*NOTE* This Review is a bit of a SPOILER, Personally I don't think that it is but that's what my wife says...So--Read at your own risk*
I was checking out the lineup for the upcoming movies this week. My choices were pretty limited. Skinwalkers, this, I guess is a horror film that didn't even look mildly interesting. Daddy Day Camp, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. playing in a sequel that even Eddie Murphy wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, ouch. Rush Hour 3 directed by Brett "Hack" Ratner starring a geriatric and a comedian who hasn't cracked a joke since the last Rush Hour sequel in 2001. Then there is Stardust, I was gonna give it a less the fifty percent chance that was going to like this one, but Tamar and her sister were interested so I took a chance. Stardust is based on a comic by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is famous for writing Sandman, Books of Magic and 1602. He also wrote novels like American Gods and MirrorMask, which he also made a movie out of. His work is very eclectic and sometimes weird and it doesn't always translate to film. They've been trying to make Sandman for years but they can't seem to get a script that makes any damn sense. The thing that really pushed me onward was the director Matthew Vaughn. He produced Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and he directed Layer Cake. Layer Cake was a kick ass little film that solidified Daniel Craig as the new Bond in my eyes, before he even took the role. So I thought what the hell.
The film is a darker version of Shrek and Princess Bride. There is dark humor mixed with lighthearted fairytale gobblty-gook. The story focuses on a young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) in a quaint village called Wall who decides to catch a shooting star for the spoiled little rich girl (Sienna Miller) in town. The only obstacle is the giant wall surrounding the town. There is a gap in the wall and there is a weird old guy guarding it. Tristan finds it difficult to get past the old timer so he discovers another way. His Father, who has raised him by himself since birth, reveals a secret about his Mother. She comes from a magical world on the other side of the wall and she apparently had some items she wanted to pass along to her only son. One of the first magical items is a candle that can transport you wherever you want to go the most. Thus it rockets the young man right to where the star crashed. He discovers that the star is actually a very pretty but cranky girl (Claire Danes). She turns out to be a very popular cranky girl as a trio of old witches (Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Alexander and Joanna Scanlan) want to cut out the poor girl’s heart and eat it to give them eternal youth. Not to mention the four Princes (Rupert Everett, Mark Heap, Mark Strong and Jason Flemyng) who want to get a locket that she wears so they can declare themselves King of the land. Thus our story begins.
It was funny and quirky and the most important thing not too sappy. I thought that Matthew Vaughn transitioned from Action/Drama to Fantasy very well and even more importantly it felt like a Neil Gaiman story. He seemed to be able to keep all of those bizarre moments that Gaiman provides in almost all of his stories, and he did them with a similar flare. I was proven wrong, this was a fun story that didn't feel too ripped off from other stories and it seemed to keep the pace from one scene to another. The casting wasn't too shabby either. Not to mention Robert De Niro as a very, very gay Pirate. Yeah, I didn't believe that one until I saw it and when I saw I wasn't sure if I could believe it. Ricky Gervais, Peter O'Toole, David Kelly and narrated by Sir Ian McKellan. So please do me a favor and avoid watching that piece of re-hashed shit Rush Hour 3, go see something fun and a little different. Sure it's a Fantasy film and I'm sure you've seen something similar before but at least it's not Rush Hour 3.
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