Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Updates:

Stardust (2007)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Time Out rating

Average user rating

156 reviews

Synopsis

Based on the best-selling graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, 'Stardust' begins in a village in England and ends up in places that exist in an imaginary world. A young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) tries to win the heart of Victoria (Sienna Miller), the beautiful but cold object of his desire, by going on a quest to retrieve a fallen star. His journey takes him to a mysterious and forbidden land beyond the walls of his village. On his odyssey, Tristan finds the star, which has transformed into a striking girl named Yvaine (Claire Danes). However, Tristan is not the only one seeking the star. A king’s (Peter O’Toole) four living sons – not to mention the ghosts of their three dead brothers – all need the star as they vie for the throne. Tristan must also overcome the evil witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who needs the star to make her young again. As Tristan battles to survive these threats, encountering a pirate named Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro) and a shady trader named Ferdy the Fence (Ricky Gervais) along the way, his quest changes. He must now win the heart of the star for himself as he discovers the meaning of true love.

Movie review

From Time Out London

There’s a lot of seductive qualities in this knowing, pomo, digitally assisted, widescreen, family oriented fairy tale.

It’s adapted with roistering glee by Matthew ‘Layer Cake’ Vaughn from Neil Gaiman’s cult comic-strip, a time-travelling fantasia with princely rivalry, piratical villains, chivalric romances, marvels, magical spells, mythical struggles and Hovis-ad English villages. It plays like a live-action riposte to ‘Shrek’. As if to compensate for carrying human baggage – sorry, actors – Vaughn throws everything at the screen he can. Castles in the sky and hovels on the ground come hurtling towards you courtesy of combined computer and visual effects. Before you settle into its amusingly generic ‘Victorian’ England setting (and the comforts of Ian McKellen’s velvety voice-over), you’re rocketed off on Google Earth-style journeys to the magical, mock-medieval, manically overdesigned virtual world of ‘Stormhold’, then back again to its teeming, independent microcosmics satellite hidden behind the olde village’s guarded stone wall. Like Gulliver’s puny captors or the ropes on Munchausen’s balloon-ship (which is quoted here), the film’s cast has the task of tethering its chaotic flights of fancy.

Charlie Cox, in naturalist register, makes a fist of the young, cambric-shirted hero – Tristan , charged with bringing back a fallen ‘star’ (which turns into an annoying Claire Danes) by his hiss-ably haughty love (tressed-to-kill Sienna Miller). But the rest – O’Toole, Pfeiffer, Gervais et al – wisely camp it up, with Robert De Niro out-camping everyone in a film-stealing turn as buckleswashing Captain Shakespeare. You could call it a cousin of ‘Time Bandits’ or ‘The Princess Bride’, but it lacks the former’s originality and the latter’s heart. No matter, little kids will like the miniature elephants herding in specimen bottles; this writer liked the futuristic gifts – plastic flowers!

Author: Wally Hammond 2007-10-16 10:59:00

Time Out London Issue 1939: October 17-23 2007

Bookmark

User reviews of this film

toni said...

Posted on Oct 20 2007 20:46 omg im going to see it soon cant wait like

Report as inappropriate
sharon said...

Posted on Oct 20 2007 16:01 This film is Brilliant and so magical, I Loved it.
Clare Danes was fab and gorgeous, as ever!

Report as inappropriate
bob said...

Posted on Oct 20 2007 10:28 How can you give it 5 stars if you haven't even seen it!!!??? I'm going to see it tonight!

Report as inappropriate
Film Critic #101 said...

Posted on Oct 19 2007 13:30 He dumps Sienna Miller for Claire Danes? Has the hero gone bonkers?! Or was it the producer's bit-idea to make the fitter one look less attractive in this motion-pic? :D lol, hehe.

Report as inappropriate
Norma Griffith said...

Posted on Oct 17 2007 15:50 really enjoyed this movie, it was funny,violent and great entertainment. I would watch it again.

Report as inappropriate
fffff said...

Posted on Sep 01 2007 10:52 When does it come out in Bedford???

Report as inappropriate