Published 2003-09-17T00:00:00Z”/>

CD/John Mayer

Sigh … Dreamy ballad boy John Mayer’s seductive smirk will soon be drawing in females by the truckload. “Heavier Things” is saturated in delicate guitar arrangements and Mayer’s distinctive style.

His words seem to escape his mouth as if fine-grain sandpaper had smoothed over his throat.

Like the ingredients to a great dessert, the songs on “Heavier Things” are carefully measured out.

The booklet even shows the components of each song. For instance, the radio hit “Bigger Than My Body” contains equal parts of “optimistic, guitar solo, flight, promissory and defiant.” Fans will understand much more clearly when they buy the album.

“Come Back to Bed” is one of those songs that’s guaranteed to make it on some movie soundtrack this year. You can’t help wanting to slow dance to it.

When Mayer croons “It’s cold baby/Come back to bed,” women won’t be able to help themselves. They must obey.

<em>-Valerie Lum</em>

Movie/Cabin Fever

Four teenagers celebrate the end of their high school days with a weekend in the woods, but get chased by a different kind of killer in “Cabin Fever.”

This time, the killer is a flesh-eating virus that’s very contagious. This quasi-original take on the standard slasher doesn’t really bring anything new, has many nonsensical turns and twists, extremely annoying one-bit characters and is a lot more funny than scary or disturbing mainly because of horrid dialogue.

Avoid this one like the plague.

<em>-Eric Chrisman</em>

CD/Mary J. Blige

The reigning voice of hip-hop/soul celebrates her latest album, “Love & Life,” with sounds that can revive any dead spirit.

After a almost a decade apart, Mary J. Blige reunites with the Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, the man who produced her first two albums and crowned her the queen of hip-hop/soul.

The star-studded album jumps with guest performances from Method Man, Eve, Jay-Z and 50 Cent. Even Dr. Dre produces the bass-thumping sound for “Not Today.”

If your a Blige fan, then this album is for you. The lyrics are inspiring and the beats are so multilayered it’s sure to have your stereo system begging for more juice.

Some of the songs can drag on a little too much, forcing you to press the skip button on your CD player.

“Love & Life” features 18 tracks that can be therapeutic for heartbroken souls or just get the party hopping with melodic dance songs. One of those dance-jams, “Love @ 1st Sight,” single-handedly makes owning the album worth it.

<em>-Rosalio Ahumada</em>

Game/Wrestlemania 19

Prepare to lay the smackdown on 45 of the World Wrestling Entertainment’s biggest superstars in Wrestlemania 19 for the GameCube.

The follow-up to last year’s disappointing Wrestlemania 18 features a brand new story-mode and a greatly improved grapple and counter system.

The new game also has additional match types.

Unfortunately, the character models aren’t done particularly well (especially the women, which they never get right).

The computer intelligence is bipolar, often doing things that make no sense, but the biggest problem is the story mode.

It’s a horrible “action game” where you can get fired.

Instead of doing cool things like triple-threat cage matches, you will fight bland enemies in shopping malls and end up destroying generic cars in parking lots.

And going through this mode is the only way to earn money to unlock extra points and costumes for create-a-wrestler.

I’d honestly only recommend this if you have no plans to make any wrestlers for yourself.

Which I doubt anybody wants since the game is missing about half the roster of wrestlers.

<em>-Eric Chrisman</em>

DVD/All I Want

What kind of movie do you get when you cast a hobbit (Elijah Wood), a pop star (Mandy Moore), a German movie star (Franka Potente of “Run Lola Run”) and a disco queen (Deborah Harry of Blondie)?

Don’t worry, this is not a teen movie. It’s R-rated. Wood plays Jones, a confused boy who goes off to college carrying only a trunk of letters written to his unknown father, a large inheritance and a fake ID.

Within minutes of meeting his skinhead dorm roommate, he drops out and moves into an apartment and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. The other tenants include Moore, an aspiring actress, Potente, an eccentric photographer, and Brad (Aaron Pearl) a gun-toting cowboy who paints.

The movie is full of humorous Ally McBeal-like daydreams as Jones deals with his attraction to two girls in the house and his anger toward his alcoholic mother. So to answer the question above – what kind of movie is this? The answer is, surprisingly, a pretty good movie.

<em>-Drew Harden</em>