Movie Reviews – September 2007

Here is what we saw:

Here are my reviews:

Stardust

A young man eludes the guard of the magical wall and enters a secret kingdom. He falls in love with a bewitched princess and returns home on the normal side of the wall. Nine months later a baby is left with the wall guardian and is given to the young man. Twenty years after that, the baby has an adventure of his own. When he sees a falling star he tells the girl he is in love with that he will bring it to her. It’s on the other side of the wall of course. The falling star is actually a beautiful girl who many characters are seeking; a witch, the princes vying for the throne, and our hero. The witch wants to sacrifice her to regain her youth. The princes want her because she is the key to becoming the king, and our hero wants her to fulfill his promise to his beloved. Our hero finds her and they set out on the long quest. They have many adventures including a time with a transvestite pirate who teaches our hero to sword fight. The pirates are a hoot. The princes are trying to kill each other off one by one and the last one standing will be king. As they die off they join their deceased brothers in a ghostly Greek chorus and the ghosts are a hoot too. Each ghost bears the scars of the way he died. Our hero eventually wins, no surprise here, and falls in love with the falling star/love interest. The closest thing you can compare this movie to is Princess Bride. Ebert said it did not come up to that level but I thought it was better. I almost gave this 4 stars.
Theater – 3 stars

Night Watch

In modern day Russia the centuries old battle between good and evil is going on. The side of darkness all seem to be vampires and both sides are looking for a young boy who is some sort of key. This is the first of a trilogy which I will not be following through with. The dubbing into English is pretty good so it is surprising when anything written is shown because it is all in cyrillic. Don’t bother with this one.
Netflix – 2 stars

Black Dahlia

This movie documents the real life investigation of the Black Dahlia Hollywood murder. With stars like Hilary Swank and Scarlett Johansson this ought to have been great. It was a plodding, confusing muddle. Don’t bother with this one either.
Netflix – 2 stars

The Illusionist

In nineteenth century Europe, a poor boy has a chance encounter with a magician and dedicates his life to the profession. He befriends a girl who one day will become the fiance of the crown prince of the realm. Our hero is threatened and sent into exile. Off camera, he travels for a decade or so learning his craft. When he returns he chances upon the young woman and they become interested in each other once again, which makes the crown prince really unhappy. He tries to rid himself of our hero once again. In the mean time he ends up killing the girl. The rest of the movie is an elaborate sting our hero sets up get even with the crown prince. It’s just great. I really liked this movie.
Netflix – 4 stars

Lady in the Water

Another winner. A water sprite shows up in a housing complex swimming pool. She is pursued by a strange, wolf-like creature that has grass for fur and can blend in with the shrubbery. The superintendent for the project discovers her and does whatever he can to help her return home before the wolf thingy can get her. There is a whole cast of wonderful characters that have to play a part in the process of getting her home according to the prophesy. At the end, these characters turn out to be not who we think they are. I really liked this movie too and almost gave it 4 stars.
Netflix – 3 stars

Flyboys

This is pretty standard fare about the mix of volunteers who joined the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I. It has all the standard characters and every plot cliche you could ever want in a movie of this sort. It brings nothing new to this type of film, but it is well done and you are happy with it at the end so it gets its 3 stars.
Netflix – 3 stars

The Secret Agent

For a living the main character sells racy pictures in London in the early 20th century. But secretly, he is an anarchist working for the Russians. They don’t feel like they are getting their money’s worth out of him and order him to blow up the Grenwich Observatory. Things go wrong which leads to an unexpected series of events. The movie starts out slow as it is defining its characters and plot. But once the pieces are in place it takes off and is fun to watch.
Netflix – 3 stars