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September 2,2004
The Blue Banner
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Features
Geeks unite in indie hit ‘Napoleon Dynamite’
by Maribeth Kiser
Staff Reporter
“Napoleon Dynamite,” this summers
Sundance success, features an assortment
of laughable characters and a unique style
of storytelling unlike any other film of the
season.
Although the film gives us a humor
ous portrayal of what it’s like to be a high
school outcast, it’s different from most
teen movies.
“There are a lot of adults out there who
can relate to the hairstyles, the dress and
the way things were,” said Matt Walsh,
senior French major.
Trapper Keepers, moon boots. Glam
our Shots, jammer pants and tater tots
will bring back fond memories of grow
ing up in the ’80s.
With a PG rating, “Napoleon Dyna
mite” can be enjoyed by audiences of all
kinds. You can’t help but laugh at
Napoleon’s strange personality and dry
comebacks, while also feeling sorry for his
outcast situation.
In a small town in Idaho, Napoleon
lives with his dirt biking grandmother and
chatroom obsessed brother. Kip. He en
joys sketching the likes of ligers, (it’s only
his favorite animal, the cross between a
tiger and a lion) unicorns and playing
tetherball with, well, himself
Freakishly tall and fashionably dressed
for the ’80s, Napoleon brings humor as
an angry geek with unpredictable moves
and hilarious word choices. When his
grandmother gets injured in a dirt biking
accident, his Uncle Rico moves in to take
on the role as guardian. Stuck in his high
school football glory years. Uncle Rico
manages to worsen Napoleon’s high
school life with his door-to-door salesman
job.
Dealing with the obstacles from his
Uncle and the popular students, Napo-
PHOTO COURTESY OF AARON RUEU
Pictured from left to right: Jon Gries, Jon Heder and Aaron Ruell stars of “Napoleon Dynamite.”
Icon befriends two other outcasts Pedro
and Deb in order to survive high school.
“The characters were good, they helped
each other,” said Lowell Brilliante, unde
clared sophomore who has seen the movie
three times. “There were funny ’80s jokes
like Rex Kwon-Do, the karate instructor,
wearing the American flag jammer pants.”
In contrast to most movies with un
derlying themes or messages, “Napoleon
Dynamite” is the reality of an angry geek,
ostracized for his abnormal habits. Many
will still wonder why this kid is so strange.
“I think Napoleon is someone with a
large imagination,” said Walsh. “It gets
in the way of socially interacting with
people and keeps him from being popu
lar.”
Like some high school students, Na
poleon deals with the struggles of fitting
in and getting by without being pushed
against a locker.
“I think it was a stereotype,” said Kylie
Agnew, junior psychology major. “There
are people in high school that don’t fit in,
and people make fun of it. It was a little
exaggerated.” ,
Jon Herder, 26, who plays Napoleon,
is one of the many newcomers that make
up the cast. Herder, has worked with the
same writers on other low budget produc
tions, including an award winning short
“Peluca,” about a ninja loving teenage boy
from rural Idaho.
Jared Hess and wife Jerusha, former
film students at Brigham Young Univer
sity, broke teen movie stereotypes by writ
ing true-to-life characters and storylines
with this film.
“I thought the characters were really
amusing, not the typical kinds of charac
ters that you see in movies who are so at
tractive, and wonderful. They seemed a
lot more realistic,” said Julia Robinson,
senior psychology major.
Hess started working with films in high
school and wrote “Peluca” while attend
ing Brigham Young.
“I thought it was good because it’s not
a documentary, but it looks like one,” said
Walsh. “Its not overly produced and
doesn’t look fake.”
The $400,000 budgeted Sundance
film, re-released from Fox Searchlight na
tionwide, has brought in $15.9 million
since June. A surprising five minute epi
logue was added at the end of the film
after re-release.
“Some of my friends have begun to talk
like Napoleon Dynamite and they say the
things he said,” said Robinson.
Audience members are seeing this
movie multiple times for the dry, witty
humor and in depth characters.
There’s even the Napoleon Dynamite
Fan Glub with 50,000 members and
counting for people with skills such as
liger taming and bike jumping. To join,
one must fill out an application and an
swer a few questions such as: If you could
have one mythological beast as a pet what
would it be and why?
Blondie still rocks!
