STARDUST (Matthew Vaughn, 2007) ***

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2010)

I was only vaguely aware of the film when it came out but became interested in catching up with it after being bowled over by Vaughn's KICK-ASS (ditto for his debut LAYER CAKE [2004], which I have just rented). In retrospect, it is one of the best fairy-tales of recent memory – though it does not quite possess the vision of a Tim Burton.
The director in any case has managed to rope in a great, eclectic cast: the ladies seem especially well-chosen – though both Claire Danes and Michelle Pfeiffer are clearly past their prime, they still deliver as a fallen star assuming human form and a wizened sorceress seeking to restore her beauty; the others are LAYER CAKE's Sienna Miller as the obligatory snobbish town belle and Kate Magowen as a bewitched princess. Incidentally, Vaughn apparently likes to work with the same people – such as the afore-mentioned Miller and Mark Strong (though now becoming rather typecast in villainous roles). His siblings-turned-ghosts include Rupert Everett and Jason Flemyng (Calibos from CLASH OF THE TITANS [2010]); actually, it was sheer coincidence that I would watch this right after that one and ROBIN HOOD (2010), in which Strong appears as well, having rented the STARDUST DVD for the best part of a month! Robert De Niro is featured in one of his most bizarre characterizations as a literally gay pirate, though it is one of the film's ultimate drawbacks – exposing a certain lack of cohesion – that his entire subplot could be dropped without the narrative losing anything (as it is, at 128 minutes, this definitely feels overlong though never boring). Peter O'Toole turns up briefly, too, at the start as a dying sovereign.
Having a wimp bloom into manhood through a series of extraordinary adventures also seems to be a prime concern for director Vaughn; consequently, here, bland hero Charlie Cox is involved in many a scrape – peppered with laughs, thrills, romance and menace – capped by a doozy of a climax (which even sees a corpse contracting a' la the EVIL DEAD movies). The whole makes for a most enjoyable ride, one which I consider worthy of a cult following.