The James Logan Courier

By Amanda Erickson
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Thirteen thousand dollars.

That's the average cost of a year of college for in-state students. Make it more than $32,000 for those attending private schools.

But thanks to complicated financial aid formulas, what undergraduates really pay for their degree is a much more complex equation. Now Congress is trying to take the mystery out of the forever-rising costs of higher education by mandating that colleges provide students and their parents more information about how much the average student pays for school, what kind of tuition help they might be able to secure and which universities offer the best bang for the buck. Congress is also calling for an annual "blacklist" of schools with the steepest cost increases.

Critics wonder whether the measures will provide real financial relief or just create extra paperwork for colleges.

By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" would be a forgettable summer kiddie action movie except for the novel visual effects that make it a sight to see.

"Journey" is the first fiction feature shot with new-generation digital 3-D cameras. There would be no reason to see the film if it weren't stereoscopic; but in 3-D capable theaters, it's a through-the-looking-glass experience.

A modern reworking of the classic Jules Verne adventure, the film stars Brendan Fraser as Trevor, a genial geology professor whose volcano lab is about to be shut down by the penny-pinching dean. That's a personal outrage to Trevor, who is carrying on research started by his brother Max, who disappeared 10 years earlier hunting "volcanic tubes" that he believed would lead directly to the planet's core. During a visit from Max's bored, bratty adolescent son Sean (Josh Hutcherson), Trevor finds data in Verne's novel of subterranean exploration that parallel his findings. With Josh in tow, he embarks for Iceland to explore Max's expedition site.

By Rick Bentley
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Ron Perlman has a face made for makeup. But he's OK with that.

He says some of the most comfortable roles of his career have been when he wore lots of makeup. That includes parts from the mane man Vincent in the TV series "Beauty and the Beast" to his title character in "Hellboy."

"I was more comfortable behind the mask than naked like this," Perlman says during an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel. He is spending the day talking about his new film "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," which opens Friday. "The makeup made be freer because it was no longer me. It was a transformed version of me. It made acting more possible."