Stardust

I know what you're thinking. Isn't this the one with all those famous people, and that looks like a cross between Steven Spielberg's Hook, the cult-favorite The Princess Bride (can you believe it's been twenty years since that one came out?) and a little bit of every other terrible fantasy movie ever made? I must admit, I was reluctant to see this film until it had been out for a few weeks and the only reviews I had heard about it were positive. I'm going to side with the majority here and say that Stardust provided me with the most fun I've had at the movies in a long, long time.

Although the plot is not hard to follow, there are several intersecting threads that make it virtually impossible for me to provide any sort of summary in the time I am willing to commit to this review. Allow me to simply say that this film had more swashbuckling adventure than any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and better characters and plot-lines than any of the Spider-Man films, all of which did undeservedly better at the box office. One scene in particular featured one of the best duels I've ever seen (a living human fighting a corpse...need I say more?) Robert De Niro was delightful, Claire Danes succeeded in her "look beautiful" assignment, Michelle Pfeiffer proved a believable villain and Ricky Gervais' role was small but quirkily funny, as usual. Minus points only for some laughable dialogue ("Be the man I know you are!") and a few continuity issues (the filmmakers seemed to take it for granted that we are supposed to believe Tristan became a sword-wielding fighting machine in less than a week). Nonetheless, this adventuresome fantasy earns a well-deserved A-.