The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 48

E6 The Windsor Star Thursday, September 18, 1997 Seen Heard BBPWBlBlBlBinBlBlBlBlBleaVBlBlBlBMlBlBlBlBlBlBlBlBlBlBlBlBlBH flflmn TOP 10 VIDEO RENTALS (List compiled from Applause, Blockbuster, Jumbo and Reruns Last week's ratings In brackets) 1(2) Dante's Peak 2(1) The Devil's Own 3(4) Murder at 1600 4 (3) Donnle Brasco 5(-)Metro 6 (-) Booty Call 7 (-) Scream 8 (7) Sling Blade 9 (10) Beautician and the Beast 10 (-) Absolute Power TOP 10 GAME RENTALS (Ustcompiledfrom Vldeophlle and IBC Computers) N64SEQASNES 1- Goldeneye 007 2- Tetrisphere 3- Star Fox 4- World Series Baseball '98 5- lntematlonal Superstar Soccer 6- Donkey Kong Country 7-College Football USA '97 8- Super Battletank 2 9- Bass Masters Classic 10- Vlrtua Fighter CD-ROM 1-Trlple Play '98 2-Shadow Warrior 2 3- Blood 4- Terraclde 5- Outlaws 6- Llnks '98 7- Carmageddon 8- Long Bow 2 9- Hexen 2 10- Monday Night Football '98 Replay value: 7 Overall rating: 7 I hope Shadow Warrior is the last resurrection of the Duke Nukem 3D Engine. No matter how many changes you make to the engine, it's still outdated, There were two things that really annoyed me about this game. The first is the control. Unlike Quake, the mouse movement is terrible. Sure, it moves side to side OK, but the up and down motion is slower than molasses.

The second thing that annoys me is Lo Wang's stupid speech. This game could have been good but, instead of making it a serious game, 3D Realms turned it into more of a comedy. If you have a 486, this is the best that you can get. However, if you have a Pentium, I wouldn't even look at the box. ATOMIC BOMBERMAN Company: Interplay Type: multi-player battle Requirements: Pentium 90, 16 MB RAM, CD-ROM, mouse, Win95 Supports: Sound Blaster and 100 per cent compatibles Difficulty: adjustable Graphics sound: 8 Control: 8 Replay value: 7 Overall rating: 8 I am a pretty big Bomberman fan.

I love every one of them that has been released. Unfortunately, this one is not the highest on my list. Sure, the graphics are better and the game play is a little smoother, but there are no stages like the regular Bomberman, only multi-player battle arenas. You can have up to eight players and only one needs to be controlled by a human. The rest can be controlled by the computer.

Sure it's fun for a while, but I really miss the single player levels. THE SAINT 4 Val Kilmer stars as Simon Templar, the gentleman crook who steals for hire. In an adventure inspired by the Bond series, he's hired by a Russian billionaire to steal the secret of free energy from an Oxford scientist (Elisabeth Shue), but finds himself falling in love with her. Their chemistry is warm, and the movie has some nice moments, but as a Bond wannabe it's too laid back. (117 min.) MANDELA 4 This is a moving documentary on the life of Nelson Mandela, the key figure in the bridge from apartheid to the new South Africa.

From humble origins, he rose to the presidency and a Nobel Prize, and comes across here as a genuinely good and great man. But the film plays too much like a campaign biography, and does not give credit where due to F.W De Klerk, the South African president who worked secretly with Mandela to help bring about a multiracial democracy. It's a fabulous portrait of Mandela, but a shaky and incomplete history (120 min.) KOLYA K4 In the dying days of the Cold War, a Prague musician, tossed out of the philharmonic for political reasons, ekes a living by playing at funerals. A friend offers him cash to go through a fake marriage with his niece, who does not want to return to Russia. He accepts, and soon finds himself with no bride, but in possession of the woman's five-year-old son.

