Quentin Tarantino’s fourth film, Kill Bill, is one of the most exciting, creative and energetic movie ever made. Like the way Star Wars created a trend and following for space movies, Tarantino has developed the same for Kung Fu films.

Kill Bill starts off with our heroine, Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) she is set on a path of revenge. She takes it to the suburban house of Vernita Green (Vivica Fox). A former agent for Bill(David Carradine), and was part of the failed attempt to knock off the Black Mamba. The fight scene between the two is physical, yet very funny. The situation gets more unusual when Vernita’s daughter walks in on the fight.

Kill Bill follows in a similar out-of-sequence structure that Pulp Fiction pioneered. The revenge plot of Vernita Green is shown on a checklist after the death of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who is later in a battle scene with Thurman.

After the battle with Vernita, Tarantino develops how the Black Mamba’s reason for revenge was created. In this sequence we are introduced to a few of the villains that Thurman has fought and will fight, thus leading us to the Black Mamba on a search for O-Ren Ishii.

The story goes international as the Black Mamba travels to Tokyo to battle it out with Ishii, a former agent turned crime lord. We are introduced to how Ishii became the villain that she is with a segment showed in Japanamation. This scene does a fantastic job of not only devolping the story, but breaking traditional rules and throwing animation into a live film. With the Black Mamba in search, we get prepared for one of the best fight sequences ever filmed.

In the final fight scene, Tarantino does perfectly what the Wachowski brothers tried so hard to do in The Matrix Reloaded: one hero, in this case, heroine and dozens upon dozens of villains, engaged in one gigantic fight scene. And to make this scene even more special, Tarantino throws in one of the most intriguing characters ever created, Go Go Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama), O-Ren Ishii’s teenage bodyguard, gets introduced as an innocent-looking school girl with a temper for destruction. She is without a doubt Thurman’s biggest competition in the entire film. Her weapon skill with the mace and chain, only makes us wonder how she became who she is and why.

If there has ever been a character who needs a spin off, it’s her. And with her introduction to the Black Mamba, an amazing fight scene only gets better.

Tarantino does so many right things in this film that other directors should try using. He made an action movie with an almost entirely female cast, which Charlie’s Angels tried and failed miserably. The reason for Tarantino’s achievement was his ability to create the women’s fighting actions to be very similar to that of a man’s. Both Thurman’s character and Lui’s character show that a women’s strength can be just as brutal as a man’s. Tarantino also creates a mystery within each character, which makes us curious enough to not only see Kill Bill Volume 2 but hope for more.

They could possibly be the most dynamic group of all time. Hip-Hop? Yes, but I was referring to music in general. Their notoriety is similiar to that of Led Zeppelin, The Supremes, and The Beatles. Outkast just might be the most critically acclaimed group of all time, and for a good reason.

With four classic CD’s behind them, Outkast has risen to another level, far exceeding expectations of fans and critics alike. This time, it is the release of a double disc solo effort by each artist. The music has evolved and, at the same time, remained trademark Outkast sound.

The Love Below
The Love Below is everything that we imagined Andre could do and more. His blend of 70′s funk and Prince-ish R&B creates a new type of music, for which a genre cannot yet be established. Hip-Hop was the newest form of music, but Andre has paved a way for a much more unique style, rich in culture and creativity.

The album’s first two songs consist of a lounge-type concept, Andre sings the entire songs rather than rapping. In actuality, Andre’s raps are few and far between, but that only shows his artistic flow even more. On “Spread,” we get the best of both worlds with Andre. The majority of the song is sung with a medium-paced tempo, then Dre comes in rapdecade at the Independence campus before she took the position in the Longview PACE office.

Palmer plans to stay at Longview until she retires, when she said she’ll live with her husband of 29 years and remaining stress-free by doing what she enjoys most, gardening and sewing.

Palmer reminds students, “Enroll early,” Make plans and be prepared when you enroll.ping on the first verse at a faster pace, allowing the song to be much more dynamic. In “Prototype,” Andre brings back the times of Prince’s Purple Rain days, with a dash of Outkast funkness. “Hey Ya,” the commercial hit, is probably the best track on the entire disc, as it shows the musician in Andre who brings so many different types of music genres into one song.

Andre accomplishes what many music artists today have been struggling to do for a long time: create a song that, regardless of your musical preferences, you can’t help but love the song. The Love Below includes 20 tracks, which is a pretty high amount for a hip-hop record, and in this case, you have another whole disc of fine tunes waiting.

