12 | Over The Edge October 2, 1996

oe ee ee Movie Review: Last Man Standing

Starring: Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken Written and Directed by Walter Hill

reviewed by Vince Yim

Rated Restricted for mucho violence, some swearing, and suggestive scenes.

Based on the original story by Akira Kurasawa about a lone Samurai in feudal Japan, Last Man Standing is a story about mercenary for hire John Smith in Prohibition Era, in the small town of Jerhico, (the same time period as The Untouchables, for all you trivia buffs out there). The end result is a violent John Woo-esque visual assault that appears combines the elements of

Hard Boiled, The Untouchables, and Resevoir Dogs.

If you like action films with guns blaring and bodies

flying, this film is for you.

Although it does tend to slow down at some points in the film, the action sequences

SoundCheck by Lauren Bacon

_ The Mike Flowers Pops A Groovy Place London Records

Do you sing along with Muzak in the grocery store? Are you happy that polyester is making a comeback? Suffice it to say that if you secretly like cheese, you'll get a kick out of this. Hard- core lounge fans (if you can picture that) seem to classify Flowers as a poser, but | think his ironic wit is MARVY!

This is mostly composed of cover tunes, including Oasis’ . Wonderwall, The Doors’

were wonderfully choreographed. The John Woo (dir: Hard Boiled, Broken Arrow) influence seems very prominent, as John Smith uses two semi- automatic pistols to kill the bad guys and doesn’t seem to reload all that often (in the opening sequence of Hard Boiled, the main character, Tequila, uses two automatic pistols to blast away at villains, never gets shot, and never has to reload). On top of that, it has a body count at par with Hard Boiled (I lost count with both of them) that you would need a clicker to keep track of.

If you like a weil done story with an in-depth narrative and fresh and original characters...you might wish to look elsewhere. I can say that I don’t go to see a film like this for the plot, because attempts to put a plot into an

Light My Fire and Prince’s 1999 (the latter is particularly entertaining - Flowers inserts a tr_s witty spoken interlude), but there are a couple of original tracks as well. I normally run far, far away from cover tunes, but in this case they’re so unrecognizable that I liked them. Bj+rk’s Venus As A Boy never sounded so good. I urge any of you with closet lounge sensibilities to grab a pitcher of martinis and pop with the pops.

Me’Shell Ndeg_ocello Peace Beyond Passion

Rating: 8/10.

action film tend to be fruitless. As much as the plot exists within the film, it tends to be rather cliched (many eléments* =are*~ ‘better downplayed elsewhere) and many of the characters are two-dimensional. Bruce Willis’ John Smith tends to be more of a knock-off of a Clint Eastwood/Charles Bronson portrayed merciless killer with a heart of gold (the character reminded me of a cross between Mr. Blonde from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and the main character in the Death Wish movies). As much as I like Bruce Willis as an actor (I was blown away by the Die Hard trilogy and really liked his loser like character in Death Becomes Her), the character could’ve been filled by just about anybody

(although he does do a good -

job here).

Maverick/Reprise

Me’Shell’s second album has the same fabulous groove as her first. This woman has lyrics to make you sit up and take notice, but by far her most appealing quality is the “old soul record” music that sets the tone. The girl plays bass, and she plays it strong. As before, Ndeg_ocello gives listeners a fairly mellow set of tunes; this album is full of slow, sexy nighttime songs. Her voice is low and soft - she might just be the female equivalent of Barry White... But none of

Some of the supporting cast members were well executed, if a tad cliched and stereotyped. They helped provide a bit more of a human element to the film, as well as some comic relief from all of the guns blaring and faces being smashed in. These would include John Smith’s sidekick (the motel owner), the Sheriff, the prostitute, and the undertaker (who likes John Smith for the business that he is providing to him).

On the whole, this is an entertaining movie, although it seems that not a lot of people thought so (critics and fans alike). I liked this film a lot, mostly due to the beautifully (I don’t know if that word is appropriate, though) choreographed action sequences and the comic effect. However, I can see where some people wouldn’t like the film.

this is anything one could qualify as easy listening. She sings about religion, racism, and homophobia, as well as the love songs she does so well.

The refreshing thing is that her politics don’t interfere with her music. She could teach the Bruce Cockburns of this world a lesson: if you want people to listen to what you have to say, put a great bass lick behind it.

underworld

second toughest in the infants

Junior Boy’s Own/BMG

Aside from being the album for which “Born Slippy” was taken ffor_ the Trainspotting soundtrack, here are other things to recommend second toughest... In fact the whole album is excellent.

nderworld used to be this (by all accounts) really crappy band in the ’80s; then hey hired a DJ and started doing techno. What has resulted is an interesting combination of an amazing DJ and a singer who comes up with entreating lyrics like, “outside your window bootleg babies call to you and lie among the mosquitoes.” (There’s another guy in the band, but I have no idea what he does.

Second toughest... is a great techno album. Any one who still things that electronic music means 2 Unlimited should buy Underworld and expand their mind. This stuff is multilayered, hypnotic, rhythmically complex and well, yeah...If you must, go ahead and dance to it.

there are other things to