I feel like this movie should have meant more to me than it did; I fondly remember the old picture book from when I was a child. Tom Hanks did a good job serving the voices of 3 main characters. The animation was excellent for the most part: amazingly lifelike textures and facial expressions, but some scenes seemed like they had been hastily thrown together so that the movements seemed unnatural and jerky like an outdated animatronic figure from Disney World; these scenes destroy the magic of the film (they bring you back to reality).

In general, the story is best left in book format. I have trouble really relating to the anxieties of the children in the film; I kept looking at my watch to see how much longer they could stretch the story out. Essentially, the story is about a train ride up to the North Pole to see Santa Claus; however, the children on the train encounter several difficulties in the journey. It almost felt like they tacked useless scenes onto the film just to make it “normal” length. In the end, I just wasn’t moved by Santa’s anticlimactic proclaimation that “the magic of Christmas is in your heart”. I suppose I was looking for something a little bit more profound (I seem to hear that same ‘magic of Christmas is in your heart’ line on every Christmas TV program I watch…how about some originality).

While I was watching the film, I had to remind myself that it was directed at an audience much younger than myself. Perhaps I should have reminded myself of that before I wrote this review. There is some good clean humor, a lot of slap-stick, and some mildly inspriational moments. It is a good, light movie for children (4 stars/5 for kids). If you are an older person, you’ll be more impressed by the holiday classics like: Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life or Scrooged.

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and others star in this epic fantasy film based on the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

This movie was tremendous! In my opinion, it was the best of the series. The acting was very good on the whole. The story was excellent and captivating. It explored some more complicated themes than the previous films: true friendships, the rigors of dating, choosing between “doing what is right and doing what is easy.” (I suppose our heros are growing older, so that goes with the territory). The movie made me laugh, and it almost made me cry. However, it is not a movie that I would take young children to see as it is much darker than the last few films (hence the PG-13 rating).

The problem with the film is not really even a problem with the film; it’s a problem with the book: the book is long…very long, and it’s tough to sqeeze everything from a long book into a 3 hr. movie. I had heard rumors that the people making the film wanted to split it up in to two movies so that everthing in the book could get covered, but I think that would have been a mistake. However, at the end of the movie, I found myself wishing I’d gotten to know all of the new characters much better, especially: Fluer Delacour, Cedric Diggory, and Victor Krum. None of these people had very substantial speaking to do, and their characters were not very well developed at all (and they seemed like such cool people too). Also, I wish some of my favorite people from prior films would have played a more substantial role: Snape, McGonagal, etc..

I felt like the movie had the potential to be 6 hours long, but that would not have been a pleasureable experience for your average movie goer; I, on the other hand, am a big nerd, so I could have handled it .

Most of the complaints I have heard in other reviews are from disgruntled fans who are upset about things from the book that have been left out of the movie. I can understand those feelings…but length is a luxury that books have that typical movies don’t. Even though some parts of the movie seemed abbreviated and many characters were left underdeveloped, the movie is already 2 hrs. and 40 min. long: give them a break.

Overall, this movie was very entertaining, and I recommend it highly.

Happy Endings, by writer director Don Roos, is a quirky, Magnolia-esque tale of intertwined love and longing.

Several moments had me laughing out loud, though I wouldn’t call it a ‘comedy’ in the classic Farrelly Brothers sense of the word. Lisa Kudrow also had a redeeming role. Yes, part of you wants to cringe when you first see her in this movie. (sorry, friends diehards) But her character definitely grows on you.

Overall, it’s definitely worth a rental. Four out of five stars.