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At the Movies: 'Christmas with the Kranks'
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| © Columbia Pictures |
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by Ryan Finn
Staff Writer
‘Tis the season and all that, but the new Tim Allen comedy “Christmas with the Kranks” is the kind of gift where you wonder what the person was thinking when they bought it for you.
I would return this movie to the filmmakers, but I lost my receipt. Alas.
I have the distinct feeling I am not this film’s target audience. Then again, I don’t really know who the target audience is anyway. The movie is not funny, its messages are convoluted and the sentiment is cheap.
I could not even enjoy the Christmas decorations and songs.
Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis) find themselves lonely and depressed this Christmas while their only daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) is off in the Peace Corps. Luther discovers they can save the money they spent on Christmas last year and take a cruise this year instead.
I see nothing wrong with that. Give the couple some time to themselves in a beautiful setting and let them celebrate Christmas in their own particular way if they please. However, the Kranks cannot get away so easily. When word gets around that they are skipping Christmas, their community turns aggressive.
The Kranks commit themselves to the cause: no tree, no parties, no gifts, no decorations and no donations of any kind (well, maybe one or two to the church). This, apparently, is insane behavior, and their community is bound and determined to make the Kranks realize that Christmas is just one holiday that cannot be skipped.
You see, the Kranks live in Nazi Germany, or at least the best personification of a dictatorship. It is absolutely incredible that a community of “friends” would pressure and hound a family so much instead of respecting their decisions.
However, this is supposed to be a comedy. All of the pratfalls and hostilities between neighbors are supposed to be amusing. They aren’t. Tim Allen is sporadically funny when he is allowed to improvise short scenes and moments that probably were not in the script. Jamie Lee Curtis, though, is just plain shrill.
When the Kranks learn that, surprise, Blair is coming home for Christmas, they suffer more humiliations and hardships trying to slap together a last minute Christmas experience.
The community is smug and self-righteous. Wouldn’t you know that they assist the Kranks anyway because, doggone it, that’s what communities do.
This is unrelentingly false. Don’t ask me to buy “the spirit of Christmas” and “the bond of community” when no such things exist until the script requires them to. The movie even dares to insert an elderly couple across the street comprised of a cancer-stricken wife and a misanthropic husband. Gee, how is that going to end?
I also hated how the community perpetually viewed Luther Krank as a miser because he would not buy this or that holiday symbol. He saved $3,000 by skipping Christmas and was going on a cruise. Show of hands: who would like to save around $3,000 this Christmas?
“Kranks” approaches the material in entirely the wrong direction. Actually, the presentation is too improbable for the movie to exist at all. And yet here it is: the holiday gift that you can’t make use of, can’t get rid of, don’t expect and don’t even want. Enjoy.
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Jonathan Williams | The Appalachian
Junior journalism major Nick C. Coulapides leans into his controller while playing Halo 2, a popular video game among ASU students. |
'Halo 2' mania takes aim at students
by Amanda Fowler
Staff Writer
Although Nick C. Coulapides seems like an everyday student, he undergoes a drastic change upon returning to his apartment. Coulapides transforms into Master Chief.
He takes cover behind a crate to avoid the enemy fire coming from ahead and then circles around to get a different angle.
When he pops out he opens fire on a group of three aliens, then continues down the hall in an attempt to save the human space station that this race of aliens is trying to conquer.
Coulapides, a junior journalism major at Appalachian State University, is one of the many swept up in the mania of Halo 2, a video game designed for the Xbox system.
“It’s definitely addictive,” Coulapides said, never taking his eyes off the screen.
According to an msnbc.com article, Halo 2 boasted $125 million worth of first day sales. These figures should put the game ahead of the first version in total sales soon, as the original Halo has sold $149 million through September.
That number makes Halo ranked eighth in total sales of video games, the NPD Group reported to msnbc.com.
Before the game’s release, many were scrambling to sell their old equipment and games, assistant manager of EB Games William B. Childress said.
Gamers even sold their other consoles in order to buy an Xbox and Halo 2.
Game stores everywhere opened their doors at midnight Nov. 9 to accommodate the cult-like following of Halo 2.
