.) That set a record. In 1992, we made 261. It's hard to believe that all, or even a major portion of those 854 films were so good. There had to be a '20s version of Pauly Shore back then. But don't blame Hollywood alone for putting out excrement by the shovel-load. f people keeping their clothes on makes for a really good film, our great-grandparents could get an eyeful of bad films not long after Edison found out how fun persistence of vision could be. The French put out A l'Ecu d'Or on la bonne auberge in 1908, the world's first porno-graphic film. So from conception (no pun intended) to porno, it only took filmmakers a couple of years to figure out what people really wanted to see in a feature film. Paul Verhoven is a piker compared to the Germans, who around 1910 released Am Abend, a 10-minute quickie in which a.man and a woman manage to find the time to perform acts that would make Madonna wince. Boy, those must have been the ""really good old days."" Maybe things are getting worse, maybe not. Time tends to make us all wear rose-colored glasses when looking back at our forma-tive years. Maybe someday I'll say to my kids after they come home from Friday the 13th Part 15, ""Ha! You call that a film! Now Basic Instinct, that was film-making!"" The Towerlight October 12,1995 29 "