Speakerboxx
Andre is definitely the adventurous member of Outkast and expecting his creativity to go far beyond Big Boi would be a mistake. Speakerboxx is everything from the old Outkast to the new. Its style is like Hip-Hop meeting a rave party, where conscience rap blends with beats that make your head nod and you can feel the urgency that Big Boi sends your way.

The first track, “Ghetto Music,” personifies this style, as an organ laced beat is mixed with a faster bass line and the chorus is brought to a halt with a Patty Labelle sample. It’s an unusual song that represents everything that Outkast is about. “The Place To Be,” featuring Killer Mike and Jay-Z, reunites the three and delivers one of the better songs on SpeakerBoxx. Killer Mike brings a needed aggressiveness to the song, while, unfortunately, we only get Jay-Z on the chorus. “The Way You Move,” is another song fans expect out of Outkast and Big Boi uses his time wisely on the song by quickly explaining his relationship with Andre: Ready for action/nip it in the bud/ we never relaxin/ Outkast is everlastin/not clashin not at all/ but my ni**a went to do a little actin/ now that’s for anyone askin. Summing it up well enough for us to know that a solo project from the both does not mean an end to the group.

The Love Below/Speakerboxx is the kind of album that rarely gets produced. While their other albums have been critically acclaimed and defined as classics, this one is in a class all by itself. It is as good as their past efforts and in a way, better. The Love Below/Speakerboxx will be a blueprint for other artists to expand their talents and take risks. Outkast did and their final outcome was a pure masterpiece.

They’re like two brothers who fight for their mother’s love. One of the two has much more success. The other one sits lonely on channel 25, waiting for the right producer to come along and re-invent what has become an embarrasement to television.

BET, or Black Entertainment Television, has been around for 21 years. They have been the primary source for black entertainment (UPN is a strong second) and, as the years progress, they continue to play second chair to their rival MTV.

Both Viacom music networks deal mainly with music but annually incorporate new shows and ideas to boost ratings and to distance themselves from being labeled as just music video channels. MTV is usually successful at these attempts, with hit shows like Real World, Road Rules and one of cables highest rated shows ever, The Osbournes. MTV has also won multiple Emmys for TRL, which still remains the highest rated video countdown on television.

BET’s daily line-ups consist of the same material since I can remember. BET spends about 15 hours a day showing videos, five hours of infomercials, one hour of news and the rest of the day devoted to time fillers. They have never had a successful show that competed well with MTV. 106th & Park is their prize possession but the constant support of B2K and Bow Wow leaves people pessimistic about tuning in. The only shows that come close to being hits are the ones that are bitten from MTV. MTV’s Cribs, became BET’s How I’m Livin. MTV’s Making the Video became BET’s Access Granted. MTV’s Diary became BET’s Turnstyle. So BET has never really had much originality.

BET doesn’t focus enough on black issues either, and while they, like MTV, are not a news station, they could follow in the footsteps of MTV and do more special reports on issues that need to be covered. MTV has an hourly news update and offers 30 minute shows dedicated to problems that might be an issue to teens. BET has shown no interest in covering anything remotely close.

MTV also puts out a few movies produced by the in-house company that draw viewers in on a different approach. BET plays Juice three Fridays in one month.

It’s not that BET probably wants to be second on the list it’s that they seem afraid to spend any money. They don’t need expensive actors in their shows; they need expensive producers who can come up with great, ground-breaking ideas. Until that day comes, MTV will continue to thrive on fresh ideas and entertaining shows and BET will continue to be successful at being unsuccessful.

Like fine wine, Nicholas Cage improves every year. Last year he starred in Adaptation, the year’s best film. This year he returns with a more difficult role and nails it with perfection.

Matchstick Men is a wise drama that never loses sight of what it sets out to do, which is captivate its audience by fully developing its characters and giving what could have been an ordinary movie a complex story.

As Matchstick Men begins, we learn from the first few minutes that Roy(Cage), is not your average character. Every time he opens a door, he must open it and close it three times before proceeding to where he is going. We also find out that he is a con man, who with partner Frank (played brilliantly by Sam Rockwell), pull elaborate schemes on innocent unknowing people.

The cons could all work with ease, but tension arises due to Roy’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. His problems “on the job” convince Frank that Roy needs to see a shrink.

This is where the story helps us to know the characters better, and find out what their true nature is. Roy’s shrink convinces Roy to get in touch with his daughter Angela (Alison Lohman), who he has never met. She is 14 and excited to get to know the man her mother once told her was in prison and then dead.

