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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2000)
Required reading for anyone who knows a kid. If there's a child you care about, anywhere in your life, then you should care about our public schools. For a free booklet that contains wa\-s you can help improve education in America, call 1-800-96-PROMISE. II.. Floods. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Rescues at sea. International peacekeeping missions. Whenever there's a need, the National Guard and Reserve responds. But only with the unselfish support of thousands of employers like you. THANKS FOR MAKING US YOUR BUSINESS. * s - ' I O rw-i • Jl 11 2000 Sue Tidball Award for Creative Humanity This annual award is presented to one, two or three people (students, faculty or staff at UNL). It recognizes significant contributions to the development of a humane, educationally creative, just, and caring community on the UNL campus. Nominations for the award may be submitted by anyone associated with UNL. More information, nomination forms, and guidelines arc available at: • IFC-Panhcllcnic, NU 332 • Residence Hall front desks, RA's & Maintenance offices • Most college, school and division offices • Student Involvement offices, NU 200 & ECU 300 • Culture Center, 333 N. 14th St. • Human Resources, Admin. 407 • Facility Maintenance & Landscape Service offices • Office of Student Affairs, Admin. 106 • Cornerstone, 640 N. 16th 68508 - 476-0355 • Website: http://www.unl.edu/tidball/ Nominations arc due February 14,2000 ‘Play It’ full of blood and guts By Samuel McKewon Senior editor “Play It to the Bone” is a movie that seems completely torn in every direction for more than an hour, then tops it off with the bloodiest prize fight this side of “Raging Bull.” It makes for a peculiar experience - a comedy that suddenly turns into a brutal session of naked women, burst ing cuts and a river of the red stuff. This fight is not funny in any way, but disturbing, and we don’t root for either character to win. That’s because director Ron Shelton, who also wrote the film, devises a script that not only forces us to like both fighters: born-again Christian Vince Boudreau (Woody Harrelson) and formerly gay immi grant Cesar Dominguez (Antonio Banderas), but makes them best friends. So when they fight each other, we’d rather see something entirely dif ferent happen than what unfolds. Apd what unfolds goes way beyond any thing Rocky Balboa had to put up with. But that’s later in the movie. The sooner involves Vince and Cesar’s trip to Las Vegas, the setting of the big fight. And what an opportunity this big fight could turn out to be for a couple of over-the-hill palookas - the winner gets a shot at the middleweight crown. A sleazy promoter (a bad Tom Sizemore) calls Vince and Cesar at the last second when the other fighters drop out, and the two fighters take to the road from Los Angeles with Grace (Lolita Davidovich), Cesar’s current girlfriend and Vince’s ex. And along this road trip, we find out enough about both of them to know this will be their last chance at glory. Shelton has made sports movies his entire career. A former sports writer, Shelton’s scripts are usually all knowing m nature! reasonably cynical Courtesy Photo Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson play best friends who enter the ring for one last hurrah in “Play H to the Bone.” aoout sports ana iairiy loving ot women. A few (“Bull Durham,” “White Men Can’t Jump”) hit the right note between comedy and drama. Others (“Tin Cup”) were mildly amus ing. “Play It to The Bone” was neither. Part of the problem has to do with the final fight, which fits in another, much more serious film. Also belonging in another film is the role of 20-year old Lia (Lucy Liu) a tagalong on the road trip who turns out to be a coked-out tramp. Her role in the film is undefined - meant to represent, I think, the young vamps who go to Vegas seeking older, richer men to steal from. Liu is 31- too old for this role. The three main characters don’t seem to fit, either. Davidovich, a veter an of three Shelton films, does the best as the woman caught between two men she loves. Harrelson has evolved past these roles; it’s time for him to move on. Banderas isn’t bad, but he, too, seems like a wrong fit for the role, which was Play it to the Bone STARS: Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Lolita Davidovich DIRECTOR: Ron Shelton RATING: R (more language than a sailor movie, lots o’ nudity.) £ ^ GRADE: C FIVE WORDS: Not played US out well enough. changed to a Spaniard after he signed on. And the two don’t seem much like friends. It results in a movie, despite its two-hour, four-minute running time, that feels underdone and underwritten, and its characters feel underexposed. Which is why the brutality of its final 45 minutes comes as a major surprise - and an unwelcome one at that. . GET A JOB WITH MORE HOURS. I GIT A JOB WITH USS HOURS. -- m git^mmm. 1 # J^mal Star ■ presents JO 2000 .. v; 5? 5"^”; -■ '■ ■ _v • The original. The best. The JOB FAIR that gets results. Visit with 40 potential employers from entry-level to professional. Wednesday, Holiday Inn Downtown, 141 N. 9th ■ FREE! Bring your resume! '; . ' • \