A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: July 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be e-mailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Nick Young, photographer; Heather Darrow, special contributor; Luai Bseiso, special contributor.
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Movie Review
By Mark Robinson
Cougar News Editor
In my dedication to providing the most hard-hitting and honest opinions to the readers of Cougar News, I decided to watch the top three blockbusters of the summer and let you know if you should see them.
"Mission:Impossible III"
Ethan Hunt is in love.
For all the foolhardy pessimists that believed that relations between man and woman in the arena of super top secret espionage was impossible, “Mission: Impossible III” has proved you wrong.
Hunt, played by the crazy in love Tom Cruise, is laying low since the second installment of the 1960s TV remake. He’s found love in Julia (Michelle Monaghan) and is engaged despite the fact that he works for the poorly named Impossible Mission Force (IMF) and has to keep it a secret. Trust is the key in any relationship.
Unfortunately, Hunt’s stint as an instructor is cut short when one of his prize pupils is captured, and he’s charged with going in and saving her. Thus begins a two-hour jaunt through masks, shooting and mayhem, and, believe it or not, the good guys win.
However, there are some key talking points:
• “Mission: Impossible III” is significantly better than the second movie and marginally better than the first because of director J.J. Abrams (“Lost” and “ALIAS”). It comes off being less of being a series of explosions and slow motion action scenes than a well-directed film with a little good dialogue.
• Could it not be argued that Tom Cruise was never really acting in any of his movies in which he’s a little nuts like “Top Gun,” “Cocktail,” “The Outsiders” and “Vanilla Sky”? I mean, isn’t it obvious that he was just playing himself?
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman is vastly underused as the villain, Owen Davian. It’s pretty obvious that he is the best actor and playing the most interesting character, yet he gets one good scene, and we learn little about him. There is more screen time of Cruise in a Hoffman body suit.
• The last scene in which Julia seems pretty under control for being held captive by blood-thirsty, money-hungry thugs is pretty ridiculous. Then she turns into Rambo.
So, the verdict? Wait until this movie comes out on video because there are a lot better movies you can spend your money on.
Two out of Five Paws
“The Da Vinci Code”
Fortunately for author Dan Brown, it did not take long for Hollywood to make a screen adaptation of his bestseller, “The Da Vinci Code.”
The man is just going to make gobs of money because of all the free press and the brevity of sales of his books. The film brings his book color, humanizes the characters and cuts out the ruddy B-movie dialogue that plagues the book. Brown could not write himself out of a wet paper bag, but fortunately director Ron Howard, and stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Sir Ian McKellen are really good at their jobs.
“The Da Vinci Code” is mainly a bunch of sitting around. Do not let the trailers fool you, there is not that much action, other than the running away from the police and crazy monks. However, Brown’s story is pretty good. It shakes up history and religion, but I do not think it shakes the foundations of faith. In fact, it might very well reinforce those very ideas so many are primed to fight for.
The acting is really good to superb and this may be Howard’s best directing jobs. It is a quick, harmless and entertaining film – and nowadays that is hard to come by anymore.
Three out of Five Paws
“X-Men III: The Last Stand”
The third, and final, installment of the X-Men movie franchise is extraordinary.
“X-Men III: The Last Stand” has everything. Here are five reasons why this is the best mainstream action film in a long time, and arguably the best comic book-based film ever.
- First, it kills off a couple of characters. Now, this is sad, but this is what happens in the comics. Characters die. Some come back, but in the film the producers and directors had some guts and decided to dispense with some people filling the screen. This is a great idea because it frees up space and time for new, younger and more interesting characters like Kitty Pryde, Juggernaut and Beast.
- At least three main characters lose their mutant abilities. The film is based on the father of Angel who develops a serum to basically mute the mutant gene. Magneto (McKellen, again) and his motley crew decide to ambush the labs making the serum and the X-Men have to stop them. Needless to say, not everybody comes out the way they were.
- The other half of the film revolves around Phoenix, the mutant formerly known as Jean Grey. The second X-Men film had Jean Grey drowning. Well, all fanboys know that Jean Grey has another personality, so to speak, called Phoenix. Because Jean Grey was so stinking powerful as a mutant, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick “Jean-Luc Picard” Stewart) creates mental blocks so she can’t fully tap into her mutant power. Those obstacles are torn down and now Phoenix runs amuck. She can basically just kill people by thinking about it.
- “The Last Stand” is funny. Well acted and written. It has tremendous flow and wonderful visual affects.
- “The Last Stand,” like the other X-Men films, is very telling of our past, present and future. Characters can not rely on their “powers” or “skills.” Ethics and understanding play a huge part in the film. The film mirrors the rage of the civil rights movement in 1960s America or any other situation in which a population’s rights is being infringed on. It may be a comic book, but it has some depth.
Five out of Five Paws
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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