“Stardust” is the next evolution of the “The Princess Bride”. It is a film that bridges the gap between fantasy, romance, and drama. Director Matthew Vaughan takes us on an adventure that is sure to warm you heart and make you believe in another world filled with magical creatures and possibilities. Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) lives in the village of Wall, which for the purposes of this film is located in England. He is smitten with Victoria (Sienna Miller), the stereotypical shallow, pretty girl of the village. Thinking he loves Victoria, he is willing to do anything to “win” her love and hand in marriage. While on a picnic, the two spot a shooting star. Victoria agrees that if Tristan were to bring her a fallen star, she would marry him. Their marriage is contingent upon Tristan bringing the star to ...

  Even director Nick Castle admits “The Last Starfighter” owes a lot to the Star Wars movies, as well as to Spielberg’s “E.T.” So don’t come to this movie looking for originality—it has very little of that. But it’s warm-hearted, albeit clumsily so, and features the last movie role of the great Robert Preston, here more or less “The Music Man”’s Harold Hill as an alien looking for adept star warriors. Preston twinkles, ingratiates and completely steals, without too much effort, every scene he appears in. He even gets a death scene (but death doesn’t last long in this kind of movie). The screenplay is by Jonathan Betuel, who’s had what might politely be called a checkered, skimpy career—his most recent movie was 13 years ago, the barely-released “Theodore Rex.” His script for “The Last Starfighter” is adequate—it has the kind of ...

  J.K Rowling's Harry Potter saga has become a worldwide sensation among all age groups. Children are actually reading books instead of playing video games and watching TV. They revel in the fantasy adventure portion of the story and characters. Meanwhile, adults are able to enjoy fabulous storylines, in-depth characters, and visual/auditory sensationalism. In the latest Harry Potter installment, The Order of the Phoenix, all our favorite characters are back. One major draw in the Harry Potter saga is that the cast is dedicated to the story and return film after film. Nothing is more jarring than when a saga uses different actors from film to film. For example, the Batman films have gone through four different actors for the character of Bruce Wayne in five films. So, it is pleasant to see Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and the other young actors ...

  "More Than Meets The Eye". Those immortal words have great meaning to millions of Transformer fans around the world. So when it was announced that Dreamworks and Michael Bay would be turning the famous 1980s cartoon into a live action film, there was natural skepticism. Even Michael Bay initially thought there was no way he was going to take on the Transformers project. Actor Shia LaBeouf, who plays Sam Witwicky, also thought that they were going to completely destroy the Transformer legacy. I will let you be the judge on whether they succeeded or not. Transformers follow the simplistic good versus evil structure. The Autobots defend the Earth and universe against the Decepticons. The war between them destroyed their home planet, and with the loss of the Allspark, the Transformers followed it to Earth. The Allspark, also known as the Cube, has the ability to instill life in technological equipment. Without this Cube, ...

  Other than the Star Wars Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, there is no other film series that HDTV aficionados have been clamoring for more than the Matrix series. Warner Brothers has released two box sets of the complete Matrix Trilogy on the HD DVD format. For the super fans out there, the 10-disc Ultimate Matrix Collection is $119.95 and features not only all three films in the series with newly re-mastered picture and sound, but also includes the companion piece, The Matrix Revisited, and the best-selling animated feature, The Animatrix on five HD DVD discs. The set also has five entirely new standard definition DVDs packed with brand-new supplemental materials that encompass every aspect of the Matrix universe, including two new audio commentaries on each film, Enter the Matrix video game footage and 106 deep-delving featurettes/documentaries. If you open your box set and are disappointed to only find five discs ...