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 The Golden Compass is another one of fantasy-action movie that tries to get your kids excited with flashy visuals and fantastical creatures. The movie tells the first story in Philip Pullman’s first story in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Story stars Lyra Belacqua, a 12-year-old girl who sets out to rescue her friend who was kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers, and to reunite with her uncle who is in the North trying to mount an expedition to the other parallel worlds by using Dust. This parallel Earth is ruled by the Magisterium, a powerful organization bent on controlling all actions and thoughts, not unlike a totalitarian government or, say, the Catholic Church.

The books and the movies have been labeled anti-Christian, and thankfully it has been toned down in the movie for a commercial success. Unfortunately, the creative force behind the movie forgot a few key things to make it better than just mediocre.

The world is rich, and the visuals are powerful, mostly. It takes awhile to explain all the concepts (such as daemons, shape-shifting animals containing the child’s soul, creativity and conscience. They are directly linked so injuring them will injure the linked children as well). Magisterium seeks to sever the link between the daemon and the child to destroy the child’s sense of identity and independence. If this material is too dense, just imagine what a child would think when you layer on the anti-establishment and anti-religion message.

Another important aspect of the movie is that it ends abruptly, apparently designed to provide a happy ending to movie watchers, except it doesn’t resolve anything and hardly explains anything (for part of the cut ending, watch this video). The Golden Compass is best enjoyed on a high-definition Blu-Ray disk as you marvel at the scenes, and just not focus on the plot, character development or coherence.

Rating: 55%

The other day, while waiting for my car to be serviced, I had the chance to re-watch Cloverfield, this time on a much-smaller screen of a laptop. If you couldn’t stomach the big-screen version with all the shaking, you should catch up on this flick on the small screen.

Cloverfield is a monster destroying New York City. What makes this movie compelling is the cast of normal twenty-somethings who are suddenly thrust into a situation they don’t know and that they can’t get out of. At Rob’s going away party, Hud starts documenting his last day in New York City before he jumps in a plane and head to Japan. Rob’s brother Jason, and Jason’s girlfriend as well as Malena, a girl that Hud has a crush on, try to survive when something attacks New York and start destroying building after building.

Supposed to be a video footage of the group surviving the beast, the footage does look indeed authentically amateur with all the shaking, sometimes off focus and oftentimes without proper lighting. In dark alleys and even darker subway tunnels, pitch black screen and monsters hissing will send chills down your spine.

The movie starts slow as it focuses on the party and introduces all the relevant character relationships. However once the monster shows up, the movie doesn’t let its pacing down as the main characters scramble to get away, go find their loved ones, and just try to survive against both the monster and the military’s attacks.

Not everyone will find the ending satisfying, and at some points in time, the main characters choose a course of action that a normal sane New Yorker will never choose. They do betray the scripted nature of the movie: however, suspend your logic and you will find one of the best monster movies this side of the ocean.

Rating: 70%

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is not a typical musical, nor a movie. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly taps his own pocket to write, produce and direct this 42 minute musical. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, a shy but still mad scientist who tries really hard to get into the League of Evil, who works on his evil laugh with a vocal coach, and who secretly longs for a girl he meets at the laundromat. He vlogs about his plans and feelings, and ends up discovering it is watched by both his nemesis Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillion) and the police.

Joss Whedon showed his musical talent in a special musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in its 6th season, and the music through this series is pretty outstanding. Just like a traditional musical, every major character suddenly bursts into songs to express their feelings. Dr. Horrible finally musters up the courage to talk to the girl of his dreams, only to watch Captain Hammer save her and start dating her.

Neil Patrick Harris is perfect as Dr. Horrible, and Nathan Fillion plays Captain Hammer to its campy fun. He is almost parodying himself in other heroic roles, and it is great fun to watch him sing about how much of a self-absorbed cocky superhero he is. The movie is available on iTunes (at just $3.99) and will soon be released on DVD. This internet mini-series should not be missed by all Joss Whedon fans as it is hilarious light summer fare.

Rating: 75%

Latest movie from Pixar is set in the world where humans have abandoned Earth and left in a posh spaceship as refugees while robots remain behind to clean up the mess. Post-consumerism world run by a big conglomerate Buy ‘N Large has turned Earth into a wasteland, and it’s up to WALL-E robots to compact the trash. 700 years pass, and the last functioning WALL-E robot on Earth has struck a friendship with a cockroach, has developed a somewhat of a personality and is obsessed with Hello Dolly.

Unlike previous Pixar efforts, the movie’s grandiose visuals at the beginning, and then the antics of WALL-E who can’t technically speak dominate the beginning. For close to 40 minutes, there is no discernable human dialog in the movie, and you won’t miss it as you’re too busy marveling at the visual creations of Pixar.

