STARDUST

Stardust picks up a few years after the end of the film That'll Be The Day. Jim MacLaine (David Essex) has formed a band (The Stray Cats) and become a big star. So big, he decides he no longer needs his band and goes solo. In the end, fame and riches have a detrimental effect on his personal life

Besides Davie Essex, Stardust features several other musicians: Adam Faith, Marty Wilde, Keith Moon, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds (who went on in real life to produce the rockabilly band Stray Cats), and Paul Nicholas. There's a lot more music performed in this movie than there was in That'll Be The Day (where most of the music was on the soundtrack), but the soundtrack here is also filled with great songs from the era (in fact, more people bought the soundtrack than ever saw this film).

While I enjoyed That'll Be The Day immensely, I was a little bit let down viewing Stardust. It's not a bad film, but the hackneyed storyline about a musician who thinks he's too big for the band he's in, goes solo and puts out egocentric music, gets hooked on drugs, pines for the old days, and o.d.'s in the end, just didn't do it for me. Even though Jim MacLaine was somewhat of an unlikable character in the That'll Be The Day, I still rooted for him. In this second feature, I never felt or cared much about MacLaine. Still, this film is well worth seeing and is almost a requirement if you've seen the first movie.