George A. “Of the Dead” Romero is the man who practically invented the modern day zombie movie genre when he made the cult classic “Night of the Living Dead” way back in 1968. That one movie has spawned over a dozen copycats, remakes, re-issues, video games and in recent years, a whole comic book series. The new film “The Crazies,” in which Romero was executive producer is a remake of his third film originally made in 1973 and like the original, the zombies aren’t necessarily the main bad guys.

The setting for this tale is common small-town USA, Ogden March, Iowa, population 1,260. That number begins to dwindle within the first five minutes of the movie, when Sherriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant of “Live Free or Die Hard”) has to shoot down Rory, the town drunk when the latter staggers onto the high school baseball field in the middle of a game with a loaded shotgun.

Across town, David’s pregnant wife and town doctor, Judy (Radha Mitchell of “Phone Booth”) is examining farmer Bill, who is, as his wife explains “just not right.” Later that night, Bill ultimately shows just how wrong he is when he burns down his house — with his wife and son locked inside — and then mows the lawn like nothing is out of sort.

Eventually, Sherriff Dutton, his deputy, Russell Clank (Joseph Anderson of “The Ruins”) Judy and her assistant, Becca discover the increasingly homicidal behavior of normally Ma and Pa Kettle townsfolk, is due to the town’s drinking water. Recently a military airplane crashed and its cargo has leaked into the nearby wetland, which, by the way, is the favorite duck hunting ground for the gun-toting rednecks.

Of course, unnamed government officials know they’ve lost a plane and just how dangerous the bio-engineered toxin (read chemical weapon of mass destruction) on board is. Soon, the entire town, including Team Dutton, find themselves at odds against a government initiated containment where soldiers dressed in biological protection suits and armed with machine guns are ordered to gun down anyone showing the slightest bit of infection or the unaffected trying to escape quarantine. Add in the fact the above mentioned armed duck hunters — now zombified — are laying in wait to kill any live body, military or otherwise.

Screen writers Scott Kosar (“The Machinist”), Ray Wright (“Pulse”) and director Breck Eisner (son of former Disney head Michael Eisner) do a remarkably good job adding substance to what could have been just another “actor screams-runs-falls-gets caught and killed-by-the-zombie” movie. There is surprisingly at times, real suspense, which is worth noting in a movie genre where you know that just about every one dies. Yes, there are some obligatory clichés added for shock value but not so many that the movie becomes absurd. The mandatory killings thankfully aren’t particularly gory or graphic, but some scenes do make you flinch a little and others make you literally jump a bit. The suspense leading up to the scare was pretty much perfectly timed by the entire production crew from director to editor. Every actor nailed their part, especially John Anderson, by making the film as close to believable as a movie about the government efforts to contain a chemical bio-weapon leak can be.

Romero’s films are known for their social commentary and conspiracy theorist will say there’s more truth to this movie than anyone knows.  Now I don’t know how much reality was injected into the script, but as horror movie it does a great job making you kind of root for the zombies.

Starting in “1974,” you are introduced to a journalist named Eddie (Andrew Garfield) who starts to question whether the case he has been given to investigate is the beginning, or if it all started in 1969 with a past child abduction.  After the child is found (with swan wings sewn to her back), you follow his clues through the corrupt police force and dirty politicians who work the system and have all the secrets.  Grisoni pulls you into the story and doesn’t let you go.  If you are fortunate enough to have the time, you can watch all three films concurrently and reach the end of the shocking series after “1980” and “1983.”  You want to know who did it, and you want to make sure the right people are punished in the end.

While each film focuses on a certain year when the investigations were happening, you get an overall feel for the difficulty of the politics that went on in the investigation, including police brutality.  Some of the “interrogations” are difficult to watch due to their graphic nature, and they really don’t do a lot to soften the blow for you.  If you can’t see it, you can definitely hear it.  The dark lighting and faded colors serve the eras well, and the costumes couldn’t be better for the time periods.