BY Maggie West
Staff Photographer
I must admit when going to the
Blondie show at the Orange Peel, I
was much more exited about writ
ing the review then seeing the con
cert.
Don’t get me wrong; I love the
songs “Call Me” and “Heart of
Glass” as much as the next girl.
However, I was a bit skeptical about
Blondie’s ability to perform the hits
she had over two decades ago. My
mind was filled
with images of a
geriatric hlond
woman in a
punk getup
croaking out a
pitiful rendition
of “One Way or
Another.”
If that wasn’t
enough,
Blondie’s latest
album, which I
had heard very
mixed reviews
for, was entitled
The Curse of
Blondie.”
A sure to he
terrible show
combined with
a mediocre CD
with the word “curse” in the tide was
a reviewer’s dream come true!
As I had expected, 1 was one of
the youngest people at the show.
The hoards of baby boomers sur
rounding me were clearly ready to
rock with their ancient Blondie t-
shirts and $4.00 cups of beer. The
whole scene was pretty amusing.
Finally, the lights went down and
Blondie herself took the stage. I had
to suppress a giggle when 1 saw her
op there in her cut-up mesh shirt
and skater shorts, both of which 1
Itnow came from her local Hot Topic
store. Imagine your grandmother
raiding your 14-year-old brother’s
closet and you’ll get a pretty accu
rate idea of the situation.
MAGGIE WEST/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
At 59, Blondie rocks out in
teenage attire at The Orange Peel.
Then Blondie began to actually
sing and it was good! It was better
than good, it was awesome! Her
voice filled the theatre with the spark
and clarity that it no doubt did 20
years ago. As if that wasn’t enough,
her backup band was incredible. It
all seemed to come together in per
fect harmony and stayed that way for
the entire duration of the show.
Even Blondie’s ridiculous outfit
seemed cutting edge as she contin
ued to belt song after song.
I mean here I had this great re
view lined up full of jokes about ag
ing musicians
and garbled ren
ditions of classic
songs. But now
1 had a problem,
the Blondie show
was actually
good.
Damnit.
Eventually,
thoughts of the
impending re
view went away
and I found my
self dancing and
clapping along
side my fellow
concertgoers.
While Blondie’s
“Call Me” was
slightly disap
pointing, her
performance of “Heart of Glass” was
incredible and sent the crowd wild.
Despite the quality of the show,
there were two incidents that I feel
damaged an otherwise excellent per
formance.
The first, consisted of the lead
guitarist handing his guitar to
Blondie and allowing her to jam.
The woman might have an incred
ible voice, but she sure as hell can’t
play guitar. The second, when
Blondie attempted to break it down
at the end of one of her songs.
I walked away from the Blondie
show feeling exhilarated and slightly
embarrassed that I had doubted the
legendary musician in the first place.
Usual; great place for food andfun continued from,age 3
Frank Sinatra and classic Hol
lywood.
The Usual Suspects, close
and convenient to UNCA stays
open late. The kitchen serves
food until 1:30 a.m. and the
bar stays open until
2 a.m, joining the
ranks with Rosetta’s
and Tupelo Honey as
late night food
joints.
The menu is in
teresting, creative
and suitable for both
vegetarians and meat
eaters. The appetiz
ers range from $5 to
$9, salads from
$4.50 to $9, sand-
wiches from $6 to $7
and entrees are
around $10. The deserts are
$3.50 and made in house.
Even during the peak din
ner hours of 7:30 p.m. and
9:30 p.m., the service remains
quick and efficient.
Even on a Tuesday, there
were plenty of people there to
make it feel alive.
“It’s always crowded,” said
Sakamoto.
The Usual Suspects proves to
definitely be a restaurant that
has a
bar, not
a bar
that
“It’s nice. I mean, it’s nice,”
said Persons. “A lot of
bars in Asheville are
either like a bar tavern
type place, or a bar and
its skeezy. The Usual
Suspects is nice-nice.”
Jo Persons
sophmore Spanish major
serves
food.
And
with
late op
erating
hours,
it will
n o
doubt
find its
into the bar scene serving beer,
wine and a full bar.
“They have a lot of good
beers on tap,” said Persons.
“They have a good selection.”
There are also plenty of li
quor choices, and surprisingly
cheap at that.
