Robert Zemeckis is one of my favorite directors; Back to the Future, Forest Gump, Contact, all classics. He's been pushing the visual effects envelope for most of his career, from mixing animation with live action in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to being one of the first filmmakers to use CG to create realistic effects in Forrest Gump. It makes sense that computer-generated films are at the top of the effects heap, that he moved into that arena. I wasn't that big of a fan of The Polar Express, it had it's moments, and I think it's not a bad film for kids; but as a Zemeckis film, I'd consider it one of his lesser ones.

The reviews for Beowulf were fairly mixed, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. But almost instantly I liked it more than Polar Express, the characters looked much more realistic, not as dead in the eyes, yet they're still a bit strange, because he's trying to create realistic looking humans, and they're not quite there yet. Give it another 10 years and it'll be hard to tell the difference. Stylized characters work much better in animation, and I really loved the tortured monster look they gave Beowulf's nemesis Grendel, and the dragon Beowulf fights at the end, may just be the coolest looking dragon yet created for film. At first it was weird to watch a digital Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie and so on; but they still give great performances and the effect grew on me as the film went on.

I saw an excellent Beowulf film about a year back called Beowulf and Grendel, that created a realistic feel out of the epic myth. Zemeckis' Beowulf tries no such thing, going full out with the fantasy trappings; including immortal witches, dragons, sea monsters and deadly curses. The film is a visual feast, full of grand sweeping camera moves impossible in live-action and beautiful locations from the wide-open-ocean to dank-caves. I was also pleasantly surprised by how violent the film is, bodies torn asunder, head's bitten off, limbs removed, and swords plunged, the digital blood flows freely. The film's battles are all pretty epic; I think that any fan of Lord of the Rings would appreciate this film.

The story is really nicely told as well. The history for why Grendel is so pissed, ties in nicely with what happens to Beowulf; really taking the idea of those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it to a whole new incestuous level. Beowulf is an incredible hero, conquering everything that stands in his path, but also a very tragic and flawed character; you get to see him from a young brash fighter, to an old weary king. You feel sorry for the monster Grendel, he's portrayed wonderfully by Crispin Glover, who specializes in tortured souls. Most of the characters are rounded out nicely.

I'm surprised that Beowulf didn't receive higher praise. It's a slightly-flawed film, but a highly entertaining and excellently made one; creating a beautiful new world out of this ancient poem. I think as more people see it on video, especially the kids that grow up with it, will love it, and it may go down as a minor classic. I look forward to seeing what Zemeckis will get up to next, it looks like he's animating another classic story with A Christmas Carol; live action films has lost one of their greats, but computer animation has a new master. - Grade: B+

(It seems there is new attention for this movie, based on the filmmaker's lawsuit against J.K. Rowling. The main character is named Harry Potter Jr., there's a fantasy element to the film; but those are the only similarities.)

I hadn't seen this film since I was a kid, so long ago that it actually scared me. I didn't have a lot of hope for it to hold up, but I'm always willing to take a stroll down memory lane. Immediately I could understand why this scared me as a child. Within minutes of starting, the film has an evil ugly troll kidnap a little girl and take over her body, begin living with her family, including her brother, a little boy that I could easily identify with.

The Potter family has just moved to San Fransisco, into an eclectic old apartment building, where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone has interesting quirks. Harry Jr.; yes, that makes him Harry Potter, a good decade before the books, which is also highly distracting whenever they call him by his full name, which seems to be a lot; almost immediately notices that something is wrong with his sister. After watching a cheesy sci-fi film, he believes she's a pod-person, but soon discovers the truth, thanks to a friendly witch living upstairs from them.

Meanwhile, the Troll, hiding in plain site as a little girl, is quickly taking over the apartment building, thanks to his nasty ring that has poison needle on it. He's turning all the residents into various mythical creatures, because he's lonely. All their apartments start overgrowing with trees and plants, to better accommodate their transformed residents. Of course the Potter parents are completely oblivious to what's going on, and it's left up to Harry to save the day, with a little help from his witch friend and her weird mushroom boyfriend.

