The long overshadowed classic set of Yogi Berra stories, "Lord of the Things", about a traveling collector has finally found backing and will open in US theaters today. Berra commented about the story years ago, "if you save enough stuff you are a collector".
Shot in 3-D and starring big names the movie is grandiose in scale and non-stop action.
Directed by George Lucas the film version follows the story fairly accurately as the hero Yogi, played by Tommy Lee Jones, travels around the world finding adventure, danger, and souvenirs. Back in rural New Jersey with trinkets from his adventure Yogi has a love interest, children, and a collection of odd friends that all get entrenched in intrigue and danger.
Set in the early nineteen hundreds the hero, Yogi, deliberately travels all over the world to help fight evil. Uninvited Yogi seems to find a precarious placement while fighting battles, solving mysteries, and collecting bits of junk.
After helping with causes spanning from the Bolshevik Revolution, WWI, archeology in Egypt, the Wright Brothers, and others, Yogi returns home with crates of collectables. At home love interest Tammy, Scarlet Johansen, doesn't exactly wait for Yogi but is there upon his return. Buddies Mel and Nelson, Matt Damon and Jeff Goldblum, sometimes travel with Yogi but mostly get in trouble back at home.
What the hero does not know, and the audience does, is that his souvenirs are in themselves evil. This is where the movie becomes darker and keeps the film viewer on the edge of their seat. Rating 4 stars.