One complaint could be it really is difficult to hear the words through some of the accents; it is a thick Yorkshire dialect and you don’t have anyone like Renee Zellweger to muck it up and American-ize it for you.  You need to listen closely, and if you miss something, then you may miss something important.

With suspecting characters and some very obvious bad cops, it’s easy to get pulled in to try to understand who kidnapped and/or killed these children.  Recurring characters such as Detective Jobson (David Morrissey) and a hustler named BJ (Robert Sheehan) bring continuity through the films and keep the stories rolling as one.  When everyone seems to have a ton of secrets and you don’t know who to trust — or if they will be alive long enough to help you — the films keep you going all the way to the end.

Five hours at the Starz Film Center will serve you well and give you a good taste of suspense.

“Brooklyn’s Finest” is at its essence, three movies about three different police officers working in the potential racial powder keg of a borough of New York City. Each tale is unique in its own right but artfully pulls together towards the end of the 140-minute movie.  Working from first-time screenwriter Michael C. Martin’s script, Fuqua paints a graphic picture of Brooklyn that is almost suffocating with gang violence and racial tension due to a high-profile killing of a black honor student who a police officer tried to rob, mistaking the youth as a drug dealer.

Martin’s script was submitted to producers who were looking for a “New Jack City 2.”  What they found instead, in my opinion, is the unofficial sequel to the 1989 Spike Lee theatrical essay on racial tension, “Do The Right Thing.”

The opening dialogue between Ethan Hawke’s character Detective Salvatore “Sal” Procida and a police informant (“Law and Order Criminal Intent’s” Vincent D’Onofrio) threads the needle, which sews the moral ambiguities that are the fabric of this character study disguised as a crime drama. Their conversation is about how sometimes justice isn’t simply about right and wrong, but most often about who is and what choice is “righter and wronger.”

Sal is desperately trying to buy a new home for his large family on his meager cop salary. I literally lost count of the number of kids he has (I think five). His asthmatic wife, pregnant with twins, is getting sicker by the day because of their small, mold-infested house. The money seized in drug busts goes to decorating the offices of city officials. Does robbing drug-dealing killers to provide for his brood make Sal “righter” or “wronger?”

Clarence “Tango” Butler (“Hotel Rwanda’s” Don Cheadle) is an undercover cop fighting not to lose his real identity. His wife has filed for divorce and his bosses at the police department continually delay his reassignment to a highly coveted desk. He’s been so deep undercover for so long, he actually served time with and befriended Caz, one of Brooklyn’s biggest drug dealers who saved Tango’s life in prison. Now back on the streets, Caz (“Blade’s” Wesley Snipes) is the subject of a high-powered criminal investigation, which may be key to Tango finally realizing his career goals. Tango must declare his allegiance, either to the police, which continually deny his career ambitions, or to the criminal, who saved his life in prison.

Richard Gere plays Officer Eddie Dugan, a veteran cop just one week away from a retirement that can’t come soon enough. He wakes up in cold sweats he manages with warm whiskey and the barrel of an empty revolver in his mouth. He’s fought a 20-year war with the streets of Brooklyn and left his soul on the battlefield. This is the last person you would want training an impressionable, idealistic rookie, which is exactly what the police brass have ordered. At the end of the day, all Eddie cares about is making it home safely and Chantel (Shannon Kane), the prostitute who is also his confidante.

Each lead actor dive whole-heartedly into their respective roles. Cheadle again lives up to his reputation of a scene-stealer, acting with intensity that transcends the screen. Hawke’s anguish and desperation make Sal an identifiable character and his plight relatable in this age of economic downturns.  Gere, ever the Hollywood prototype of a leading man, does a remarkably good job of playing a shell of a man broken down by the dirt he’s worked his entire career to clean up.

The supporting characters and actors who play them help to define the lead character’s motivations. Some who watch this film will be looking for this to be the one that revives Snipes’ career, which has been mostly limited to direct-to-DVD releases. However, as strong as a performance as Snipes delivers, it is mainly a supporting role to Cheadle’s Tango. Ellen Barkin’s (“Ocean’s Thirteen”) performance as a cocky federal drug agent overseeing the criminal investigation was so stunning you root for Tango to smack the blonde out of her hair.

