One of my all time favorites.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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

NORTH STAR is a virtual reprise of the 1981 Charles Bronson vehicle DEATH HUNT, which saw a posse headed by Lee Marvin searching the icy wastes for a fleeing trapper played by the DEATH WISH actor. NORTH STAR sets its story in Alaska and features James Caan as the hunter and Christopher Lambert as his quarry.Despite a decent pacing and some good set-dressing - you never question the setting for a moment - this film has little to recommend it. Lambert fans (are there any?) will be let down by their star's performance, which is wooden even by Lambert standards; little he says or does rings true, and he's almost entirely lacking in star presence. There's a hollowness in the middle of the film which a proper actor should be filling with charisma, wit and heroism.James Caan is much better as the arrogant villain, a role he also played to the hilt in ERASER. He chews the scenery and shares a decent rapport with Burt Young, playing a fellow bad guy for a change and doing well with it. Catherine McCormack is once again wasted as a love interest, though, leaving 28 WEEKS LATER the only film I've seen that actually makes use of her acting talents.The pace is good and the outdoor wilderness scenes look fantastic, really bringing the chilly wasteland to life. Scenes of the participants sledging through snowdrifts on their husky-drawn sleighs are a lot of fun. It's just a shame that there's no real meat on the bones, and that the ending is lacklustre to say the least. NORTH STAR fizzles instead of bangs, and that's why this wintry western has been long since forgotten.

Despite being made by one of Hollywood's most prominent film companies (Regency), and starring James Caan and Christopher Lambert, the distributor (Warner Brothers) doesn't seem to have done much (if anything) in the way of a theatrical release, at least on this side of the ocean. Seeing the movie for myself, I think I can understand why. It's not a TERRIBLE movie - the scenery looks nice at times, and the movie is never boring - but it comes across as flat. Lambert is his usual vanilla self, and Caan at times doesn't seem to be taking this acting assignment with much seriousness. There appear to have been cuts made to the story, either in the screenplay stage or in the editing room, which leads some parts of the movie to be somewhat incoherent or without proper explanation. One explanation for this may be that this movie was a co-production between FOUR countries - maybe details got lost in the constant translation between the parties. The movie obviously had a limited budget, which explains why the movie lacks visual depth and scope at times, often resembling a made-for-TV movie. And in the last part of the movie, Caan's character starts doing some ludicrous things that no man with sense would do in his situation. You are not missing much if you skip by this movie at your video store.

Had "North Star" been made in, let's say, the 60s or 70s, then I would be able to watch it and classify it as maybe an eight or nine-star film. It's got the kind of plot that would suit a 90s movie, but the way it's made is far too reminiscent of the past. And when you mix a film that looks modern with a style of the past, it comes out a bit campy. For example, the screenplay seems like it was written a long time ago and went unchanged until just now. Characters laughing at jokes and stuff that are not even remotely funny were common back in the 60s and 70s, but not in films of the 90s. I hate to say it, but sound effects and stuff in this movie like that are also no better than the Westerns of long ago. Thus, the shootouts aren't that exciting. Some parts of "North Star" go on for too long, some parts whip by way too fast.There are some positive aspects to "North Star" though. Even though it does seem like it's made in the wrong time and kind of cheesy, it is a film that you can sit down and watch without getting bored. Sure, you'll be thinking a lot, "man, that was...weird" or "that wasn't very thrilling" or "that was disappointing", but it is a film where you want to see the rest of it. That's what made me give this film five out of ten stars for a rating. But it's still heavily flawed and had it been made twenty or thirty years before it really was, I think it would have been better.

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.