The warm, comic relationship that develops between them is told against a backdrop of the collapse of communism (and the collapse, too, of the bachelor's dating life). Winner of the 1997 Golden Globe as best foreign film. (105 min.) FATHER'S DAY 4 Robin Williams and Billy Crystal star in a brainless feature-length sitcom with too much sit and no com. They're both told by Nastassja Kinski that they fathered her teenager, and go on a search for the missing boy, eventu- Mill FINAL FANTASY VII Company: Squaresoft Cost: $89.99 Type: R.EG System: Sony Playstation Difficulty: 9 Graphics sound: 10 Control: 9 Replay value: 10 Overall rating: 10 I would have to say that this is the best role-playing game I have ever played in my life, bar none. As I mention recently, I hardly have time to play RPGs.

However, lately I have found time to play PlayStation's Wild Arms and Sega's Shining the Holy Ark. Now, with Final Fantasy VII, I have put close to 40 hours into the game. Final Fantasy VTI is a whooping three CDs which, from what I can tell, is a first for any RPG for the consoles. The animation is picture-perfect and the transition between them and the playable part of the game is silky smooth. There are three things that kind of bug me though: There is a long storyline and even longer cut-scenes and flashbacks; you can only have three people in your party at a time; and, lastly, you can only save when you're on the main map or at a save point.

Other than that, Fi- STEPHEN FEARING Industrial Lullaby (TrueNorth-MCA) Reviewed by Ted Shaw 5 Stephen Fearing has got consistently stronger with each new album and Industrial Lullaby is the folk-rocker's best to date. As the title suggests, the 11 songs and two instrumental tracks here focus on an urban environment of wheelers and dealers, hangers-on and creatures in the shadows. Even the instrumen-tals are slice-of-life portraits of life in an industrial wasteland a hard-edged country waltz, Long Suffering Waltz, and an electric blues reading of the traditional tune, Robert's Waterloo. Robert's Waterloo, for those of us old enough to catch the reference, was the theme song of the CBC kids show, The Friendly Giant. By including it here, Fearing seems to be making a statement about the widening gap between innocence and experience.

Whether Fearing's singing about love in Coryanna or about just trying to cope in Dog On A Chain, the sentiments are real and the music direct. His songs, like those of Barney Ben-tall, are superbly crafted, mature and thoughtful. But there is just as much attention to the way they sound, thanks to producer Colin Linden and Fearing's top-flight group of musicians, including Willie P. Bennett, Blue Rodeo bassist Bazil Donovan, Bruce Cockburn, Margo Timmons and Linden. TOM COCHRANE Songs of a Circling Spirit (EMI) Reviewed by Star News Services 5 A creature of habit and electrified guitars, Canadian rocker Tom Cochrane has always relied on volume to get his point across.

But on his new release, he pulled the plug and let the songs breathe on their own. Featuring mostly live, acoustic renditions of hits such as Boy Inside the Man, Lunatic Fringe, Paper Tigers and White Hot, Cochrane opens up a different side of himself and gives his fans a sonic taste of his alter-ego: the folkie singer-songwriter. The stripped-down version of Boy Inside the Man sounds completely different. The listener's ears are stoked rather than blasted. The adrenaline is gone, but the heart beats just as hard.

As each song is rediscovered with simple harmonies, minimal drums and a rich tapestry of strings, the music finds a much more human touch where Cochrane's songwriting gift not only comes to the fore, but proves itself capable of complete reinvention. 1 mm ii ally teaming up. Lazy writing, predictable dumbed-down characters, and did they need to haul a drug dealer into a plot this lightweight? (102 min.) ANNA KARENINA H4 Sophie Marceau, from Braveheart, stars as Tolstoy's tragic heroine, who forsakes her rich but distant husband (James Fox) for a passionate bounder (Sean Bean). Shot on spectacular locations in St Petersburg and the Russian countryside, the film looks good but lacks heart; you know something has gone wrong when the most interesting character is the husband. (108 min.) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS 4 A small-town soap opera that's set in the 1950s and looks uncannily as if it was shot then, too.