And when humans enter the picture after WALL-E grabs a leaving rocket, humanity has devolved into a fat and lazy consumers where they use hoverchairs to avoid walking, and all their needs are attended to by robots. WALL-E and EVE overcome their prime directives, and will end up saving the world (as usual). This movie also marks the first time a human has appeared in a Pixar movie as Fred Willard plays the president of Buy ‘N Large.

The movie is another winning effort by Pixar. If the simplistic and charming story doesn’t win you over, the lush visuals will keep both children and adults glued to their seats.

Rating: 97%

Futurama as a TV series has been canceled for awhile, but thanks to Fox Home Entertainment, you can get your (pretty) regular dose of the crew with direct-to-DVD movies. First one Bender’s Big Score ended with a tear in the space, and the new movie The Beast With a Billion Backs picks up right afterwards. After discovering this tear could lead to another universe, Dr. Farnsworth mounts an expedition with his incredibly expandable crew. Fry, after discovering that his girlfriend has 4 other live-in boyfriends, dumps her and is full of sorrow. Unable to take it, Fry sets out to the other universe.

On the other side of the tear is a being with tentacles called Yivo. Yivo makes Fry his emissary as the tentacles invade our universe. Soon everyone in the universe has a tentacle to their neck as a way of, umm, being together with Yivo.

The movie is, as you’d expect, full of pop references and in-jokes. Even the opening sequence has a tribute to Steamboat Willie with Futurama characters of course. Futurama’s humor is not as random as on Family Guy, another canceled but revived animation. The theme of this movie – love, sex and relationship – is refreshingly adult even for the series and it shows how well the series is maturing. This movie is strongly recommended to Futurama fans, although newcomers to the series should first finish the TV series before embarking on the movies.

Rating: 70%

Spoof films show no sign of slowing down, and Meet the Spartans clearly shows the genre needs a reboot. Actually Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the writer-directors of this movie can be blamed for pushing out mediocre and outright crappy spoof films in the past few years. When done properly, spoof movies offer guilty pleasures such as Airplane! that cleverly satirized the disaster movies.

Meet the Spartans is a take on the ultra-violent (and stylish) movie 300. As the heroic king Leonidas must battle the invading Persians, he is joined by his most elite 13 (instead of 300) Spartans and the Persians bring along Ghost Rider, Rocky, Transformers and even Paris Hilton. Clearly no material was left behind, as an early battle is straight out of You Got Served (and the other dancing-gang movies).

Jokes fall flat almost all the time, and you’ll be glad the movie is only 80 minutes long, as more runtime would be cinematic torture. Still the movie finds time for 2 musical numbers set to I Will Survive, playing on the whole homoerotic vibe of 300 and the Spartans in the original source material.

It looks like their next target is the disaster genre: here’s to hoping that they find better materials and better writers.

Rating: 10%

Teeth is a puzzling movie that doesn’t know what it is supposed to be: it tries to be too many things at the same time and ends up becoming a mess not worth seeing. The topic of "vagina dentata" (basically vagina with teeth) seems to suggest it is a horror movie as this monster lurks beneath and strikes unsuspecting male victims with very graphic castrations. On the other hand, it is also a female empowerment movie as the main character learns to control her teeth down below to punish those who try to take advantage of her, including her stepbrother.

The movie tries to make an environmental point - and blames the "vagina dentata" on a radiation from nearby nuclear power plant. But the problem is the movie doesn’t have a focus and becomes a parade of male mutilations until the end. It tries hard to be a dark comedy, without any comedic payoff, and it becomes increasingly hard to root for a heroine who turns her mutation into a weapon of revenge.

In the end, this movie will be known for its shock value, and the performance of Jess Weixler that won her a special jury prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2007. The problem with shock value is, after the first scene of severed male genitalia with blood pumping out, the rest becomes gratuitous.

Rating: 15%

In celebration of 420 and the upcoming release of its sequel, I re-watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, a movie that some critics have called new stoner classic. It is a classic buddy comedy, starring John Cho as Harold, a 2nd gen Korean nerdy investment banker, and Kal Penn as Kumar, a 2nd gen Indian who really doesn’t want to go to med school despite his family’s insistence.

After toking up, they decide what they want is those slider burgers from White Castle and they go searching for the famed and rare burger joints. In the process of getting the burgers, they come across a 2nd gen Korean students meeting/party at Princeton, they wind up meeting Neil Patrick Harris and Harold even goes to jail.

Directed by Danny Leiner, who gave us Dude, Where’s my Car?, he redeems himself as this movie is miles ahead of his previous efforts. Granted there are gross-out humor (such as a painful toilet sequence), cheap humors and wild inconsistencies, but you don’t watch this movie searching for a cinematic masterpiece. The movie is best enjoyed, perhaps, when you’re high as well, but even when you’re not, it is a very enjoyable team-comedy. If it doesn’t teach you any other lesson, you will at least learn that Korean and Indian descent Americans are just like everyone else: sex-crazed, looking for a good high and a good munch.

Rating: 75%