At first Roy is indecisive about her, but he soon learns that she is what his outrageous life has been needing. We see Roy come into his own with the new relationship between him and his daughter. At one point in the film he teaches her to do a con, tells her it was wrong afterwards and then reveals to his shrink that he actually enjoyed teaching it to her.

The relationship between Roy and his daughter, Roy and Frank and Roy and his job all blossom throughout the film. Roy goes for one last scam, so that he can focus on his relationship with his daughter. In the next series

Who would’ve thought that Kansas City was capable of producing more than one talented rapper? After listening to local garbage for years, another rapper has emerged from the shadows, dropping a hit-loaded album. Below Zero, a KC native, releases his sophmore album, Beginning of Forever, a 20-track record sure to be an underground hit.
Beginning of Forever is one of the more versatile albums to drop in KC. It contains songs about relationships, life, loss and definitions of hip-hop skills. The first song to blow your mind is “Won’t Be Denied,” a blazing track produced by Ozone Beats. The beat on this song is one of the finest to ever come out of KC. “Driven,” featuring J Scrill is another track laced with a nice beat, which allows both J and Below’s lyrics to flow melodically. The creativity of Below really kicks in with “All 4 You,” featuring Trajik. “All 4 You,” is a song dedicated to God for everything given to the two rappers. In today’s rap game, its refreshing to hear a song with such a positive message. “Real Talk,” a sure-fire hit produced by West Coast beat guru Sean-T, is a song that allows Below to say things that he’s had on his mind and discuss a friend who recently died.
Only a few songs didn’t sit well. “Revenge,” a track in which Below raps about people who betrayed him, has a good beat and a nice concept, but with Below’s ability to rock rhymes, I felt he didn’t give the other rappers he was criticizing enough punishment.
Overall, Beginning of Forever should be a Midwest favorite. Below created an album that blends all types of music, from hip-hop to jazz, and R&B to rock, the diversity incorp-orporated into the album is something that should be appreciated by fans. The opportunity to hear an album with a message is uncommon with other area artists. The album doesn’t have any tales of drug dealing, gang violence or sexual exploits. It’s just straight up hip-hop. If you’re a fan of that, then this is your album. For more information on Below Zero visit www.70Mile.com.

As I finished watching Bringing Down the House, the only thing that wandered through my mind was how this movie had managed to bring in so much money at the box office and find itself being labeled as a funny movie.
The crowd at the theatre was pretty diverse. Its blend of different races, would have led me to believe that the movie’s content could have been equally dispensed. As the film rolled on, I realized that I was wrong.
Through out the movie, there was a fair share of racial jokes aimed at African-Americans. At one point, Steve Martins character tries to blend in with young African-American people at a party by dressing up in overly-baggy clothes, and talking like his education never surpassed the 5th grade. This, I’m assuming, was writer Jason Filardi’s idea of how young black American’s are represented. The timing of the jokes was supposed to be in correlation with the scenes, which would have made it somewhat appropriate, but towards the end of the movie, the jokes got out of hand.
In a late scene, Steve Martin and Queen Latifah were hosting a dinner party for an important client. The scene went alright until the client, an older lady, began singing “slave songs” in which she belted, “Is master going to sell us in the morning, mama. At this point every white person in the crowd was laughing hysterically, while black people either shifting uncomfortably in their seats or even commented out loud that the movie had gone too far.
So, after having time to think about the film, I realized why the film had been so successful. It’s very sad to imagine it, especially in today’s time and age, but it appears that white America still finds racial humor, a funny concept.