This time next year I hope to hear this movie in the Academy Award discussion in multiple categories. Elements of “Brooklyn’s Finest” will remind you of “Donnie Brasco,” “New Jack City” and the Fuqua directed “Training Day.” But the clever script paced by punchy dialogue sets this movie apart from other cop dramas by weaving three seemingly different stories together where characters literally cross paths on their individual roads to redemption.

Bottom line: Twenty-one years after Spike Lee pleaded for the people of Brooklyn to “do the right thing,” Fuqua shows it’s easier said than done.

For a different take on the film, visit Dominguez’s Take: Film lacks plot, characters lack depth

Fuqua did a good job recruiting for “Brooklyn’s Finest” with a cast more diverse than “Training Day.”  But the problem is the characters don’t have the depth the plot requires.  Gritty cop movies require more character depth than that of regular cop movies because the characters are so much more complex than that of the average punch line spitting sidekicks of past cop movies.

The cast has the talent with actors like Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere and even Denver’s own Don Cheadle.  Snipes is making his first major film debut since “Blade Trinity” in 2004.  Snipes is showing the audience his roots with an old-fashion rough-neck villain character like past roles from “New Jack City,” and “Demolition Man.”

Although Snipes may be back, the cast member who sticks out like a sore thumb is Richard Gere.  Gere is playing soon to be retired NYPD officer who has nothing but regrets from a career of letting life pass him by.

Ethan Hawke, on the other hand, plays the opposite. Hawke plays an officer who has everything to lose but pursues perpetrators as if he has nothing to live for.

The movie comes off as a cross between “Crash” with a similar plot and “The Departed,” with plenty of amusing profanity.  What makes this movie even less entertaining than even “Street Kings” with Keanu Reeves is how much it drags you along through pointless plot points that don’t sway audiences either for or against the characters.  All the characters are so coarse audiences are unable to connect with any of them and are forced to simply watch and wait — then the movie ends.

The only point audiences are able to pickup from this movie that makes viewers reflect on is:  How do you treat life when you’re worth more dead than alive?

For a different take on the film, visit McMillan’s Take: Doing right thing easier said than done

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Air Force – 2

Some athletes give up when they are faced with impossible challenges.

The Air Force Academy is ranked No. 1 overall in the NCAA Division I Mountain Western Conference. Not only are the Falcons in a better division and conference than the Roadrunners, but they also have every advantage allowed. Even so, the Metro women’s tennis team traveled to AFA Feb. 26 for their season opener in Colorado Springs.

AFA doubles started the slaughter with Metro only being able to pull out three games overall, two of which came from No. 2 doubles teammates freshmen Marianne Evangelista and Sam Schall with a score of 8-2. No. 1 doubles teammates sophomore Yerica Pessoa and senior April Hirad pulled off the third game with a win but still losing 8-1.

“April and I tried our hardest out there,” Pessoa said. “The other team was just better at closing the net and we were a little intimidated.”

Singles painted the same picture but on a different canvas. The ’Runners didn’t seem intimidated anymore, but more willing to make Air Force earn the victory instead of just letting them have it.

“We were keeping the ball in play,” Hirad said. “Coach has done a good job focusing on that this semester.”

The ’Runners were reaching shots that were even shocking opposing players from Air Force. Even though Metro only won five games in singles, the score doesn’t show how close the match really was. Junior Kathleen Thompson had the game tied multiple times, but was unable to eliminate minor mistakes to come away with the game point.

“I didn’t play my best but I tried my hardest,” Thompson said. “I could have upped my first serve percentage a little more, and placed the ball better.”

The women were much more capable of winning the match this year against Air Force, but it’s only the first game of the season. The kinks are still being worked out.

“Oh yeah, definitely it’s the beginning of the season, we have had only three weeks of practice and we started off against a Division I school,” Thompson said. “She (Head Coach Beck Meares) does this intentionally to get us ready for the season.”

