Stardust
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kate Magowan, Robert Di Niro
Rated: PG
Length: 128min
I’m a sucker for the fairytale. Of course not the watered down Disney tripe that we’re so often exposed to. But the good old fairytales where lessons are learned, more often than not, through violent deaths.
So it was with great glee that I heard Matthew Vaughn (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and ‘Snatch’) directed and co-wrote this latest fantasy land film.
Stardust is the adventure of a young lad named Tristan who embarks on a quest to find a fallen star. Which he plans to return to a woman to prove he loves her. The star however falls on the other side of a wall which hides the magical kingdom known as Stormhold. From there the pace is fantastic with nicely interwoven plot complete with wicked witches, and a fiendish quest for a dead King’s throne.
Which brings us to the next fantastic point of this film, the acting. The largely unknown leading man more than held his own with a great supporting cast. And as much as I don’t want to spoil a plot point, I must say that Robert Di Niro is an absolute scene stealing joy.
Of course, any fairytale movie has to deal with a comparison to the greatest of all time, ‘The Princess Bride’. While I might hesitate, I think it’s fair to say that Stardust is indeed worthy of that comparison.