The Clarion | November 7, 2008
Arts & Life -
BJ's top and bottom ten scare-fests
by BJ Wanlund
Movie Fiend
Toy 10:
10. Psycho, which is Hitchcock’s very
best. If you only watch the shower scene,
you will be scarred for life, because that
is such a scary scene!
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim
Burton’s masterpiece for Disney. There’s
also a new DVD, so go ahead and see it!
8. Hocus Pocus. Who doesn’t like Bette
Midler? Oh, and the song “Almost
Unreal” by Roxette was intended for this
movie, but it was paired with the utter
train wreck that was the Super Mario
Brothers movie instead; it’s a great
song that was utterly ruined by the EMI
Sweden management at that time.
7. Sleeping Beauty. This Disney flick
isn’t entirely a Halloween movie, but
1 beheve it counts. Don Bluth, the
guy behind Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace,
Anastasia, An American Tafl, and the
original Land Before Time movie worked
as an assisting animator on this film.
6. Batman Begins. Great movie, and
Liam Neeson plays a supreme villain.
5. Spiderman. The first movie, before
Sam Raimi (of Evil Dead fame) started
mucking around with the character
4. The first Nightmare on Elm Street
movie.
3. Ghostbusters. Who you goima caU?
(Oh, and if someone has any pictures of
their Ghostbusters Halloween costumes,
send those to me please!! Even if it’s
only Janine Melnitz!)
2. The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.
It’s not “scary” by any means, but it does
have scary elements.
1. This may be a total surprise to some
people, but my #1 movie you absolutely
have to see is Independence Day, starring
Will Smith. 1 don’t normally like Will
Smith (1 think he’s aimoying half the
time), but he is absolutely brilliant in
this movie. Of course, the speech by the
President right before we kick the alien
invaders’ asses is also a part of it.
Bottom 10:
10. Final Destination 3. A slasher
flick surrounding a fafled roller coaster
accident, it isn’t a movie I’ll ever see.
9. 1 Am Legend. How could Wfll Smith
fall so far, so fast? This is a total train
wreck, only watch it if you can’t look
away.
8. The Number 23. Another real train
wreck, and goes to prove that the vast
majority of fuimy guys caimot do serious
Book Review: PersepoUs
by Dabney Farmer
Staff Writer
Once you get past the names (which
was hard for everyone me pronounce)
Persepolis is a great book to read. It tefls
the story of a young girl’s life growing up
in Iran during the Islamic Revolution .It is
told through her views as a child as she sees
things, not by someone telhng her story.
We see her hopes and heartbreaks as a
child growing up. It is a very unusual book
as it is really a black and white comic book,
but far from any comedy or super heroes.
The young girl has a loving, supportive,
middle class family that have great
expectations, thinking that the overthrow
of the Shah of Iran will improve life in their
country. Sadly the reverse takes place as the
new rulers are harsher and force the people
to foflow old-fashioned doctrines.
Despite the repression of women, she
maintains a strong independent woman not
afraid to speak her mind regardless of the
consequences.
As a young girl she hates wearing the veil
over her face, as do all the other girls but at
first she agrees to this as her teacher speaks
of the things coming from the new leader
That is untfl her father tells her the truth
that her grandfather was once a prince but
was over thrown. He was the last emperor
of Iran and no great good came to the
country after he was tossed out. She begins
to disagree with her teachers and their cover
up of the abuses of the new rulers.
Soon she strongly opposes the new
government and buys American rock and
rofl records and ablue jean jacket. Together
with her family they find ways to rebel.
roles to save their lives, and Jim Carrey is
no exception to the rules.
7. Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom
Menace. The “phantom menace” here is
Jar Jar Binks, a train wreck of a character
that is bad enough that he should never
have sprung from the fatal loins of
George Lucas’s imaginative mind.
6. Flubber Robin Williams’one and
only train wreck...
5. Bride of Chucky. Honestly, while 1
haven’t seen this one, according to my
horror movie expert, this one was the
worst of afl the Chucky movies.
4. Spiderman 3. One train wreck after
another Hey, this reminds me of the Evil
Dead series, which was horrible after the
first one!
3. Spiderman 2. The less said about this
one, the better
2. The Black Cauldron. Disney’s biggest
animated train wreck, it tells a ghost story
of epic proportions.
1. The Haunted Mansion. Somewhat
based on Disney’s famous attraction of
the same name, Eddie Murphy discovers
that an old mansion in New Orleans is
haunted (BUM BUM BUM). Disney’s
biggest live action train wreck, and Eddie
Murphy is excessively out of character
here.
but while her family does this quietly,
she becomes too outspoken. Her family
worries about her and sends her out of the
country. Although she is free from war,
she is racked with guilt about abandoning
her country and misses her family terribly.
The people around her in her new life take
their freedom for granted try to make her
feel ashamed to be an Iranian.
Reading this book gives you more insight
of what the people in Iran are really like and
what horrors they suffered during the Iran-
Iraq war We have so many advantages and
freedoms here in America that we just take
for granted. We do not execute thousands
of people for breaking rehgious codes or
their political beliefs. It shows that many
people have no choice in their countries
except to follow the leader or be thrown
into jail or killed.