Rated PG-13

Directed by Matthew Vaughn (He directed Layer Cake & is currently in Pre-production for Thor. Yeah, that’s right, Thor, as in “The Mighty Thor” set to come out 2009 With this guy at the helm, I predict Thor will blow away the He-Man film coming out that same year.)

Written by Neil Gaiman (Novel) Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman (Screenplay).

Starring (in the order I remember them in) Peter O’Toole, Robert De Niro, Claire Daines, Michelle Pfieffer, Ricky Gervais, Sienna Miller, Mark Strong, Charlie Cox, & Bimbo Hart.

Okay, this is a really god film, definitely an under hyped one. I give it four doughnuts. It’s nice to have the doughnuts back. I couldn’t get to review the Simpsons MOVIE Because no matter how many Doughnuts I put up there, they’d disappear as soon as I turned my back. I blame Homer for that. But Homer is gone now & we have doughnuts to rate things with again & this flick is getting four.

I don’t wanna say a lot about this film, I don’t wanna give away any spoilers, so I’ll only stick to what is safe. This movie reminded me of the Princess Bride. Those of you who know me will realize what a huge compliment I just gave Stardust. (Hmm, the Dread Pirate Robert De Niro?? Anyway) unlike most of the Epic Fantasies that have been coming our way lately, this one is more of an Epic Romance with fantasy overtones. I know that last statement is gonna turn some of you away from the film, but face it, the Princess Bride was an Epic Romance too & how many versions are in your DVD collections?

First of all, I’d like to state that I went to a press screening of Stardust. It reminded me of why I don’t go to these things. First of all, they didn’t let us sit in the press section because they were reserving it for friends of the radio station that was sponsoring it (WTF is up with that?). So we got screwed into having to sit in the second row. The second row is actually worse than the front row. It’s just as bad a view, but you have no leg room. So it made my neck hurt & was blurry to boot. But I liked the film so much I’m gonna go see it again, this time in focus. I’ll even pay & avoid the marketing bullshit.

That’s what I thought. Stardust’s production quality & special effects are great, but they took care not to let them overwhelm the storyline. It was really a great film. My one complaint, & it’s not really a complaint about the film, just to the reaction to it, is Robert De Niro.

De Niro overshadows the film. He did a fabulous job as Captain Shakespeare, possibly Oscar worthy even (I’d vote for him), but he is all anyone can talk about once the movie is over. I saw it with Al & Laz, & after the film it was “De Niro this.” & “De Niro that.” I couldn’t get them to stop talking about that. So this might Impact the film, but I hope in a positive way.

Claire Daines has never really impressed me much with anything she’s done, except for the time she played the trailer trash Tinkerbelle on SNL; she impressed me with her performance here. I read that the role was initially offered to Sarah Michelle Gellar, but she turned it down, I’m glad she did, Daines did that good a job. The one person who wasn’t talking about De Niro mentioned that her accent kept slipping, to be honest, if it did, I didn’t notice. I was too caught up in the story to either notice or care. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt & say that it didn’t.

It was great to see Michelle Pfieffer cast as the villain again, I hadn’t seen her as one since she was Catwoman in Batman Returns. She plays a kick ass villain, she should really get more work, I’ve missed seeing her on the big screen recently, and she still looks really hot too. Yeah, I know I said the screen was blurry, but she was the hottest blur up there. Well, when she didn’t have the hag make up on anyway.

Peter O’Toole, my favorite actor, sets the stage for one of the film’s more grandiose sub plots. It’s nice to see him pop up even if it’s only for a cameo. Ricky Gervais gets cool points for holding his own in a scene with De Niro. (Yeah, I know De Niro is a professional & can work off anyone, but trust me in this film he is so larger than life that it takes a lot of effort not to be overshadowed by him, Ricky pulled it off.)

All in all, the film is an hour & twenty eight minutes of escapist fun at its best. Just go watch it, sit back & enjoy, but stay the hell out of the first 2 rows unless you have the number a good masseuse.