The film has some cool stop-motion effects, most notably when some giant vines start to take over the entire building, as a crowd of San Fransisco-ians watch. There's one creepy scene, at least from a child's perspective, towards the end of the film, where Harry is laying in bed, with his troll/sister lying in the bed next to him, and she keeps transforming back and forth between them. A pretty terrifying idea for any kid with a sibling sleeping in their room.

While I wouldn't call the film well made, it's too goofy for that; it is undeniably entertaining. In a so-bad-it's-good type of way. A kid can look past the bad acting and silly plot-line and enjoy it as a creepy fantasy story. Us grown-ups can enjoy it for the scene where all the puppet Trolls start singing in unison or a very young, half naked Julia Louis-Dreyfus starts frolicking around as some sort of fairy princess high on pixie dust. Troll is some good brainless fantasy/horror fan, if you enjoy it with a double order of cheese.

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Don't confuse this with Troll 2, which has absolutely nothing to do with this film, beyond the name; and has gone on to gain some infamy as the "best worst movie". There's even documentary in the works about it all.

When word came out that Stardust was a modern day Princess Bride, I thought no way. Never would anyone be able to capture that magical mix of whimsy, comic genius and rousing adventure. But my first clue should have been the poor box office for Stardust, it seems like when a big budget film like this comes out and doesn't connect with the national audience, that there's good chance that there's a good film behind it. When something truly different is released the general public doesn't catch on for years.

Minutes into this film, I knew I was witnessing something special. Right away you could tell that the filmmaking was top-notch. Writer/Director Mathew Vaughn made a bit of splash with Layer Cake a few years back, but he had worked with Guy Ritchie on a couple of British gangster flicks, so I didn't expect much more than that from him. Boy, was I wrong. He knocks one out of the park with Stardust, and instantly becomes a filmmaker of note.

The film masterly weaves together multiple story-lines, within this fully realized fantasy universe. First there's Tristan who lives in our world, hundreds of years ago, in a town called Wall, which has an old, falling down wall, that separates the the normal world from the magical one. He's obsessed with the town beauty, but he's geeky and without much prospects, she humors him and agrees to marry him when he says he'll hunt down a fallen star on the other side of the wall. Unknown to him, is that his father crossed over the wall himself and made it with a princess held captive by a witch, who then left young Tristan on his father's doorstep. A magical candle left by his mother, whisks Tristan straight to the spot of the fallen star. Who because she's fallen on the magical side of the wall appears as a human, in the shape of the fabulous Claire Danes.

Also after the fallen star are three witches, their leader played deliciously evil by Michelle Pfeipher. It's been years since we saw Michelle on screen, and she's back with a vengeance. The witches want to cut out the star's heart and eat it, because it brings back their youth. Also after the star is an evil prince, who is the last in the line of princes, his princely brother follow him around in ghost form, until he becomes king, and to do so he must get the stone from the necklace that the star wears. There's a lot of fun to be had while everybody is chasing each other around, last minute escapes and daring rescues.

Nearly every single character in the film is memorable. To me that's a mark of a great film, when you love every character from the lead, to the stable boy who shows up for a few scenes. Every performance is spot on, they really inhabit their world, making you believe everything that happens. The film is constantly funny throughout, but they're never winking at the camera, begging you to laugh, they come naturally from the story and the well written dialogue.

There are many incredible scenes, stuff that's never been seen before. Pirates that fly through the clouds collecting lightning, witches animating dead bodies to do their fighting, goats turned human speaking only in bleats, and so on. Each scene feels completely fresh. The effects, make-up and set designs are all wonderful, they give the world a very cool, but believable look.

Stardust isn't quite up to par with The Princess Bride, but I can guarantee that the kids that grow up with this film, will be quoting in 20 years, the way that I do Bride. "Inconceivable!"