Word: alarmist
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...Associate Professor of Government Payton S. Wild gave an alarmist lecture about the nuclear race and the potential for what The Crimson called a "Gestapo situation" in the United States in April...
...This alarmist language may yet be justified. By 1999 folly has compounded folly. In many cases, the original COBOL code has been rejiggered so many times that the date locations have been lost. And even when programmers find their quarry, they aren't sure which fixes will work. The amount of code that needs to be checked has grown to a staggering 1.2 trillion lines. Estimates for the cost of the fix in the U.S. alone range from $50 billion to $600 billion. As for Y2K compliance in Asian economies still struggling with recession? Forget about...
...Alarmist starts as a modified Robin Hood where "the den" is a circa 1954 sushi restaurant, and the merry men have been compressed into several burglar alarm sales-people bent on income redistribution. Anyone familiar with Los Angeles will realize the timeliness of their "rob the rich" scam in which Heinrich Grigoris (Greg Tucci) boosts the sales of his alarms by staging robberies in the neighborhood of his potential clients. The twist in Grigoris' scheme is Tommy, the new salesman played with adorable, bumbling style by David Arquette. The real credit in The Alarmist must go to the actors. Like...
...general, The Alarmist suffers from a kind of multiple personality disorder. Lines like "stop or I'll shoot" and "I love her and you took her away" alternate with weirdly sophisticated monologues on security and trust. The plot aims to depict paranoid modernity but misses, venturing off into the surreal as it ticks through comedy, romance, tragedy and documentary. The aesthetic attempts to depict low-class L.A. kitsch (the 1954 sushi joint, Tommy's family home in the outer 'burbs), but lacks many key touches. Especially lacking is the cool, retro music soundtrack one would associate with such a picture...
...real credit in The Alarmist must go to the actors. Like Mt. Rushmore, their place in the surroundings is hard to surmise, but they define it anyway. They convince the audience of what is happening, and sell the surreal with their gregarity. David Arquette is set with a particularly difficult part in the role of Tommy, who must be both densely naive and a stunningly talented salesman. His innocent pursuit of a sophisticated older woman has a good shot at being the new classic in the older woman-younger man scenario. Kate Capshaw is similarly adept in this situation...