The women also lost to Abilene Christian 9-0 making their starting record 0-2 overall. Their next match will be March 12th against Colorado Christian at the Auraria Courts.

In the past month the campus police have recorded at least 16 arrests and responded to dozens of other calls. The Auraria Police Department tracks all crimes through the log and blog on its website so students can see what has happened on campus.

In February, campus police reported at least 16 thefts, 10 calls regarding sick or injured people, five accidents, four driving-under-the-influence stops, two incidents of trespassing and one assault case in which the victim did not want to press charges, but wanted an apology instead.

“The most prevalent crime we’ve had [this month] is theft,” APD Deputy Chief Robert Forrest said.

Unattended backpacks, wallets, iPods and laptops were the most common items stolen in February. It is common for personal items to go “missing” when left out in the open, but even properly locked up bikes have been taken from right out-front of the King Center.

A majority of the thefts have happened in the Auraria Event Center and the Tivoli. Lockers have been ransacked in the Auraria Event Center and students in the Tivoli have had their bags taken from tables when they were left unattended for several minutes.

“Crimes of opportunity are always a problem on campus,” APD Detective Jason Mollendor said.

Mollendor advises students, faculty, and others on campus to always keep their items on them. “If you must leave your table, always lock your items up,” he said.

Mollendor said they recently arrested a suspect.

“[We were] able to link him to all but one of the thefts committed this month,” Mollendor said.

While it is the most common crime, theft is not the only transgression committed on campus.

An officer was called Feb. 15 to the Tivoli Auraria Parking Structure when a security officer noticed three unattended children locked in a car.

When the owner of the vehicle returned he stated that the children were his girlfriend’s.

The owner of the car was asked by his girlfriend to deliver the kids to their father.

When the father never showed, he left the kids in the car while he took a test. Both the mother of the children and the boyfriend may face charges.

The campus police also received calls from persons requiring medical assistance.

One call in particular came from the Plaza Building when someone was reportedly having seizures.

Members of the medical staff at the Health Center at Auraria said the person had a past history of seizures and was then transported to the hospital.

Another sick and injured distress was reported on Feb. 17 when an officer walking around the Tivoli was informed of an injured person at a credit union. The person was awake, and was able to answer questions and said they had not eaten in a while and passed out.

The person refused an ambulance and left the premises. The injured individual later returned and said they had hit their head on the counter and a credit union would be hearing from them.

For more information on recent crimes and how to contact the Auraria Police, please visit www.AHEC.edu and click on the campus police tab.

Auraria students will vote this spring on whether to keep their semester passes for bus and Light Rail, after RTD announced an almost 30 percent jump in the price.

Scheduled for March 31 and April 1, the student referendum will decide whether the student fee for the transit pass paid each semester will increase from $39 to $61 beginning next fall, for a contract with RTD totalling more than $5 million.

The jump in price is a result of RTD raising its general fares and approximately 12 percent more Auraria riders, according to information supplied by the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board. RTD representatives had not returned phone calls as of press time.

“That they raise it so much at once offends me as a conservative,” Metro student senator Kailei Higginson said. “But the value is still there…it’s still a good deal,” Higginson said.

Ted Anderson (left) and Tyler Krofft stand while Denise Lund sits and reads on a crowded southbound RTD light rail train on Monday evening. Photo by Will Morgan

And a good deal it is. An equivalent pass giving the owner unlimited Denver service would cost more than $160 per month, or more than $650 a semester. A monthly pass for only local routes is approximately $70 each month, or $280 a semester.

The reason that students get such a deal is that the cost is spread between all students whether they ride or not. RTD sets its price according to estimates of how many students actually use the pass, multiplied by the price of a cash fare. The transit company estimated Auraria students took more than 2.8 million trips in 2009 on bus and Light Rail.

SACAB, the council of student representatives elected from each institution — Metro, UCD and CCD — is in charge of conducting the RTD fee referendum, which, like all student fees according to the handbook, must be approved by students.

