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(09/04/09 12:00am)
By now, the consensus among reasonable people is that modern science indicates the theory of evolution was, at best, a misguided effort. Most contemporary theorists agree that evolution does not explain the fact that the universe is so perfectly adapted to our needs. And if even a single step in the alleged "evolutionary" process had gone wrong, we would be completely different creatures. We probably would not even be able to think.That is why there is increasing acceptance among the scientific community of intelligent design theory, or the theory that life is best explained as the product of some kind of prior plan, sketched out by an all-encompassing being far cleverer than we are. Intelligent design explains why the universe was designed for us and why our incredibly complex physical systems became what they are now. It also accounts for the usefulness of our brains, which would be mush had they just been left to random natural processes.
(08/21/09 12:00am)
In the first scene of the new mockumentary Paper Heart, Michael Cera (Juno), who plays himself, asks the director if the movie is "a quirky comedy, a romantic comedy." The director answers that it is. "Perfect," Cera says. "That's just what America needs."Of course, Paper Heart is not a necessary movie, or even an important one. But it is charming, funny and heartfelt nonetheless, cheerfully embracing its own insignificance and daring to break away from the clichés and celebrate young love between misfits.
(04/17/09 12:00am)
In the medieval world, the Mongols were the ultimate menace. They attacked with speed and ruthlessness, trying wherever possible to terrify their opponents and use the element of surprise.What made the Mongols especially fearsome was that you could not attack them back: A nomadic people, the fierce tribe had no home base to invade and no central government to overthrow. If for some reason your empire wanted to fight the Mongols, all you could do was sit and wait for them to attack you.
(04/10/09 12:00am)
It takes guts to remake one of the greatest movies of all time, but 12, a new Russian retelling of the classic 12 Angry Men, brings interpretive daring to a new level. The plot is the same as the original - a jury votes on a suspect who appears to be guilty, but a lone dissenter changes all their minds - yet the movie bursts out of the confines of the American original, throwing in battle scenes, drug addictions and contemporary political statements to make a film that is thoroughly entertaining.Some film critics are unhappy with the changes, which take a classic movie where the camera almost never left the jury's deliberation room and turns it into a big, long, loud epic. But these critics fail to understand that this is not a remake; rather, it is a start from scratch, from a distinctly Russian point of view dealing with distinctly Russian problems. Although 12 does lapse into cliché and heavy-handed symbolism at times, it is as powerful as the American classic on which it is based.
(03/20/09 12:00am)
Last year, Baker College's annual Shakespeare production presented one of the Bard's bleakest plays, Richard III, a violent story of scheming and self-destruction. For Baker Shake's 2009 presentation, the troupe demonstrates its versatility by turning to The Tempest, a light-hearted adventure that features spontaneous dancing, mischievous fairies and a whimsical love story. Fortunately, this show is just as great a success as last year's. The Tempest is, from beginning to end, a total delight.As always, William Shakespeare has constructed a complex plot to keep the audience on its toes. In The Tempest, the rightful Duke of Milan, Prospero (J. Cameron Cooper, Brown '02), has been usurped by his cunning brother, Antonio (Martel College senior Robert Anderson), and exiled to an enchanted island in the middle of the Atlantic. There he lords over a realm of magical spirits and raises his daughter Miranda (Wiess College freshman Margay Dean), preparing to exact revenge on Antonio.
(02/13/09 12:00am)
Brian's Take:
(01/23/09 12:00am)
When my friends and I make plans to see a movie and wonder which shows are good, we often start by saying something like, "Well, the Thresher gave it four stars!" For us and other readers, the star rating is an easy way to learn something about a movie - or album or game - without reading the review.For the critics assigned with writing critiques, though, the number of stars can mean something entirely different. It can be a subjective rating of the work's merits, a sign of how much the author liked the work or even a mathematical rubric of some kind. What relationship does the numerical ranking have to the text of a written review? How do we decide to hand out the stars?
(01/16/09 12:00am)
Clint Eastwood has suggested to the press that his new drama Gran Torino will be his final acting appearance. But this disorganized disappointment would be an inappropriate finale to Eastwood's brilliant fifty-year career. At its onset, Gran Torino promises to be many things: funny, tense, moving and original. It fails to deliver on every count.Yes, there are many chances for Eastwood (Dirty Harry) to whip out a gun and terrify bad guys in this movie. His character, a crotchety old man named Walt Kowalski, snarls, speaks almost entirely in racial slurs, confronts various thugs, beats up a guy one-third his age and says things like, "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have messed with? That's me." But, for the most part, the film substitutes violence for actual drama.
(01/09/09 12:00am)
Sometimes, Paul McCartney just wants to be himself, and when he does, he uses a pen name. "The Fireman" was his pseudonym of choice a decade ago, when it graced the cover of several electronica albums, and now it is back for another effort, Electric Arguments.With this new LP, The Fireman, a duo consisting of McCartney and record producer Youth, branches out into a wide mixture of different styles and sounds, and Electric Arguments thrills listeners with the joy of discovery. Not every song on the album reaches the same height, but this project is a triumph anyway, and the results sound better and better with each new listen.
(11/07/08 12:00am)
For the Republican Party, the question after the 2008 Presidential Election is: What happens next?Its losses in Congress and its defeat in a transformative presidential election have Republican leaders wondering where they went wrong and how the party can recover. On these questions conservative pundits are divided into two rival camps, which may be poised to launch a civil war of ideas.
