North Star (1996)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Christopher Lambert has quite a checkered list of elastic films where you either like his work or not. Sometimes they're fun ("Highlander", "The Hunted", "Fortress" and "Gunmen"), others less so ("Love Dream", "Highlander II" and "Fortress II") or they're downright atypical ("I love You", "Subway" and "Southland Tales"). For me the mid-90s chase adventure "The North Star" falls in the middle bracket… not a terrible film by any standards, just lacklustre along with Lambert's performance. It did remind me of the Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin 1980 feature "Death Hunt". In Alaska in the 1890s a half-breed trapper becomes the target of a crooked businessman who wants the land of his ancestors and the only way to do so is to kill the half-breed. The plot's foundation harbours familiar trappings, but never really comes alive with no real momentum or character interest. The action is uninspired, dialogues forced and the direction rather stagy in a cheap- looking production. It's the villainous performances of an unhinged James Caan and a burly Burt Young that keeps it from freezing over. Add to that the vivid snowy locations that dress up the screen. Catherine McCormick shows up, but gets little to do. A sleepy, flat-footed chase drama.

From the erstwhile afamed "spaghetti westerns" by Sergio Leone, filmed here in Almería, Spain, naturally, we pass on to a new variety which might be called "northern" rather than "western".Totally filmed in Norway, the land of smorgasbord breakfasts, not in Alaska, we have here a typical sort of copy-Hollywood style of those westerns of yore, adopting similar recipes and formulas, but without anything even nearing the result.Lovely scenery, but most of this film goes to the dogs; by which I mean that the best of this film are the huskies and other dogs making up the sled-teams in this rather contrived effort to emulate what was once an admired cinematographic subject matter. My personal smorgasbord breakfast was in Stavanger, after having slept on the floor in the breakfast room, as our night-flight from London arrived around four o'clock in the morning. I woke up amidst hotel guests' legs wandering about sampling the relishing feast of what is a genuine Norwegian product: smorgasbord.This film is not a genuine product of any kind. I am now awaiting impatiently a Chinese "western", an Egyptian version of "Dallas" or even a U.S. version of "Fanny och Alexandr" (sic) not to mention a British version of "Hable con Ella".Apart from that I have always loved Norway: perhaps because it was my first foreign country (1962), but especially because the people are so kind, friendly, civilized. My mountain trip walking in the Jotenheimen still remain clear in my memory all these years later - and it even snowed on my birthday (August)!I think I will go and listen to some music by Edvard Grieg ......... as this film is not worth the trouble.

Businessman Sean McLennon is the president of the miners union. He has banned all non-Americans from staking claim to the land. Moreover he is killing off people in order to then buy their claims at auction. However when his men only wound Saanteek and kill an old Indian, Saanteek returns to take revenge on McLennon and to protect his land.Why did I bother to tape this film? The film industry is a funny thing isn't it – James Caan was at his peak in Godfather and Rollerball, while Lambert had his `peak' with Highlander – but now they both wind up in this, although for Lambert he hasn't fallen too far. The story here is very basic and starts out very dry. Unfortunately it stays that way. The characters never get interesting and the plot never ever gets any tension involved at any level. The way the ending is forced into a face off is clumsy and typical of the whole film.Caan is OK because he never seems to take it totally seriously – certainly the plot `twists' around his character are impossible to accept without laughing. Lambert is terrible – he seems to be saying all his lines through gritted teeth as if he has his jaw wired up! The rest of the cast are also poor but the leads being bad distract from that. The cast is wooden and even then they are put to shame by the wooden sets being better than them. The sets and costumes are good and set the period well – shame the film lets them down.Overall this is totally lacking in interest, plot, characters and any sort of action or tension whatsoever. It's not total rubbish it's just made with no conviction, no passion and is worse than bad – it's just barely mediocre.

I'm sorry to say that this film only deserves 2 out of 10, due to the main character Christopher Lambert.The expectations to this film was great here, since it's partially filmed here in Norway. (The snow scenes and great outdoor scenery is filmed at Mösvatn near Rjukan in Telemark, Norway, and the great Nils Gaup is the director.) Lamberts performance sucks big time! He does not fit into the story at all. This snow filled western (or northern) has great actors, but due to Lambert tragic figure, the whole film just crashes to the ground, though the story should be good enough. The film also flopped big time in the cinemas, of course, due to this...This is Nils Gaups worst film. It looks like he really lost the grip on this one. Go watch another of his films! Ofelas or Kautokeino-Opprøret, or Misery Harbour! They are all great!