The three rich Abbott girls are the targets of the upwardly mobile Jacey Holt (Billy Crudup) and his less secure kid brother (Joaquin Phoenix). The sisters, played by Joanna Going, Jennifer Connelly and Liv Tyler, are respectively the good girl, the bad girl and the independent-minded girl. Over all of these characters hangs the shadow of the ominous Mr. Abbott (Will Patton), who wants to protect his rich daughters from the poor Holts. And there's a secret from the past that helps explain why.

Slow, unconvincing, a slog through dated material (120 min.) Chris Tucker In Money Talks the American icon Beaver Cleaver, played here by Cameron Finley, who joins the school football team in order to convince his dad to buy him a bike. Then the bike is stolen, setting off a series of deceptions and misunderstandings. Not a satire on the original TV sitcom, but a celebration of it, plus a few subtle in-jokes. Simple, shallow, sweet MONEY TALKS (AA) 4 A new comic star named Chris Tucker stars in a wild, engaging, free-fall performance as a con man who attaches himself to a TV reporter (Charlie Sheen) and ad libs his way through a weekend. The plot is routine but the performance isn't and Tucker is at the same stage now that Jim Carrey was a few years ago: He's found the freedom to go manic on screen, and is handling the verbal riffs like a musician.

G.I. JANE (AA) X4 Demi Moore stars as a woman selected for Navy SEAL training. She is focused and effective, and there are complex, interesting supporting performances by Viggo Mortensen (in charge of training), Scott Wilson (the commanding officer) and Anne Bancroft (a powerful senator). The plot peeks through too much toward the end, but director Ridley Scott (Alien) achieves an exciting documentary feel in the training sequence. THE GAME (AA) X4 A millionaire control freak (Michael Douglas) is given a birthday present The Game, which reveals no rules or objectives, but seems intent on destroying the illusion of invincibility he has erected around himself.

Directed by David Fincher (Seven), the movie is intelligent subtle and well-acted, so "that the plot takes on a resonance deeper than the events alone can explain. By the end, an arrogant man has been so humbled that he cannot even be sure it is the end. nal Fantasy VII gets my vote for best RPG of the year. SHADOW WARRIOR Company: 3D Realms Cost: $69.99 Type: 3D shooter Requirements: 486 DX4100, 16 MB RAM, CD-ROM Supports: all major sound cards, joysticks, modem network Difficulty: adjustable Graphics sound: 7 Control: 8 TOP 20 ALBUMS (List compiled by Music World) As of July 14 1- Puff Daddy The Family No Way Out 2- Sarah McLachlan Surfacing 3- Prodlgy Fat of the Land 4- Aqua Aquarium 5- Jewel Pieces of You 6- SplceGrls Spice 7- Tonlc Lemon Parade 8- Our Lady Peace Clumsy 9- Meredlth Brooks Blurring The Edges 10- Matchbox 20 Yourself or Someone Like You 11- Notorious B.I.G. Ufa After Death 12- Hanson Middle of Nowhere 13- Soundtrack Men In Black 14- Wu Tang Clan Forever 15- Wallflowers Bringing Down the Horses 16- Varlous V2Now 17-Soundtrack My Best Friend's Wedding 18- Varlous Pure Energy 4 19- Oasls Be Here Now 20- Bone Thugs Harmony Art of War BETHORTON Trailer Park (DedicatedHeavenly) Reviewed by Star News Services 5 Although Orton has a timely association with electronica, thanks to her vocal spots on records by groups such as the Chemical Brothers, her own music reaches back to the elegant acoustic folkjazz of Nick Drake, complete with the lush orchestration that was common in the progressive late '60searly'70s.

Orton's voice likewise has a classic English timbre evocative of Linda Thompson, while her probing, pensive writing recalls that of Sandy Denny. Combine those influences with a use of drum loops and other studio processing and you have a kind of stately chamber music with trip-hop cool. THE CRYSTAL METHOD Vegas, (Outpost) Reviewed by Star News Services 145 American electronic dance music acts are about as world-competitive as U.S. soccer teams. After three years of releasing singles and contributing songs to compilation albums, The Crystal Method release their full-length debut It may be the best America can offer, but the genre isn't enriched by it Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland are keen on breakbeats, but they have a stunted sense of adventure, instead settling for a routine trance music that would have been fine a few years ago but now seems dated and oblivious to the aggressive uprising in electronica during the past year.

