Movies

Stardust

"Scheming princes, wicked witches, flying pirates, celestial love, a pure-hearted hero, all in a magical land. What more do you want?" raves Today's Gene Shalit for Stardust, an epic adventure starring Claire Danes with Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro.

In hopes of wooing a beautiful girl (Sienna Miller), Tristan (Charlie Cox) promises to bring her a falling star. But he's in for the adventure of his life when he discovers the star is actually a celestial beauty named Yvaine (Danes).

When an old witch Lamia (Pfeiffer) attempts to steal Yvaine's youth, Tristan must protect her at all costs. This magical fairytale like no other will make you laugh out loud and believe in love again.

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Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy start in Wild Hogs, the hysterically funny comedy about four weekend-warrior friends who decide to rev up their ho-hum suburban lives with a cross-country motorcycle adventure. They don their leathers, fire up their hogs and throw caution and their cell phones to the wind as they hit the open highway. But a lot can happen on the road to nowhere, including a run-in with the bad-to-the-bone Del Fuegos, a real biker gang who don't take kindly to the wannabes. Filled with hilarious misadventures, screwball situations and madcap mayhem, this laugh-out-loud comedy is a movie your whole family will go hog wild over.

Wild Hogs is about four middle-aged men who live in Ohio. During the week each does his nine-to-five thing, but every weekend they armor up in denim and leather, cruise around town on their motorcycles and then have a few beers. When mid-life crisis tickled one man's nose, it was not long before it spread through the group and a motorcycle road trip ensued. What better way for them to regain the spontanaety and autonomy of their glory days? I'm not sure this plot really needed conflict, but on their way west they came across a more traditional biker gang, who did not take kindly to these four midwestern suburbanites considering themselves peers.

When the movie was first advertised I could not believe the cast (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy). I had no issues with getting such an ensemble together, I was more taken back by the fact that these men (primarily Travolta) would make a movie like this. The more I thought about it, and certainly now that I have seen the movie, I believe that this was more about making a fun movie and working together than it was about setting box office records. I would have loved to be a fly on the camera while these men worked together; I hope it was as much fun for them as I imagine it to have been.

I gave Wild Hogs "the old college try" since I had heard some surprisingly encouraging remarks. I talked to a few people who were very pleased with the movie. I addressed my concerns with them about how cheesy it looked and I was told not to worry. In the end, Wild Hogs was very cheesy. But it was fun enough for what it was. If you can relate with the characters I am sure there is more substance to the movie than I was able to enjoy.

Have you ever been told that, "You will love Office Space even more if you have ever worked in an office setting?" Well, you will appreciate Wild Hogs much more if your own mid-life crisis is knocking, or has knocked at your door. Since (thankfully) mine has not, once the "conflict" settled into the story my interest waned.

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Chazz: I hope you’ve brought your silver polish, MacElroy, 'cause that was gold. Jimmy: That was disgusting. Chazz: THAT, young man, is how babies are made.

Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is a stubborn girl who wants to be included in the adventures of her uncle, the Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). For one particularly important mission Lord Asriel heads to "The North," and again Lyra is left behind. Her savior comes in the form of a woman, the Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), who says she is about to travel to the North and could use an assistant. For safety on her voyage with Mrs. Coulter, Lyra is given a strange instrument and told to keep it a secret. The instrument is an Alethiometer and if you can read it, it always shows you the truth. With the help of the Alethiometer and some new friends she meets along the way, Lyra must find and save kidnapped children and then find her uncle.

The movie is based on the world created by Philip Pullman in the His Dark Materials series, a three-book set with The Golden Compass being the first. While I have not read the books, I will assume that much of the movie was as it was in the books. For example, I will credit Pullman with the dæmons -- in this parallel world a person's soul travels alongside the body, in animal form, rather than inside it. This was a wildly imaginative element to the story and one of those "Why didn't I come up with that?" ideas.

I really like Daniel Craig, but he is not in the movie very long. You get the impression that he might get more on-screen time later in the story, but Lyra is our star. As Lyra, Dakota Blue Richards was everything she needed to be, when she need to be. She was stubborn, sassy, strong, and lots of other things that don't start with the letter S.

I don't like Nicole Kidman. In almost every role she is sneaky, rude, cold and nasty. And that is exactly how she was in The Golden Compass, and I loved it. Mrs. Coulter is each and every one of those things.

The animation for the movie was very well done. There were many parts of the movie where the animators could have made it look less animated, but they didn't. I think it added to the fantasy element of the story to keep it this way.

The story moves pretty quickly. There is a lot of information packed into just one movie. Normally I would gripe about the lack of depth given to certain parts of the plot, but I am making an exception for The Golden Compass under the assumption that things will be explained in the next two installments of the series.

It was PG-13 and the only reason I could see was for animated violence. Many people died, but there was little or no blood.

You can call this a children's movie if you want, but I think it is time we re-evaluated that category. You will like this movie if you like fun fantasy/adventure stories. I loved it.

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