“Stardust”

Claire Danes
Charlie Cox
Sienna Miller
Robert de Niro
Michelle Pfeiffer
Kate Magowan
Ricky Gervais
Jason Flemying
Rupert Everett
Peter O’Toole
Mark Strong
Sarah Alexander
Melanie Hill
Joanna Scanlan

PG13           127min           2007

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

When an old witch (Michelle 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 lout and believe in love again.

“Stardust” is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman. This is a better film than I anticipated. It was truly and epic adventure film bringing to the screen a lot of story in just a little over two hours. The film flowed and the story made sense and stay with in the rule of boundary.

The characters are arc types that you find in the most famous fairy tales and the actors do a great job of inhabiting the characters. This is a story that the children and parents alike will enjoy. This is a happy magical enjoyable live action tale on par with any Disney film.

“Stardust” shows that truly love will win out and that it can be found in the most unexpected places. The same message that is portrayed in the best fairy tales and stories. The actors make the story believable. This will make a nice addition to any collection.

There are a few special features. There is making of featurette, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, and the theatrical trailer. It has movie previews for “Spiderwick Chronicles”, “Arctic Tale”, “Transformers”, “Shrek the Third”, and “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

I give it 4/5 Gs.

“Balls of Fury”

Dan Folger
Christopher Walken
George Lopez
Maggie Q
James Hong
Robert Patrick
Aisha Tyler
Thomas Lennon
Diedrich Bader
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Terry Crews
Patton Oswalt
David Koechner
David Proval
Brett DelBuono

PG13           91min           2007

In the unsanctioned, underground, and unhinged world of extreme Ping-Pong, the competition is brutal and the stakes are deadly. Now, this outrageous new comedy serves up this secret world for the first time on-screen. Down-and-out former professional Ping-Pong phenom Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is sucked into this maelstrom when FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and recapture his former glory, and to smoke out his father’s (Robert Patrick) killer – one of the FBI’s Most Wanted, arch-fiend Feng (Christopher Walken). But, after two decades out of the game, Randy can’t turn his life around and avenge his father’s murder without a team of his own. He calls upon the spiritual guidance of blind Ping-Pong sage and restaurateur Wong (James Hong), and the training expertise of Master Wong’s wildly sexy niece Maggie (Maggie Q), both of whom also have a dark history with Feng. All roads lead to Feng’s mysterious jungle compound and the most unique Ping-Pong tournaments ever staged. There, Randy faces such formidable players as his ong-ago Olympics opponent, the still-vicious Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon). Can Randy keep his eye on the ball? Will he achieve the redemption he craves while wielding a paddle? Is his backhand strong tnough to triumph over rampant wickedness? – from imdb

“Balls of Fury” was described as a kung fu movie with all the kung fu parts replaced with ping pong. This description does a disservice to the kung fu movie genre. It’s an satirical piece of crap that only redeeming qualities are Maggie Q and the rockin eighties soundtrack. The rest of this film is just a waste of time.

Although the plot is taken exactly from most revenge kung fu movies, and everything things screams kung fu movie I would never classify this film as a kung fu movie. This is more of a ping pong movie with kung fu overtones. Calling it other wise makes people thing kung fu films are crappy too, when there are some very good films in the genre. Some even stand the test of time.

“Balls of Fury” is a waste of time to watch this film. It has funny moments but altogether they don’t make this film worth watching. Robert Patrick’s management should be fire for letting him to this film. Better yet the film executive who greenlit this film should be fired. There had to have been aleast one other script better than this on the shelve.

The only redeeming quality and the reason I don’t classify this as an “End of Days” is Maggie Q and the eighties soundtrack. Maggie Q is hot and makes this film better just by looking at her. The hair band rock from the eighties goes great with this film and the closing credits with “Pore Some Sugar” didn’t make it a total waste.

I give it 1/5 Gs.

“Camjackers”

Phoenix Orion
Cody Lucich
Olinda Fonseca
Shante Reese
Darkzeied
Aceyalone
2mex
Myka 9
Medusa
Tao Ruspoli
Jeremy Eels
Olivia Wilde
Megalyn Echikunwoke
Eliza Minor
Rashawn Robinson

Unrated           80min           2006

” It’s cool man. We’ve got black friends…” Two rich, clueless film school grads (“the Filmfakers”) are shooting a modernized “ghetto” interpretation of an ancient Greek play on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Their equipment is “borrowed” by three street youths (“the Camjackers”), who shoot a compelling documentary on underground hip hop. The Filmfakers rip off the Camjackers’ film and rise to fame and fortune. The Camjackers see their stolen work on TV and seek revenge. – from imdb

“Camjackers” is a great film in concept but left more to be desired in execution. The underground L.A. hip-hop documentary worked, but the pretentious filmmakers did not. Between the two story I think what was important got lost. It came off more as an offbeat artistic comedy and maybe that is what they were going for in the end.

The artist that were feature were vastly different bring their own opinions of what hip-hop is and how it has shaped the future. The featured artist showed a broad range of talented people giving amazing verses; giving the viewer a glimpse into a world rarely scene to the out side world. A scene that to this day has been influential in the music scene and still under appreciated.

The second half of the pretentious filmmakers distracted me from rest of the feature. Watching the special features, I understand what they were trying to do. I felt it did work for this film. I would have rather seen more from the underground scene.

The “Camjackers” special features included a making of featurette, interviews, and a director’s commentary. It also features music excerpts from the film, a slide show of behind the scene pictures, a trailer for the film and a short film “Falling”. The other feature is a movie preview for “Rain in the Mountain”.

I give 2/5 Gs.

“The Simpsons Movie”

Dan Castellaneta
Julie Kavner
Nancy Cartwright
Yeardley Smith
Hank Azaria
Harry Shearer
Pamela Hayden
Tress MacNeille
Albert Brooks
Karl Wiedergoit
Marcia Wallace

PG13           87min           2007

Thanks to Lisa Simpson, Lake Springfield is cleaned up from the pollution that once fouled it. But when Homer, who’s adopted a pig (Spider-pig) and dumps a silo full of the pig’s crap in the lake, the EPA
places a large dome over Springfield, and the Simpsons family manage to escape through a sinkhole. The family flees to a better life in Alaska, but when the head of the EPA, Russ Cargill, orders the towns destruction, it’s up to Homer to save Springfield!

Essentially, “The Simpsons Movie” is and extended episode of the Simpsons. There really is not anything special about this movie and Homer said it best at the beginning of the film. “You are all sucker for paying for something that you can get for free”.

Homer misses up. Marge for gives him. Bart does what Bart does. Lisa is trying to save the town. Maggie is sucking on her pacifier. The same thing they have done for eighteen years.

Not being a fan “The Simpsons Movie” was just another Simpson episode that was thirty minutes too long and $5.00 too much. In addition, I thought there was nothing special about and agreed with Homer Simpson, DOH. But for the millions of fans out there I would like to know what made it worth paying for it.

The DVD has a cast commentary with James L. Brooks. There is a director’s commentary and deleted scenes. It also has skits with Homer on the Tonight Show, Homer introducing American Idol, and Let’s Go to the Movies. It features a bunch of trailers for the movie and preview trailer for “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Futurama”.

I give it 3/5