Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in.


VIDEO: The Young Indiana Jones Episodes
Starring Sean Patrick Flannery
Directed by George Lucas
Lucasfilm Paramount
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

Indiana Jones is one of Steven Spielberg's most enduring heroes with three, no, make that two, memorable feature films. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is way below the other two, but that's another story. As you may know, some of Indiana's early life was recounted at the start of the third movie, played by the late River Phoenix. A couple years later Steven's friend George Lucas undertook an ambitious project to serialize more of Indy's early life for television. The result was, and still is, some of the best television ever made.

Strangely, original broadcast of the series was done at widely varying times and most people did not see every episode. The recent release of the later episodes starring Sean Patrick Flannery as Jones corrects all that.

Television was never like this before and may never be again. Each episode is nearly two hours long and of a quality rivaling most feature films. It's obvious no expense was spared. There's first class writing, full orchestral scores, beautiful location shots from all over the globe (often where these events actually happened), and terrific performances from a large number of stars and soon-to-be stars. Flannery holds his own through it all. Indeed, he's become a favorite young actor (check out Powder after you see his work here). One of the best surprises is the hitherto unknown Ronny Cotteure as Remy, Indy's Belgian sidekick in World War I. More famous stars include Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Lee and Max Von Sydow. There's also early appearances by Anne Heche, Elizabeth Hurley and a pre-Zorro Catherine Zeta-Jones in Daredevils of the Desert (thump, thump!). What a set of girlfriends! Indy's been holding out on us!

Being a history buff is not required but the series just might make you into one. It's practically a textbook on early 20th century history, but no textbook ever made history come alive like this. The Trenches of Hell episode may be the most vivid portrayal of the Battle of Verdun ever made, in it's own way as powerful as Saving Private Ryan. Another where Indy meets Dr. Albert Schwitzer is not only lush with African scenery, but emotionally and philosophically moving as Jones learns some lessons from one of the century's great humanitarians. He also gets to meet up with other great historical figures such as Pancho Villa, Charles Degaulle, Picasso, Thomas Edison, Baron Von Richtofen, Sigmund Freud, Lawrence of Arabia and Vladimir Lenin to name a few. You could gripe that it's fictionalized history a la JFK, after all there is no such person as Indiana Jones, but it's all very detailed and as historically accurate as Lucas could make it. He did a great job welding the educational and the moving to the entertaining.

In the plots of the Indiana Jones feature films, Spielberg relies heavily on magic as a real force. The magic in this series is that it brings to life a period of time that most people know very little about. I'm sure glad George Lucas is rich from Star Wars so he can pursue hobbies like this series. He had to have done this for love, because they can't have made any money since they were shown so little on TV and must have cost a bundle to make. I'm amazed they haven't made it to video until now.

See them. Rent them. Own them! The only question now is where are the first six episodes where he's a young boy meeting people like J. Krishnamurti?


(C) 2000 - Rusty Pipes



GAME: Triple Play 2000
From Electronic Arts
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

Sports simulations have come a long, long way since the Atari days, boy. I remember being thrilled with baseball sims where there wasn't even any motion and the results were all displayed in text. Of course, that doesn't suffice in today's world of fast computers and graphic realism. For realism motivated stats freaks there's Strat-O-Matic. For those who want to feel like they're actually facing Randy Johnson's untouchable fastball, there's Triple Play 2000.

The graphics are fantastic. Pitcher's motions, swings, double play pivots, pick off moves, bunts and just about everything else look just right. Where most games show the ball flying straight and true, this one gives you hooks and slices when the contact calls for it. Watching a deep fly hooking toward the foul pole has the same kind of mystery and excitement as it does in a real game. Ballpark re-creation is excellent, as well, so your lefty hitters can aim for the roof at Tiger Stadium or bounce one off the old factory at Camden Yards.

For those who dream of running a club, Triple Play 2000 has plenty to offer. You can release all players into a draft pool, choose a team to run, and draft your players. The computer drafts for the other teams, and it does a very good job of snatching the players you want, adding to the realism. It does this very fast, so a round only takes about 7 seconds and it's your turn again. An entire draft can be run in 20 minutes or so. You can set up your lineups and rotation, court free agents, and offer trades. Other teams will offer trades to you over the course of the season, though the offers are rarely in the blockbuster category. You can steer your team through the 162 game season, take them into the playoffs and shoot for the series, hoping not to lose anyone to injury. EA Sports, ya know? "It's in the game!"

This isn't to say there aren't problems. There are, in fact, a few very irritating ones, starting with the computer player's habit of trying to pick your runners off all bases over and over and over. It's mind numbing. I counted 12 consecutive throws to first in one game instance, and I'm pretty sure it's sometimes more. The only way out of the loop is to tell your runners to take a short lead, and even that only works about a quarter of the time. Another irritation is the strange color choice for National League grass, which is a shade of blue in several parks. Not sure what they were thinking there.

There are also a few things that aren't in the game. Personally, I'd like to be able to send my manager out to the mound to chat with my pitcher and see if he can be calmed down. I'd like to see the managers go ballistic on the umps sometimes. There ARE no visible managers here, and in real life a game can be turned around by the emotional charge of a manager getting himself tossed. And what's with the sound when someone hits a ball hard? While the bat-on-ball sound is very good the rest of the time, a home run sounds like the Blue Angels just flew over and broke the sound barrier. Admittedly, Mark McGuire's homers have a scary thwack to 'em, but it doesn't sound like a shuttle launch, guys. Final bitch: since players have point values assigned (which do raise or lower depending on their performance during the season), unrealistic trades can be made. I traded a hot Otis Nixon for a relatively cold Ken Griffey, Jr. simply because they were both rated 80 at that moment, even though no GM in his right mind would make that trade.

Those things aside, Triple Play 2000 is a sports sim freak's dream. If you want realism, you can avoid making those Nixon-for-Griffey trades and build your team honestly, struggle through the season, field trade offers and get ready for the next season. Playing this game along side its nearest competitor, 3DO's High Heat 2000, Triple Play 2000 is the clear winner. And those things that are wrong with it are just a patch away from being history.


(C) 2000 - DJ Johnson