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'Food Fight
Battle of the Bands
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Caliente Contest
"Björn Again: The ABBA
Experience" comes to Centennial
Hall tonight. It's a stage show
that goes beyond the music of
the 1970s-'80s super group to
explore the egos and
relationships of the Swedish
foursome - Benny Andersson,
Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid
Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog.

The origin of ABBA's name has
two stories: One, they used the
initials of their first names; and
two, the name is a play on a
popular Swedish company
named Abba.

Both are true. The band was
originally named after the
Swedish company, but when
their career was booming
internationally - they went on to
become one of the most
successful international pop acts
ever - they realized no one
outside their native Sweden
would get the name play. So they
held a contest with fans to come
up with a name before settling
on ABBA. They eventually had to
negotiate with the company to
use the name ABBA.

Here's our question: In what
business was the Swedish
company?

Those who answer correctly will
have a chance to win a cookbook.

Click here to submit your
answer.

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Caliente Cover
Click image below to download a PDF of this week's Caliente cover.

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Aznightbuzz Calendar
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Watch Phil Villarreal's review
Don Cheadle plays Samir, a Muslim working undercover for the U.S. who attempts to work his way up the terrorist hierarchy. Saïd Taghmaoui, right, plays a jihadist who helps Samir.
Courtesy of Overture Films
Review
Traitor
***
• Rated: PG-13 for intense violent sequences, thematic material and brief language.
• Cast: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Saïd Taghmaoui, Neal McDonough.
• Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff.
• Family call: Violent at times, but generally fine for families.
• Running time: 110 minutes.
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'Traitor' worthy of genre

Daring portrayals

By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.28.2008
A lean, taut espionage thriller that dares to treat Muslim terrorists as real people rather than faceless drones, "Traitor" never betrays its core.
Don Cheadle stars as Samir, a devout Muslim who sells explosives to terrorist groups. At a meeting in Yemen, police capture him and let American agents Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Archer (Neal McDonough) grill him. Samir refuses to rat out his co-conspirators, choosing to rot in prison indefinitely.
Baffled by Samir's resolve, Clayton does some research and learns that Samir was an American operative who crossed over to the other side when he was deployed. Clayton underestimates Samir's devoutness, however. He abhors fundamentalist violence and sees it as his religious duty to undermine those who corrupt Islam.
Samir is actually a saboteur, taking secret orders from an American intelligence contractor (Jeff Daniels). He's a pretend terrorist on Uncle Sam's payroll.
With the help of the well-connected jihadist inmate Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui), Samir escapes from prison and starts planning and executing bombings. The goal is to earn enough clout to work his way into the upper echelons and derail massive-scale attacks.
Ever conflicted, Samir tries to reconcile his religion with his duty, double-dealing with both sides, which seek to abuse him for his skill and fortitude. And the heat only ratchets higher, with Clayton and Archer searching for him and tracing him to the attacks, identifying Samir as a high-profile public enemy.
Other than Samir, most of the characters are oversimplified placeholders with little depth, but Cheadle gives you someone to latch onto and care for. You also sort of despise him, because he may well be doing more harm than good. Along with Samir, you wonder if it's worth executing a plan that kills a few in order to get into position to derail a larger plot, especially if Samir originates that larger plot.
Along with "Syriana" and "The Kingdom," "Traitor" is a sign of a recently evolving genre — the morally conflicted War on Terror film, replacing the more cut-and-dried Cold War thrillers such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "WarGames."
Battles without uniforms, negotiations and battle lines will be the subjects of new war films. "Traitor" is a reflection of its uncertain times.

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