Ok, ok… it’s been a while. No excuses, I’ll just give you the scoop on this week’s topics:

- Marvel’s Thor is moving forward.

- A remake of Enter the Dragon, that isn’t, really.

- Here comes another giant robot movie: Voltron.

- My thoughts on Stardust, which opened this weekend.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: The “Pirates” crowd will probably love Stardust, but if you’re expecting something like the just about perfect The Princess Bride you’ll be disappointed.

Stardust tries to be a newer version of The Princess Bride, and while exceeding that film by far in special effects, it lacks almost any of it’s charm or humor. That’s really too bad because both the very beginning and the very end of the movie are pretty good. Unfortunately what’s in between – while pretty to look at, left me feeling quite empty. I understand that this story is based on both graphic and text-only novels by Neil Gaiman. I’ve never read either and for all I know they may be excellent but any excellence was left between the pages of those books.

This post will be continually updated.

At the Paramount panel:

Hot Rod

The three leads from Hot Rod introduced a clip from the film. It was a hysterical parody of a classic scene from Footloose taken way over the top. I have to admit it was pretty damned funny.

Stardust

Neil Gaiman was there to introduce a clip from the upcoming film. It was quite an extended clip showing Michelle Pfeiffer as the Witch turning two goats into men in order to help her staff an inn that she also creates in the clip to trap the young woman (Claire Danes) who is quite literally the star of the movie.