A great fantasy movie in spirit of the classics.

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2011)

If you enjoyed Princess Bride or Neverending Story, I can almost guarantee you'll love Stardust. Loosely based on a hit book by Neil Gaiman, this movie will have your full attention from the prologue until the last words. Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Wall is a small town in England, named after, well, a wall that runs just by it. Tristan (Charlie Cox), a lovable yet clumsy good-for-nothing shop boy, makes a bet with Victoria, a girl far out of his league - if he can find a shooting star they saw fall and bring it back, he will have her hand in marriage. He only has a week for that. Time is, however, the smallest of his problems, because he's not the only one who's after the star - so is Lamia, an evil witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Septimus, a prince of Stormhold, to both of whom getting the star before Tristan means unimaginable power.
So begins an adventure in spirit of classic fantasy movies. You see, while on the one side of a wall is England we know, the other side hides Stormhold - a magical kingdom of witches, fairies, unicorns, and, well, magic. What starts as a simple errand almost instantly turns into a grand adventure when Tristan learns that the star is not simply a fallen rock - it's a beautiful girl, Ivaine (Claire Danes). Now Tristan has a week to get back to the wall and marry Victoria - by the end, will he even want to? On the way, Tristan and Ivaine will meet a lovable cast of characters - most notably the sky pirate captain Shakespeare (Robert de Niro delivers a winning performance) who tries hard to maintain his reputation as a fearsome buccaneer in front of his crew, despite his sensitive (and stereotypically homosexual) persona.
Stardust is a magical movie in spirit of classic fantasy films that, chances are, you watched as a kid. It's not a masterpiece but, as far as teen-aimed pictures go, this is one of the best ones yet.