The extensive wine list of
fers many wines by the glass
and bottle and for a wide range
of prices from really cheap to
really, really expensive.
“It’s nice. I mean, it’s nice,”
said Persons. “A lot of bars in
Asheville are either like a bar
tavern type place, or a bar and
its skeezy. The Usual Suspects
is nice-nice.”
Although they have serious
competition, so far it seems as
though business remains ample
and the customers are pleased
with what they get.
It’s also nice that there’s
something on the north side of
town and close to UNCA that
offers what this place offers.
“I like that there is another
option for a place to go,” said
Bickner.
“It’s nice that you do not
have to deal with downtown
parking and traffic to enjoy a
quick bite, or to sip on a long
drink.”
Asheville Art Museum
Calender of Events
VANTAGE POINTS; PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICAN ART - ONGOING
CLASSIC IMAGES: EROM THE ANSEL ADAMS ARCHIVE- Until Oct. 24
CAROLINA WOMEN ARTISTS 1850 - 1950- Until Nov. 28
JONATHAN WILLIAMS AND ERIENDS- Until Jan. 9
2 South Pack Square at Pack Place in downtown Asheville
828.253.3227
Student Discounts
‘Alien vs.
Predator:’ a
monster mess
BY Chris Beck
Staff Reporter
Anyone who sits down to see
“Alien vs. Predator” expecting to see
a famous battle royale with eye-pop
ping action should see “Freddy vs.
Jason” again.
The highly anticipated film
brings Alien and Predator together
pitted against each other by director
Paul W.S. Anderson, (“Resident
Evil,” “Event Horizon”) in a movie
where “Whoever wins .... we lose.”
Unfortunately, the only things
lost in this movie were ticket sales.
A $60 million budget movie only
making around $38 million open
ing weekend can’t be that eye-pop-
ping.
The film takes us on a journey
with Charles Weyland, (Lance
Henriksen) billionaire industrialist,
who leads a team on an archeologi
cal expedition to Antarctica. A pyra
mid gives evidence depicting Egyp
tian and Aztec ancestry found by
thermal imaging satellites.
Throughout the venture, we see
the infamous Predator, only this
time three of them seemingly spy
ing on the hu
mans. What’s
really going
on will come
later in the
film by one
poorly edited flashback.
Battling with an alien swarm be
comes a rite of passage for the Preda
tor.
Worshiping Predators as their
gods, the humans willingly allow
face buggers to harvest themselves
inside them and burst out just like
all the Alien movies previously
shown. However, as the Aliens grow
more aggressive, the Predators press
a simple button on their arms and
annihilate the Alien and human spe
cies’. This leads time to the present
where the war begins again with the
humans in between.
“It had a few cheesey scenes but
it was kind of what I expected,” said
junior Derek Olson.
To make matters worse, the
Queen Alien awakes from her fro
zen slumber below the pyramid. The
filmmaker sped up the time frame
of a couple of days to a matter of
minutes.
“They messed up the whole time
it takes for an Alien to burst out of
someone’s chest quite a bit,” said
John Butler, Critic for the Watauga
News in Boone and fan of Alien.
What has most fans down is the
disjointed correlation and mockery
of the Alien burst and Predator vs.
human scenario.
“Predator looked a lot bigger,”
said Brandon Russell, Predator fan.
“In the first and second film. Preda
tor was always killing people. I never
understood the concept of this story
where they like humans and were
worshiped by the humans. I don’t
know why they switched it around.”
The movie gives a lot to anticipa
tion and name recognition, however
nothing picks up until at least 45
minutes into the film.
Once the audience wakes up from
all the talking going on, the action
picks up with the waking of the
Queen Alien herself Most of the ac
tion-packed scenes are fast-paced
and too dark to follow.
Clearly Paul Anderson doesn’t
have the best historical sense in the
movie, but surely keeps emphasis on
gore, although the film is rated PG-
13. “The special effects were pretty
good,” said Olson. “It was definitely
entertaining.”
The only successful thing that’s
developed from the movie is its Web
site for fans who either want a
screensaver, wallpaper or theme for
their computer.
Nevertheless, critical reviews will
be ignored by die hard fans of Alien
or Predator, and the movie will still
draw its genre-specific audience.