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Jonathan Williams | The Appalachian
Senior graphic arts and imaging technology major Bryan C. Donaldson (l) and Coulapides (r) play Halo 2. |
According to Xbox.com, Microsoft estimated that over 6,500 stores would participate in the midnight launch, including New York City’s Toys’R’Us Times Square location.
Though perhaps not done to the scale of the opening in New York City, Boone had its own Halo 2 midnight launches. Around 100 people showed up at EB Games, Childress said.
Childress said the first person in line arrived around 7 p.m. and set up his own chair, where he waited until midnight.
Amber N. Hardy, a junior elementary education major, was one of the 100 people who stood in line at EB Games. She preordered the game in October as a birthday present for her boyfriend.
Hardy showed up at 11:20 p.m. shocked at the droves of people who were already waiting alongside her. Feeling out of place as she is not an avid gamer herself, Hardy also noticed that she was the only female in line.
“Everyone was just so fanatical about it,” she said.
Many Halo 2 gamers are admittedly fanatical. Coulapides, who showed up at EB Games around 11:45 p.m., joked with some other guys about how none of them would sleep the night after getting the game.
“One guy said, ‘Well, my GPA is going to fall a few points after today.’ We all laughed, though, because we knew it was true,” Coulapides said.
The reason for Halo 2’s popularity varies with different circles of players.
Childress maintains his opinion that Halo 2 is the best first person shooter game for the Xbox console even though he believes the multi-player aspect of the game is better than in the first version.
Childress thinks some gamers are upset because the single player missions are too short and were better in the first version.
Coulapides’ favorite part of the new game is the single player missions. “The stages are longer so you get a lot of play,” he said. “Each stage is 45 minutes to an hour.”
This is not to say that Coulapides does not enjoy the multi-player version of Halo 2. He says that on weekends, he and his friends will pool their TV’s, Xboxes and controllers to create a tournament.
One of Coulapides’ friends has already beaten the game, but Coulapides did not want to be in the room when it happened. He wants to see the storyline unfold for the first time when he wins himself.
Though currently on level five, he is confident in his skills.
“I’ll beat it,” Coulapides said. “Probably over Christmas break, but I’ll beat it.”
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APPS brings entertainment to campus for past 19 years
by Elizabeth Ashford
Staff Writer
In a world consisting of tests, stress and homework, an oasis of entertainment and stress relief can be found in Plemmons Student Union.
The Office of Student Programs was founded in 1985 and brings concerts, step shows, comedians and other forms of entertainment for Appalachian State University students and the surrounding community.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, most of the entertainment for Appalachian students happened in Blowing Rock at nightclubs because Boone was a dry town, Director of Student Programs David L. Robertson said. When the laws in Blowing Rock were changed and nightclubs were shut down, Appalachian experienced a large loss of students, Robertson said.
Appalachian hired a consulting firm to study why students were leaving. One of the firm’s recommendations was that the school needed to do more with student activities, Robertson said.
The university’s first response was to renovate an old warehouse they had on campus into a nightclub, Robertson said.
“They renovated that building and opened it under the name of H’appy’s, and [it] was run by a department in Student Development called Complementary Education,” Robertson said. “They brought live entertainment three nights a week for the first semester [Spring 1985].”
Student Development soon decided to split Complementary Education into two divisions, the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL) and Student Programs, Robertson said.
Robertson was hired to be the first director of Student Programs.
Robertson said his philosophy was that since the student activity fee came from students, there should be a student activities board so students could pick what kind of entertainment came to campus.
Thus Appalachian Popular Programming Society (APPS) was born.
The APPS board now consists of a president, vice president, secretary/treasurer and public relations.
There are seven chairs that head different aspects of entertainment on campus, including Appalachian Heritage, Council of Cultural Awareness (CCA), Club Shows, Concerts, Films, Special Events and Stage Shows. Current APPS President Billy C. Morris said his main goal for APPS this year is to bring the seven councils together and have them work on events.
Morris said future plans for APPS is to work on co-sponsorships with different APPS councils and co-sponsorships with other groups on campus.
APPS Program Coordinator Randy M. Kelly said the uniqueness of APPS is what makes it so special.
“It’s unique. We do more programming than probably most of the other 16 campuses combined [in the UNC school systems],” Kelly said.
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