Marcu 22, 2005

SRE

THE CADRE © 18

... Hostage

Continued from page 10 was dirtied up in a white tank top ready to save whoever from whatever. Well, there was no white tank this time, but the film did end up being somewhat similar to many of Willis’ previous flicks. In Hostage, Willis trades in the white tank for a police uniform and assumes the role of chief of police in a small low- crime town. Willis, or Jeff Talley in the film, takes the job of police chief after he had been the cause of a horrific failure during his previous career as head negotiator with the LAPD. While Talley believes himself to be out of the crime-ridden scene of Los Angeles, we the viewer know much better. Three corrupt youth of Talley’s small town signal the next event that will call upon the chief’s old negotiating ways. After having a run in with a rich family ata local restaurant, the three youth follow the family home and break into the estate for a little payback. The plot thickens when a police officer visits a silent alarm set off at the house and gets shot by one of the youth, dying shortly

after in Talley’s arms. Soon we have |

the entire police department headed by Talley at the scene and ready to take control. But then among flashbacks and memories, Talley seems to have second thoughts about the situation and hands it over to state authorities.

OK this is where it gets good folks...well not really but here goes nothing. The owner of the house is an underground banker who sets up off- shore bank accounts for very important rich people, and just so happened to have an account on a CD in the house when it was broken into by the three hooligans. Of course when the owners of the account see the situation unfolding on the local news, they kidnap Talley’s family and force him to reassume control of the negotiation as to ensure the safety of the off-shore account. Now Talley being the hero that he is, can not let another situation go bad, so he takes matters into his own

hands to ensure the safety of the kidnapped family as well as his own. I need not go into any more detail, as I am sure that most of you brilliant readers can assume some sort of accurate outcome. Now the time has come for me to assume my role as the critical review and tell you my own thoughts on this film. Ok there were a number of points during action sequences where I was actually enjoying myself, but Willis did his part to change my mind. With the aid ofa below par script, Willis failed to play the part of a hard ass negotiator that had some sort of emotional family man side, turning the film into another attempt to reach out and appeal to both the men and women of the audience. Don’t get me wrong folks, I think it is great when a film can do this, but Willis made this attempt a failure in my eyes. Nonetheless I give the film 2 out of 5 stars for medium grade action and Willis’ failure to do any justice to an already poor script which was based on a best-selling novel. When will director learn that novels and the predictability of an actor like Willis will not give them a great movie. Probably never. Save a few dollars and rent it if this sounded:atall appealing. Enjoy.

Dinosaurs and Data... Continued from page 13

you know it (evolution) ever happened?”

Ogbom even quoted evolutionist Colin Patterson from the British Museum of Natural History, who stated that no transition fossils exist.

After the presentation, Ogborn said he’s given his creation presentation in about 10 universities now. He normally works with the Navigators, a national Christian outreach group, but was invited to UPEI by biology student Julie Jay after she heard him speak ina mainland university.

Jay, a second-year student, said she believes UPEI should be teaching some creation science, since evolution

isn’t neccessarily right.

“We only get one side of things here,” she said.

Biology professor Pat Doyle said he hasn’t studied creation science, but he said he believes scientific evidence backs up evolutionary theory, though creation science would explain some scientific problems.

He said it probably wouldn’t hurt to teach on creation science at UPEL.

“I’m sure those types of ideas can be expressed, as long as there’s a balance,” he said.

...Be Cool Continued from page 10

for the movie’s credibility, nor for its impact on the viewer. The fact that “Be Cool” came in second at the box office in its first week, raking in close to 26 million bucks, did not make its lack of comedic content any less sickening. The attempt of the movie to indulge in the type of smart comedy we have seen from movies such as Ocean’s 1] and

Snatch, failed terribly and came out

with little more than repetitive stabs at racial minorities and gays. I will admit I laughed, but that was definitely momentary and when I was driving home I found myself coming up blank when trying to recall what it was that I actually found funny.

The movie made an awkward attempt to convey its violence as humorous, andit really did nothing more than confuse me about whether I was to take the scene seriously or not. The sub-plot of the rising music star was way out of context for this film, and made for clumsy scene transitions that required more attention than the film deserved. I give Be Cool 2 out of 5 stars, for

making me laugh, but for not coming

anywhere close to delivering the performance that it had the potential to. Save a few dollars and wait for it on video...enjoy.

Island Research... Continued from page 15

explain prosperity in small islands. Ithas been very gratifying working with the researchers who are working very hard to gather this mountain of data. As a group, we

presented our work to student organizations on campus at the end of January, which was great fun. The project will continue on for another two years.”

“This project comes at just the right time. It is providing the Master of Arts students with an opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research on islands and governance. Not to mention the chance to earn some income”, comments Dr. Baldacchino. “The event also tested the students’ ability to translate their written databases into a lively oral presentation, for their own

benefit and that of the audience.”

Teaser:

How many small sub-national island jurisdictions from around the world today can you name? Nine are already mentioned in this article.

Send your guess by e-mail to Dr Baldacchino © at ghaldacchino@upei.ca (Just one guess per person please.) The closest correct guess will receive a copy of a special collection of ‘Island Studies’ papers published in the Journal of Economic and Social Geography in 2004. Closing date: Friday April Ist.

All UPEI registered students, staff and faculty can participate. (MAISers involved in the project of course cannot participate!)