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Wizards, witches and magic all seem like childish ideas, yet those are the exact things that Neil Gaiman revolved his novel, entitled Stardust, around when it was released back in 1988. Now, almost 20 years on, Hollywood director Matthew Vaughn brings this book to the silver screen as a movie of the same name. Personally, I’ve never read the novel, but if it’s as good as this movie is, I’m beginning to regret not doing so.

For those who don’t know, Stardust is set mainly in the village of Wall. It has such a queer name because one of the walls which border the town separates the village from the magical land of Faerie. It starts off with Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox), who is the son of Dustarn Thorn and Una (a princess), as a young man after the first 10 minutes of the movie show how his parents met and fell in love despite only meeting each other once. Tristan is smitten by the prettiest girl in the village of Wall, Victoria, and wants to win her hand in marriage by promising to bring back a fallen star to her. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realise that the star is in the magical land of Stormhold only until he teleports there through a magical candle Una left him and that the star is in fact a young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes). Even so, he decides to bring her back to Wall to present her to Victoria so as to win her hand in marriage. Along the way back to England, he has many encounters, a lot of which involve him trying to save Yvaine’s life as he’s not the only one after her. Both a prince and a witch are hunting for her as well for their own self interests. Hence the movie turns into a pretty exciting and hilarious one as Tristan and Yvaine get into and out of so many situations.

The plot of the film is pretty good in my opinion, and that’s thanks in large part to Neil Gaiman’s brilliant piece of work. I won’t cover much about the plot since it’s adapted from a novel. Vaughn managed to do a pretty commendable job of bringing the story to life. Many of the scenes in the movie look brilliant and really make you feel like you’re in some sort of a magical land, yet it doesn’t overdo it so thankfully you don’t feel like you’re watching a Disney movie most of the time. Even though most of the movie is set in a magical world, there still seems to be a certain sense of reality grounding it, so that the movie doesn’t get too outrageous. Yet there’s always a certain sense of magic being just around the corner. In my opinion, Vaughn has found the perfect way to portray a magical world without it being overly exaggerated. Not to mention the film has its funny bits as well, with some parts that actually made me laugh out loud. Most of the actors and actresses managed to pull of these few parts scattered throughout the film with killer timing in my opinion.

Speaking of the actors and actresses, their performances throughout this film were all top notch. All of them help make you feel you’re really in the magical world most of the time. Danes plays her part perfectly of being a rebellious “star” most of the time since she’s initially unwilling to follow Tristan back; Michelle Pfeiffer plays the role of the evil witch after her with such brilliance that she’s immediately a character you’d love to hate; Robert De Niro does a great job as well of playing a “tough on the outside but soft on the inside” pirate, definitely drawing plenty of laughs from the audience with his comedic performance. I could go on and on about the others, since every single character in this movie played a big part in making it such a joy to watch and enjoy.

Yet, Stardust (2007) doesn’t exactly revolve around the magical world, rather in the end it’s still about finding true love. I have to admit the ending of the film (ie. the way they defeated the evil old witch) was pretty darn corny and the only part that really made me cringe. Still, it’s a minor problem and on the whole the rest of the film more than makes up for it. I would definitely highly recommend this to almost anyone, even as a family film since even children will tend to get lost in that magical world.

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For some strange reason, movie cum musical films have been on the rise again, especially with shows like High School Musical and its sequel in recent times. While most might find such shows corny, there’s still no doubt that they’re relatively popular among families as they make great movies for families to enjoy together. Just recently, another musical cum film was released, simply entitled Hairspray (2007).

Sure, it’s a pretty unexpected title, and doesn’t really tell much about the movie. Honestly, even after watching the entire movie, I think it still doesn’t exactly tell anything about the movie. Inappropriate title aside, this is actually a pretty good show. It is set in 1962, Baltimore, at a time when trends of racism are highly prevelant. In essence, the show initially shows how blacks were discrimnated against, with a local TV show naming a certain day of the week “Negro Day” with its producer being an extremely racist White. In the end, it’s thanks to the actions of a “pleasantly plump” high school student, Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), that such trends of racism in Baltimore finally erode away. As to the details of the movie, you’ll have to watch it yourself as I’d rather not spoil the movie for most people here.

Of course, the thing that separates this movie from others is the “musical” part of it. Practically every 5 to 10 minutes or so, the actors and actresses on screen will break into a song and dance, while these are far from those songs that you’d find in everyday pop culture, they definitely cater to a wide audience since they’re pleasant to the ears. Yet, this is precisely what plagues the songs: they simply sound too common, the songs just aren’t that worth listening to since there are many other songs out there that will be preferred by each individual. Hence, it reaches a point late in the movie whereby you just wish they’d stop having a song and dance what seems to be every few minutes and you almost dread the next song since it’ll be as boring as every one you’ve heard in the past hour or so.

That being said, the songs aren’t exactly that bad till the point where they drag the whole movie down with them, and some will still definitely find them nice. To each his/her own I guess. However, on the whole the rest of the show still pretty much makes it worth watching: the plot is pretty well thought out, the acting is top notch, and it’s just simply hilarious to watch John Travolta act as fat woman (Tracy’s Mum). However, for those of you who still prefer the “traditional” type of films without all these “extra” songs and dances, I’d suggest you stay away from Hairspray since it’ll undoubtedly get on your nerves after awhile.

On the whole, this show will definitely remind most Americans that the (relative) peace between races nowadays was hard fought for since it was far from like that in the past. However, the way in which Hairspray (2007) tells this tale is a very charming one with a musical theme to it. For families looking out for a film that everyone can enjoy together, check out this film. For others, I’d suggest you rent it first.

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