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Who would have thought that Star Wars, one of the most thrilling, dynamic series ever created, would become formulaic; well, it's happened. Around twenty years ago, Star Wars was a series with something for everyone: drama, action, romance; with themes encompassing love, friendship, and family. Now George Lucas is milking that reputation by revamping the original scripts. Not to spoil anything, but the film moves at the same pace as "The Empire Strikes Back" and has a disgustingly similar conclusion. This occurred with Episode I as well, but in addition the rewritten plot, Episode II features a weak script and poor acting. The obvious hole is generated by the absence of Liam Neeson, whose performance was exemplary in Episode I and whose acting skill seemed to inspire good performances from young stars Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman. Now Neeson-less, McGregor and Portman seem rather dry. Portman, whose career has interested me since "Heat", turns in her first big lemon. With respect to Portman, I blame this partially on her co-star Hayden Christensen, whose pseudo-sensitive/romantic approach to the role of Anakin Skywalker, comes off as a non-descript monotone with a complete lack of emotion and he seems to drain feeling from every scene. Luckily, the floundering leads have help. Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, and Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) steal every scene they're in, while the rest of the characters stagger around with poor lines and bad acting until the climactic battle. Whereas `The Empire Strikes Back' was thematically (though not ultimately) the best of the original trilogy, `Attack of the Clones' can hope nothing more than to span the gap between Episode I and III, and let us hope that this will be the low point of the series. 3 out of 10 stars.

`Wildcats' rallies my admiration as a solid though ordinary film. Between television and the silver screen, I've seen a dozen plots about a coach's hard work in turning a sports team around. `Wildcats' has some personality though, with memorable characters being placed in memorable situations. Goldie Hawn leads the cast with a light but effective performance. Accompanying the difficulties as coach of a football team, her character fights for the custody of her children; a major issue that this formula film is right not to linger on.

Nothing special, but good entertainment. 5/10 stars.