Page 6 Arts & Life The Clarion — April 14,2006 ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, but you won’t after watching it by Matt Rutherford Arts & Life Editor The Hills Have Eyes Directed by Wes Craven (Universal, 2005) ★ ★ For those of you who don’t know, the current The Hills Have Eyes movie is a remaice of the 1977 Wes Craven film, with the same title of course. This tongue-in-cheek horror flick is one of the most predict able films I’ve seen in a while. Not because I had already seen the original, but because this movie borrows heavily from the plot of 2003’s Wrong Turn. You are introduced to a rather large family. You know the one with the overbearing mother, testosterone maddened father, bitchy Hilton sister, and Paxil addicted son. This is obviously done so that you feel loss when these stereotypes are cornered and killed with makeup’s finest monstrosities. Along the way, the family stops at a rather sketchy gas station and receives directions from an even sketchier gas station attendant. Just like in Wrong Turn. Of course, the family takes the suggested shortcut and gets stranded by the traps of the local hill mutants. In Wrong Turn the same occurs, how ever, it just hap pens to be in West Virginia’s national forests, as where in the current The Hills Have Eyes takes place in the desert of New Mexico. Something slightly more inter esting about this film is that it is laden with the theme of, “Watch out, your government is mak ing atomic mon sters and blowing things up out west without you know ing it.” I’m pretty sure that most people in the United States are aware that we have blown up the desert many a time, and the ef fects of the radiation can cause great disfigurement, cancer, and more than likely, death. But that’s why we have that lovely televi sion show The Swan, right? This is also the biggest change from Craven’s original film. In the 2006 version, the monsters are the result of the nuclear testing around towns. These mutants apparently had to breed in order to survive, since the nuclear testing in New Mexico took place July 16,1945, How’s that for your thought of the day? However, in Craven’s film the monsters were just inbred families feuding in the desert and an innocent, yet annoying, family just happens to get caught in the middle of it all. The only minute saving grace of this film was that the gore and special effects were topnotch. There were enough random scares to make me jump a few times, and that’s honestly all I ask from a horror movie. However, in terms of innovative plots and character develop ment this movie is a total flop. So do not waster your hard earned work study checks on this one. Wait until your buddy who works at Flick or Block buster can get you a discount on the rental. Matt's Take Pop culture lacking in originality by Matt Rutherford create is to borrow from prior cre ations; however, that doesn’t mean that you have to take an Arts & Life Editor Are you feeling as though you’ve seen it all? Been going in circles? Or maybe you’re just one of those complacent people who doesn’t even know its morning. Well, if you are anything like me, then you’ve noticed that the media is constantly regurgitat ing various genres: everything from rap music to film. Leave it alone, I say. Remakes seem to be the hot ticket for film as of late. King Kong is a remake of a remake, which is a tad ridiculous. Where have all the interest ing ideas gone? I realize that to idea that's been done and done well, and reform it again. At least let the original take its place in the greater history of the said genre before splicing it into something horrific. Not that Peter Jackson did this. I actually thoroughly en joyed his version of King Kong. It’s simply the fact that the core idea was nothing new. Within music, there are countless “artists” who think by sampling another artists’ work they have some type of vintage edge that will push them to the top. Sadly enough, it does be cause it gives us that sense of familiarity. I, on the other hand, remain unimpressed. Sampling consists of digi tally recording acoustic, synthe sized, or previously recorded sounds for the purpose of elec tronically manipulating them (e.g., changing pitch, changing timbre, looping them, etc.); some times in rap and pop music en tire musical phrases from old al bums are often implemented and then synthesized as the basis for new recordings. Kanye West is a prime ex ample of those “artists” who sample. In his recent song “Dia monds (From Sierra Leon),” West samples from Shirley Bassey’s hit “Diamonds are For ever” from the old James Bona films. I’m not saying that sam pling is an atrocity, what I am try ing to convey is that originality is becoming harder to achieve. Those artists who aren’t bank ing on there own sounds, ideas, and words are the ones who will be the tastes of the month. Originality is something that is difficult to come by, but I think it would be a wonderful thing if people could recognize what is truly new and what is a definite imitation.

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