Stardust

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Floating in on an airy breeze of dreams and true love, the lively adventure-romance Stardust offers that elusive quality summer movies are supposed to possess but rarely do -- total escape.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Imaginative and intricate, but it's also joyfully casual, maybe to the point of being a little messy in places. But even its flaws work in its favor.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

While it won't rival the Harry Potter movies as a cultural milestone, the luminous, irresistible Stardust is no less industrious at scavenging myths and legends and making something altogether new from the familiar pickings.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

If you have an ounce of romance in you, you'll sense your own inner Captain Blood emerge when Captain Shakespeare turns him into a dashing figure with a dangerous sword.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Danes doesn't quite fit into the mindscape – she's too bland for a human star – but Cox comes of age quite convincingly, De Niro is a hoot, as is Ricky Gervais as a slimy tradesman. Pfeiffer has a field day.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Its sensibility stays true to Gaiman's style: heroic, wryly funny, but bloodthirsty as great fairy tales can often be.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's the closest the movies have come in a while to the nudgy, knowing fairy-tale enchantment of "The Princess Bride."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

There's less whimsy to be found here than in "The Princess Bride," but the film is likely to appeal to the same group of older children and adults that appreciated Rob Reiner's classic.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Stardust lights up the screen with a splendid tale of heroism and romance.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Unlike "Pirates," Stardust is anything but a wretched mess. It's a charming and smartly plotted fantasy.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

For audiences tired of summer sequels that grind through the familiar motions, Stardust provides a dizzying antidote.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The film's merry, enthusiastic tone--set largely by Robert De Niro, playing a giddy transvestite sky-pirate to the hilt--is hard to beat.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Stardust is an eye-poppingly elaborate fantasy that's shot through with action-movie adrenaline and attitude.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Stardust is that its most winning element is neither its delightful story nor its special effects but its sly sense of humor.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Immensely winning and visually arresting adaptation of Gaiman's 1998 fantasy.

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

Delivers on the action front, laughs, and some great visual splendor. The only real problem with this film is the running time.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Michelle Pfeiffer is Lamia, as deliciously evil a witch as the movies have ever invented.

The Hollywood Reporter Sura Wood

Diverting and pleasurable to watch, Stardust, a tongue-in-cheek sword-and-sorcerers romp bolstered by a top-flight cast, is most adroit when it plays the fantasy straight rather than sending up the genre.

Variety John Anderson

Sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek humor, fairly adult jokes and some well-known faces acting very silly, this adventure story should have particular appeal to fans of "The Princess Bride," but in any event will never be mistaken for a strictly-for-kids movie.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Stardust has it all: sweetness, magic, lusty wenches, evil witches, tankards of mead, a gay pirate.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Stardust in a nutshell: hardly great shakes, but better and more satisfying than it first seems.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

an overstuffed, overlong epic with a tongue-in-cheek approach.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Brings too much of EVERYTHING to the table: It's the cinema equivalent of a long, winding, run-on sentence.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's a film you enjoy in pieces, but the jigsaw never gets solved.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Thank goodness for Pfeiffer's Lamia, a harridan who's lived long enough to get the face she deserves and will do anything to hide it. She's a wicked delight.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

It’s puffed up in obvious ways but disarmingly puckish in others. As that capering pirate, De Niro is god-awful--yet his gung-ho spirit wins him Brownie points.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I'm a sucker for fantasies, but this one is so undistinguished and arbitrary that it left few traces in my consciousness, apart from the impression that the filmmakers resort to cruelty whenever they run out of ideas, which is often.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Ponderously plotted, poorly cast, visually undistinguished and devoid of any real verve or charm.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It's the big stuff that doesn't really work, at least well enough to be called special.

Newsweek David Ansen

Aims for a "Princess Bride" mix of whimsy and wonderment, the sardonic and the romantic, with only sporadic success. Both visually and narratively cluttered, the film diverts more than it enchants.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

This is just a silly movie about silly things starring famous people acting all silly.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Stardust has lost a good amount of its magic in the transformation from page to screen. It's the cinematic equivalent of getting a punch in the mind's eye by a bunch of faeries wearing the coolest Doc Martens this side of Florin.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Stardust certainly could have gone somewhere fun. But the magic and zip you need to get a blimp like this off the ground is scarce.