Don't get us wrong: on any given weekend, this campus plays host to enough diversions to keep any student glued to Tufts' Medford turf. But should you find yourself in need of escaping this weekend's predicted rainy weather, Hollywood is waiting to whisk you away. Here's what the movie industry has in store for Friday.
Serendipity
Yes, it's a romantic comedy. But it stars two huge names, High Fidelity's John Cusack and British actress Kate Beckinsale, who made her American screen debut in The Last Days of Disco and is now globally famous for her role in Pearl Harbor. The two play a couple that splits up in order to test that old adage, "If you love something, set it free." Ten years after their breakup, they begin to search for each other in New York City to see if their now decade-old love was ever true.So maybe it's not the greatest premise for a movie. But the cast seems almost too talented to pass off. Saturday Night Live comedienne Molly Shannon plays Beckinsale's lesbian best friend. Cusack's best friend is played by Jeremy Piven, a career supporting actor who has played similar roles in almost four dozen movies - and once shared an apartment with Cusack, when they were both starving artists.
If you happen to be a self-proclaimed romantic or a John Cusack fan, it can't hurt to see this flick. If you're short on cash but have plenty of time to waste before you pick up that Faulkner novel, www.serendipity-themovie.com is a procrastinator's paradise.
Training Day
Training Day's opening was pushed back two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, so be warned of its violent content. (At least it's not Collateral Damage, the Schwarzenegger flick that's been rescheduled from this Friday to an undisclosed date next year.) But like Serendipity, its talented cast merits attention. Heartthrob Ethan Hawke plays a Los Angeles rookie cop, who faces the trials and tribulations of his first day working in an undercover narcotics unit. Denzel Washington plays Hawke's partner, Alonzo, an experienced, but corrupt, cop.Training Day is big on musical stars: Dr. Dre plays a cop, and Snoop Dogg and Macy Gray have supporting roles. Eminiem was asked to play one of the villains, but declined.
Max Keeble's Big Move
Feeling young? Looking to slip back into your childhood? Two hours and ten bucks will get you just that. Max Keeble's Big Move, formerly 7th Grade Heart Attack, is a Disney flick directed by Tim Hill of Muppets From Space fame. Child star Alex D. Linz plays Max Keeble, a publicly-branded "nerd" and 12-year-old outcast. When he finds out his dad is moving the family to pursue a new job in Chicago, he begins to do all the things whose consequences he feared before - only to learn that his family isn't moving after all. It may sound like a trite plot, but with the success of network shows like Malcolm in the Middle, who's to judge?Joy Ride
The leaves are beginning to turn colors, a sign that Halloween is on the horizon. And here's this season's first teen-horror flick, Joy Ride. Joy Ride stars screen darling Leelee Sobieski alongside Paul Walker, who's been building his resume with recent teen flicks The Skulls and The Fast and the Furious. Walker plays a college student who drives east from his Colorado hometown with his brother. The goal: to pick up Sobieski, the girl of his dreams, from her college. On the way, the two brothers use their CB radio to play a prank on a trucker they meet on the airwaves. It turns out, though, that the trucker is a psycho killer who plans to make life very difficult for his teenage adversaries.Joy Ride sounds like a modern-day interpretation of Spielberg's 1971 cult classic Duel, in which a businessman driving through the desert is menaced by the unidentified driver of a huge oil tanker. Like this weekend's other releases, Joy Ride recycles a time-tested plot, but throws it at us with refreshing, young talent.