(10/31/08 12:00am)
Who knew that Rice University employs the same lawyer as Roger Clemens, ExxonMobil, Enron's accountants and Anna Nicole Smith's ex-husband?Earlier this fall, Rice was served a wrongful death lawsuit in the case of a football player who collapsed and died at practice in 2006. The athlete, freshman Dale Lloyd II, suffered from undiagnosed sickle-cell anemia and died following a workout which allegedly included sixteen 100-yard sprints. Rice's reaction to the lawsuit was to bring in Houston's own celebrity attorney, Rusty Hardin, to arrange the university's legal defense.
(09/26/08 12:00am)
To the Honorable Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska:Earlier this month, just days after your nomination for the vice presidency, we learned that your teenage daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin, is pregnant. Already the talk about the miniature scandal is dying down, but you must still be distressed that this calamity occurred in your own family and that it was thrust into the national spotlight. The purpose of this letter is to demonstrate that you have greater reasons to be alarmed. You must accept that you and your misguided political and religious beliefs are the primary causes of poor Bristol's troubles.
(09/12/08 12:00am)
The Edge of Heaven is a film in which very few things happen, and many things fail to happen, all in a quiet, heartbreaking way. It is a drama concerning three families thrown together by chance and tragedy, across three languages and two continents. This German-Turkish production reflects on basic ideas of mortality and resilience through the lives of very disparate characters.One is Ali Aksu (Tuncel Kurtiz), a dapper old Turkish gentleman who lives in Germany and whose main concerns are betting on horses and sleeping with whores. The first third of the film deals with Ali's relationship with a Turkish prostitute, whom he ends up inviting to live with him. His conversations with his son, Nejat Aksu (Baki Davrak), are largely concerned with sexual matters as well. "Who are you screwing these days?" Ali asks Nejat in a rare moment of family bonding.
(09/05/08 12:00am)
A couple of years ago, the movie American Dreamz merrily imagined a world in which a thinly disguised President Bush, attempting to boost his popularity ratings, becomes a guest judge on American Idol. Last month, something similar occurred in real life, and I think I might have been the only observer to notice it. Senator Barack Obama turned the selection of his running mate into a weird reality TV show, dropping hints, secretly naming finalists and eliminating the lowest-ranked contestants.Two days before Joseph Biden joined the Democratic ticket, CNN and other news sources reported that Obama was telephoning various important politicians to let them know "they had not been selected" to become "finalists" for the vice-presidential nomination. Meanwhile, Texas Congressman Chet Edwards was able to confirm to the media that he was a "finalist" to become Obama's vice president.
(08/29/08 12:00am)
Summer is a time of endless possibilities. Everyone I know found a different way to stay busy after school ended, and a way to stay entertained away from work. Some of my friends watched television or held movie marathons; everybody went to see The Dark Knight. We argued about Heath Ledger and worshipped Michael Phelps. A couple of people I know even read books.Not many, of course. Reading is a lost art, a means of entertainment going extinct in the electronic age. The average American reads something like four books a year, all of them written by Stephenie Meyer. A quick search of the Thresher online archives reveals a grand total of one book review. In other words, the number of book reviews ever published by the Thresher is probably lower than the number of freshmen who didn't even open this year's summer reading.
(08/29/08 12:00am)
For years I have kept a deep secret about myself. Afraid of the reaction of my friends and family, scared of certain humiliation, I have concealed a forbidden passion in the closet. But it is time to finally confess my feelings to the public and to endure the shame and ridicule which I will surely face. Yes, I am a fan of the Washington Nationals.
(04/18/08 12:00am)
Passionate romance, jealousy and redemption, humor and tragedy - Giacomo Puccini's La boh?me has all the elements of a classic love story. Its revival at the Houston Grand Opera this month is cause for celebration, although the performance falls just one poor singer short of perfection.The story of La boh?me is simple and will be familiar to those who have watched the musical Moulin Rouge!. The recent film version of Moulin Rouge! was based partially on Puccini's opera, which is also about a young bohemian artist who meets the love of his life just as she is on the verge of death. In La boh?me the two lovers are Rodolfo and Mim, who endure their share of jealousy and bickering before they are confronted with the reality of Mim's certain death.
(03/28/08 12:00am)
Drillbit Taylor. College Road Trip. Never Back Down. Do any of those titles make you want to run to the movie theater? Me neither. With the Oscars over and all the good movies of the year scheduled to come out during either summer or fall, Hollywood is beginning to feed us a steady stream of crap. What is a movie lover to do?My solution is to start renting older movies. There are hundreds of forgotten films from decades past just waiting for us to rediscover them. Here are some recommendations to start things off: three obscure, but great, movies from the '70s, ‘80s and '90s.
(03/14/08 12:00am)
Shakespeare's play Richard III begins and ends with tremendous swordfights and bloody deaths, but the intense psychological drama that plays out in between is even more gripping in this new production by the Baker Shakespeare company. A strong cast featuring numerous Rice alumni and employees excels in the chilling Baker College performance.The play itself depicts the scheming of Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Baker associate Joseph Lockett, Hanszen '91), a physically deformed nobleman whose ambition is to become King of England. He is determined to do so by any means and cruelly divides the other nobles into rival factions before killing them all. Richard's motives are not made clear until he has already murdered several of his foes, adding an element of psychological mystery to the play's early stages.
