lost-in-limbo 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.

FightingWesterner North Star is unique for a European western in that it's set in Alaska, far from the sun baked deserts of the southwest. Everything else is disappointingly typical.Caan plays a black-hearted land baron in 1899 Alaska who's systematically murdered and cheated his way into being the owner of the largest goldmines in the area. He tries to kill Lambert, a half Eskimo who had the good sense to file a claim on his people's sacred (and gold rich) cave.It isn't boring but a chase movie where Christopher Lambert squares off against James Caan and Burt Young in a savage frontier battle for survival should have generated more heat than this, especially being that this is co-written by Sergio Donati, who also helped pen For A Few Dollars More and Once Upon A Time In The West!It's pretty straight forward and unpretentious but it made me wish it were more compelling. The characters were pretty cardboard, though Caan seems to be having some fun swinging back and forth between greedy and treacherous to insane and out of control.Also, everyone appears to be under-dressed. This movie takes place in Nome, Alaska during a snowstorm but everyone's dressed like it's Fall.Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson were better in Death Hunt, watch that one first!

jadflack In the latter part of the 19th century,Alaska is swamped with people claiming land for goldmines and a struggle ensues between a crooked businessman and a half breed over stolen land. This is in all aspects a western but set in land covered with snow and with sledges more than horses.Film is actually mainly norweigian made but also has other countries involved in it's production,so may even come under the euro western genre.Film is slow paced but also strangely seems rushed at times especially at a rather lacklustre climax.James Caan as the villain of the piece plays it all wide eyed and mad looking which is a little over the top.Some sporadic violence and a couple of OK moments but not enough.

bob the moo 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.