Jordan and Kirkland rotate stimulating shriek effects into the percolating rhythm. The net effect of the album is serviceable monotony, and there's no reason to single out Vegas from the field. 1 CATHERINE WHEEL Adam and Eve (Mercury) Reviewed by Darrin Keene X5 It's fitting that Catherine Wheel a band named after a particularly heinous punishment device would release a tortuously bland album like Adam and Eve. Over the course of four albums and a B-sides collection, Catherine Wheel have fallen into a downward spiral from truly inspired, atmospheric pop to sterile classic rock. Gone are atmospheric pieces like Black Metallic and I Want To Touch You; they're replaced with vapid rock ditties that leave little to the imagination.

Adam and Eve's fifth track, Phantom of the American Mother, represents the culmination of this metamorphosis into mediocrity. Vocalist Rob Dickinson makes passing allusions to "Superman and Sonic Youth" before exploding into a melodramatic chorus with cheesy gospel organ. Adam and Eve begins with a boozy slide guitar, and quickly descends into a scattered deluge of histrionic rock opera motifs and high-testosterone distortion levels. Problem is, there's no real hooks to draw in the listener. Even with stellar production, Adam and Eve is an insipid mess.

You know an album is bad when the cover art is its most memorable quality. VARIOUS ARTISTS Stone Country (Beyond Music) Reviewed by Star News Services 5 Travis Tritt has often rocked Honky Tonk Woman at his live concerts. But in 1969, the Rolling Stones recorded it as Country Honk. So it's natural then, that Tritt picked this particular song as his contribution to this 11-song tribute album to the famous British group. It's natural, too, for country stars to sing Rolling Stones songs, says Randy Nicklaus, a senior vice-president of Beyond Music adding that "Rolling Stones songs are rooted in blues and country Only Rolling Stones fans can decide if this album measures up to the originals.

But from the viewpoint of someone who grew up with country music, the album is a fair collection of country rock and offers some variety Some gentle rock comes from the Tractors' The Last Time and Deana Carter's Ruby Tuesday 1 Sammy Kershaw gives Angie-a mellow ballad treatment But BlackHawk resorts to near bluegrass for Wild Horses. Collin Raye rolls out blues rock for Brown Sugar. And Nanci Griffith delivers a straight-ahead country version of No Expectations. CONSPKACY THEORY (AA) K4 Mel Gibson is quite good as a paranoid New York cabby whose nutty theories are mostly but not always insane. Julia Roberts is the Justice Department official who humours him.

Then one day it appears he may be on to something. Fine, but why torturous-ly show them attracted to one another, and why shoehorn in show-stopping stunt sequences? Patrick Stewart has fun as the shadowy villain. AIR FORCE ONE (AA) H4 Harrison Ford's personal appeal almost, but not quite, salvages this collection of movie cliches about presidents, terrorists, hijackings, hostages, airplanes, politics and cat-and-mouse chases. Gary Oldman is the bad guy, Glenn Close is the vice-president, and Ford does battle after Air Force One is hijacked in midair. Some good performances, but mixed marks on the special effects.

MRS. BROWN (PG) K4 A love story of sorts, hidden beneath layers of denial and ritual, between Queen Victoria and her servant John Brown who takes her out riding as a way to break her loose from the grip of mourning after the death of her beloved Prince Albert. The queen is strong-willed but morose; Brown is her match. Judi Dench triumphs in her first leading movie role, and Billy Connolly is serenely self-confident. A smart, subtle, intriguing film.

MEN IN BLACK (PG) 4 Super-straight-arrow U.S. government agent (a dead-pan Tommy Lee Jones) is assigned to keep track of aliens. He and rookie sidekick (Will Smith) go on the trail of an alarming alien named Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio), who has occupied the body of a hillbilly and plans to conquer the Earth. Amazingly varied alien creatures created by Rick Baker, in a movie with a wicked sense of humour LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (F) 4 A gentle, good-hearted movie about Michael Douglas In The Game..