ENTERTAINTMENT

'Phantom' astonishes and Disappoints
Jason Kimbro | Staff Reporter

Welcome back to another action-packed semester here at MSU! Filled with excitement and intrigue, Midwestern State University is promising to be a tour de force of thrills, chills, and toxic waste spills!
What the hell am I talking about?  I really don’t know, but it sounds good.  Now onto the first review of 2005.
Hollywood is really turning the wheels of unoriginality. 
This time it has taken another dip into the world of the Broadway musical and has harnessed the powers of Andrew Lloyd Webber with his kitschy musical extravaganza based upon the horrific romance known as “The Phantom of the Opera,” Dracula meets the “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Wow, that last paragraph was one sentence!  Anywho, here’s the gist:
You should all know this.  Deformed monster is in love with a girl named Christina that kind of wants him, but not really, but you never really know. 
Christina, played by Emmy Rossum (“The Day After Tomorrow,“ “Mystic River,”) happens to be a chorus girl in the Opera Populare in France and she has been taught to sing like an angel from what she believes to be a guardian angel sent by her deceased father.
Well, as we all know, it isn’t her father’s angelic spy, it is the phantom (“Gerard Butler of Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life,”) and he is hiding in the shadows playing tricks on this dainty, yet apparently not-so-bright little brunette.
For years, though, the Opera Populare is known to be haunted by this phantom, and the owner has always heeded the phantom’s wishes, but some new owners are moving in.  They don’t believe in the phantom, and they will not do what the phantom demands.
They bring with them a strapping young man with long blonde locks who happens to have had a past with Christina.  To make things even more fun, we have an opera diva (Minnie Driver) who has an excellent singing voice but cannot control it, kind of like me.
The diva vies for attention, but the phantom wants Christina to be the lead star, and this and that and all hell breaks loose and jealousies ensue, and this one dude dies in a really cool scene, and so on and so on until we get to the end, all the while they sing about what they feel.
This kind of movie is hard to review.  It really depends upon whether you like Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Some call him the best thing that ever happened to musicals while others call him the butcher of Broadway.  With this aspect aside, though, I will do what I can to critique my usual droppings and such, fairly.  Sure, fairly.
This movie was highly entertaining.  The beginning of the film, specifically the transition from the black and white to the colorful musical is astonishing.  Yes, astonishing.  It literally sent chills, and the music filled the air with immense power.
This ties in with the atmosphere.  It was quite wonderful as well.  All the music, the sets, the humongous crashing chandelier, makes you want to go scar up your face and wear a fashionable porcelain mask upon your visage.
The plotting and scripting, well, that’s a bit tough to determine.  This is based upon a Webber piece and he was the main producer of the flick, thus it was pretty faithful to the play.
But this does not mean it was well written in terms of scripting.  Some things are clichéd, and some lines are a bit silly, all for the sake of music.  This is where the flick can fall short.
Performances were pretty good, in terms of singing.  Acting, well, that’s a horse of a different color.  And not the good kind that Dorothy rides upon. 
I shouldn’t be too harsh, the acting was not too too bad, but it sure could have used some work, though there were some very notable performances by the always impeccable Miranda Richardson and Minnie Driver, one of my personal favorites.
So why not go out and see this one, that is if you have nearly 2 1/2 hours to spend on something that will definitely entertain you, but will contribute minimally to the enrichment of your life.
Check out next week when I will be reviewing either Christian Slater’s next attempt at crap “Alone in the Dark” or Dakota Fanning’s continual riddance of her childhood, “Hide and Seek.”  It really all depends on things that you would have no possible hope in understanding.  Well, not really.  I’m just out of space.


Astrus Gilberto delivers cool Bossa Nova tunes
Richard Carter | For the Wichitan

The neo lounge music scene of several years ago never really hit this area. I suspect that even during the early ‘60s—during the cool calm era before the cultural storm of the latter part of the decade--there weren’t too many bossa nova inspired clubs.
Whatever this place may be, it’s always been Wichita Falls. And the townies here like their steaks well-done and their beers bloody, and to go.
Was this township ever cool, in a lounge sense? Probably not, unless you’re talking someplace like Millie’s Lounge downtown. Will it ever be cool? I can’t imagine it, though it’d be a nice alternative to that ever f’ing blaring diesel truck music.
Anywho, thank heaven for the Internet and larger more musically diverse scenes where a music lover can discover new and old sounds. 
Still, before you forsake the Falls for Austin, this place is hardly a total musical backwater. Hit the right pub or bar on a weekend night. Or find the right CD in a shop, or a used LP in a resale store and it can be heavenly three songs into the mix.
And there’s usually good songs playing in the background of those interesting movies found in the DVD rental independent or foreign sections.
Now that we know the occasional music can accidentally be found locally, what’s a cool tune?
Consider the smart, stylish and smooth bossa nova song, “The Girl from Ipanema” recorded by Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto, classical guitarist Joao Gilberto and saxophonist Stan Getz in 1963
A blend of samba rhythms and jazz harmonies, bossa nova enveloped the radio, clubs and films beginning with this song. And in many ways, the sounds never left with the various genre revivals and musical influences.
Brazil is still responsible, to this day, for some of the better dance musics. But this review is not about Bebel Gilberto (the daughter of Joao) or DJ Suba or any of the other prime musical forces blending electronica with traditional bossa nova.
Rather it’s about a reissue of “Astrud Gilberto with Stanley Turentine” a jazzy world music album originally recorded in 1971 by a tasteful blend of North and South American musicians.
The album mixes cool jazz and adult pop with warm Brazilian flavorings.  It’s relaxed, although the songs never loll. The recording is pleasant, without being patronizing. This was great music for adults before the huge music companies dumbed down pop to appeal to the 11 to 15-year old market.
With two smart Burt Bacharach pop tunes, “Wanting Things” and “Where There’s a Heartache (There must be a Heart),” the Gilberto album also features two quieter soundtrack singles, “For All We Know” and “Love Story,” which she sings in Portugese.
I’m never quite sure why I own the complete catalogue of Gilberto recordings from 1963 to the early ‘70s, except perhaps because her pure, plaintive singing is so addictive.
Want to leave the world behind for 40 minutes or so and bask in some place more warm and visceral? Slake thine thirst on the rhythms and melodies of this Astrud Gilberto record and dig the tasty vibes.
Or for that matter, import her tunes into a cool café or a ‘60s styled discotheque and breathe in the Brazilian flavored java.
Sure Wichita Falls isn’t cool, nor is it ever likely to attain samba cool. And there’s still way too many people here listening to Creed (I wonder if the vocalist ever got the cell phone un-implanted from his face?)
But what do we care? Buy the “new” reissue of “Astrud Gilberto with Stanley Turrentine” and just roll with it.