“I like the pass…it’s really a good deal,” Metro chemistry junior Abby Ridgeway said. Ridgeway rides the Light Rail 30 minutes from home almost every day she has classes and uses the time to do homework. Even if she lost the pass, she wouldn’t start driving, but she said she hopes the fee gets approved.

“I guess I would just suck it up and pay either way,” she said. “I don’t like driving.”

James Julian, a UCD engineering sophomore, uses the pass every day and said he will be voting to keep it. “It’s really a great pass…being able to ride anywhere on Light Rail or bus,” Julian said. “But if it got too expensive or I had to buy a monthly pass … I would probably just drive,” he said.

Program focuses on integrating family education

With 80 percent of alumni choosing to stay in Colorado after graduation, Metro has an active role in the local economy as a path of opportunity beyond a high school diploma.

But for the Metro Family Literacy program, the goal is to start that path to higher education for Denver low-income families as early as preschool.

The Family Literacy program works with Denver Public Schools and the Denver Housing Authority to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy in immigrant communities with four types of courses: children’s education, adult education, parenting support and interactive learning with parents and children together.

The program covers topics such as computer proficiency, English acquisition and nutrition. According to a Colorado Department of Education evaluation, program participants are more likely to have better grades, attendance and standardized test scores.

But higher test scores don’t express the full impact of the program for Tom Dietvorst, the lead family literacy teacher at Columbian Elementary.

“Tests are nothing but a sample of behavior,” Dietvorst said. “The behaviors demonstrated are test-taking skills; but, for our students, we see higher academic attainment that has a wider effect throughout the entire community.”

From left: Alberto Valles, Maria Valles, Jesse De Leon, and Ana De Leon participate in parent-child interactive class March 1 at Columbian Elementary. Photo by Chancey Bush

He said the experience of working with immigrants in the Family Literacy program reminds him of his own experiences as an immigrant in the United States struggling to find a toehold not just in English, but in the larger community as well.

“I came here from the Netherlands, at age six, and the only English I knew was the ‘Our Father’ and the ‘Hail Mary.’ When I hear a teacher droning on today, I can still remember how it felt 53 years ago, to not understand a single word of what I was hearing,” Dietvorst said.

He compared the experience of teaching family literacy to running a restaurant kitchen with 50 boiling pots.

“Just when you get the lid on one situation, something else is boiling over. But this is what our parents are going through, trying to navigate all the decisions they’re making in their lives with jobs, child-care and illnesses,” he said.

Ildelena Casillas agreed that being a parent in a foreign culture was intimidating, but the Family Literacy program helped the transition.

“My experience in this program has been excellent. I have been able to let go of my fear, which was my primary obstacle to participating in the class and helping myself and my children,” Casillas said. “This has given us the opportunity to involve ourselves more with our children.”

Karina Santoyo, a mother of three, said she personally felt the impact of the Family Literacy program.

“I discovered the importance of education for my children and for myself. The childrens’ grades have improved because of my help with their homework and projects,” Santoyo said. “My life has changed because I feel more self-sufficient and can better solve my family’s problems and meet their needs.”

In addition to Columbian Elementary, the Metro program is at place at three other schools in Denver: Fairview, Munroe and Charles M. Schenck Community School.

The challenge of keeping everything funded is just part of the job for Adriann Wycoff, director of the Metro Family Literacy program. Wycoff helped create the program at Metro in 1994.

“At any given moment, there are between 14 and 16 different grants working to keep family literacy operational. Family literacy is very intensive, so it is very expensive. The money comes from a mixture of sources, so it becomes a kind of juggling act,” Wycoff said.

Wycoff said she tries to stay optimistic about future funding, but she is worried about the effect of the current economic downturn.

“Three years ago, the state legislature finally appropriated funding for family literacy. We had this state money for two years and then the state budget tanked. Someday, when the budget recovers, maybe we’ll have this money again, but who knows?” she said. “My crystal ball is out of order; I don’t know what is going to happen.”