It’s finally Friday. Lets check out the list of things to do in Kansas City tonight: A night out at the local AMC movie theatres, dinner at Applebee’s and a trip to Westport to finish off the night with booze. How about next Friday? It’s looking pretty similar.
Kansas City has a reputation for its low-toned amount of fun. When nine o’clock hits, all the lights go out. Our downtown turns into a desolate ghost town. So why is everyone so against revamping downtown? Sure, theres going to be some cost, but what city doesn’t spend some type of money on juicing up there city. With the addition of a downtown arena, we could finally put Kansas City on the map. The arena alone won’t do it, but it would create a domino effect that would push business owners into creating a chamber of commerce in our illustrious skyscraping area.
The NBA has announced that we are currently eighth on the list for a pro basketball team. If we built an arena and got rid of the Royals, we will be moved up to number two. Now, imagine what you would rather have. A baseball team, which, due to the MLB’s inabilities to create a strict salary cap, will go below a 500% every season or an NBA team, who can eventually become a playoff contender and while we are in the midst of that, can watch as people like Shaq and Kobe go to town on our asses.
The debate about building a stadium/arena downtown can be solved easily. Some people want a stadium for the Royals, who will never, ever, be in a penant race. As long as there is no restrictions on what an owner can spend on his team(Salary Cap) the Royals have no chance. I can understand why no one supports a stadium.. It would truly be a waste of money. No ones going to want to drive downtown to watch the Royals take on the Milwalkee Brewers. The cost of the stadium will create the Royals to drive prices up on everything, including the tickets, which you can usually get for free with a car wash at AMACO. No one will want to go to a local bar or restaurant afterward to celebrate a Royals 2-15 loss. Therefore, the commerce down there would be little.
Now, if we built an arena, we get in line for an NBA team, an NHL team and most possible an Arena Football Team, which would do a lot better in KC than a baseball team. We are a town built around football, if we had a team playing when the Chiefs were on break, the arena will fill. With a new arena, we have a great chance to bid for Big 12 basketball, and possibly an NCAA Final Four tournament, Plus, a new arena means bigger and better concerts to venue, which brings in diverse groups of people to add business to the small companies shopped up downtown.
The creation of a new arena would utterly revitalize the city of KC. There are very small cons opposed to the pros of building the arena and creating a vibrant downtown. It’s a good way to create new jobs, help J.E. Dunn maintain its monopoly and most of all, bring more sporting events to Kansas City sports fans.

For Shady/Aftermath records, 2002 ended with multi-platinum albums, (over 11 million to be exact), five Grammy nominations, one Academy Award nomination and a fan base that continues to grow at an excessive rate. The question on everyone’s mind is how can Eminem and Dr. Dre follow up to the success that they produced the previous year. The answer lies within a man, whose name represents less than a dollar. 50-Cent, a new artist to Shady/Aftermath, releases his solo album Get Rich or Die Tryin’. This 19 track record delivers everything that the hype around him has built. In other words, I love this album like a fat kid loves cake.
“Wanksta” was the first song released off of the album. With its catchy beat and fresh soundin lyrics, it became an immediate hit. While it rode the airwaves, a lot of people, including myself, held their breaths, as they waited to see if 50 would come with another hit, or pull a D12 and live the success of the album off of one song. Almost as quick as we held our breaths, we exhaled with excitement as 50 released his second track, “In Da Club,” a hot song, produced by beat mastermind Dr. Dre himself. Almost from the day it was released, it become the number one song in America and topped every video countdown on cable.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ contains two other songs that resemble the caliber that “Wanksta” and “In Da Club” has. “Heat” a song with a gun cocking, as part of it’s beat, reminds you of the days when gangsta rap was still in control. The lyrics only re-enforce it, “When that window roll down/ and that AK come out/you can squeeze your little hand gun/til you run out/and you can run for your backup/them machine gun bullets gonna tear your back up.” The other song “If I Can’t,” is 50′s way of explaining that if he can’t do it, it can’t be done. “21 Questions” featuring Nate Dogg, changes up the style a little as you witness 50 in a one-dimensional conversation with a woman, tryng to determine if she is with him for the right reasons, which is ironic, given the fact that lyrics on previous tracks state, ” I got that X/if your into takin drug’s/I’m in to havin sex/ I ain’t in to makin love.” Despite it all, the song should be a hit.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ features other artist like Eminem, and members of 50-Cents rap crew G-Unit. Unlike other albums Eminem appears on, the fans are strictly buying this album for 50. It doesn’t appear to be another D12 on the back of Em ride. The album includes production by both Dre and Em along with other hit-making producers. If you were lucky enough to get the album the first day, you receive a free DVD, which has 50 telling his tale of life in the hood, drug sales, and doin what he does best; rapping.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ will probably be the most successful album of 2003. Although it is early in the year to predict this, the type of hype created around him should support the sales of his record. With pop-rappers releasing what 50 calls “Bubblegum rap” every week, it is a refreshing sound to Hip-Hop fans to hear an album that doesn’t have Ashanti or J-Lo on the chorus, followed by corny lyrics about relationships.
50-Cent will most likely be protested against, due to his violent lyrics and Eminem partnership, but it will be well worth it, as he will be able to speak his mind on how badly rap has sold out. So while Eminem breaks from the heat it only seems fitting that he is replaced by 50-Cent, the new bad boy of rap.