StardustMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 66 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
12 OK for kids 12+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    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. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

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

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

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

  • 75
    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." Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter |

    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. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

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

  • 70
    Wall Street Journal |

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

  • 70
    Variety |

    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. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

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

  • 63
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

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

View more reviews for Stardust on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 12+ Dazzling fantasy romcom has some dark moments.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that although this highly entertaining fantasy will appeal to kids with its mix of swashbuckling adventure and romance, it's darker than cinematic cousins like The Princess Bride. It's surprisingly violent, with several deaths and lots of fights featuring knives and swords. The scenes in which an evil witch unleashes her fury are truly frightening (one with a voodoo doll may make even older tweens close their eyes), as is her transformation into an old hag. The subplots, including one about brothers vying for their father's crown trying to kill each other, may be too disturbing for younger kids.
  • Families can talk about what makes up a really good adventure/love story. Is it sword fights? Scary villains? Handsome leading men and ladies? What's the appeal of fantasy tales like this one? Are violent scenes any less scary when they take place in a world of witches and flying ships? Families can also discuss Tristan's relationships with Victoria and Yvaine. Is Victoria worth the trouble he goes to? How is she different from Yvaine? How does the movie show Tristan's changing feelings toward the two women? And why does Lamia want to stay young forever? Is youth valued above all, especially on film?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Backstabbing, literally and figuratively, of Shakespearean proportions. A father pits his sons against each other. Brothers murder each other (with knives, poison, etc.) in a bid to take their father's throne. Witch sisters scream at each other as they try to find Yvaine and kill her. A young woman demands a present from a suitor she doesn't like that much. A young man engages in a one-night stand that produces a son. There are also homophobic overtones in terms of how a pirate is portrayed.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Surprising amounts of fantasy/swashbuckling violence, including swordfights, knifings, and sorcery that ends in murder (a man drinks poison and keels over, another man is pushed off a ledge) and destruction. In one particularly brutal scene, a witch drowns a man with a voodoo doll and uses his body to try to stab another. In another scene, she slits a victim's throat. Animals are also killed for witchcraft, and Yvaine is being pursued so a sorceress can eat her heart.
  • sex false0 Sex: No nudity, but some kissing and a few cleavage shots. A young woman seduces a young man and gets pregnant (nothing explicit is shown). Tristan and Yvaine spend a night together, though the audience only sees them together under the covers.
  • language false0 Language: Quite benign; mostly just insults ("idiots") and the occasional "damn."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Pirates drink, before, during, and after pillaging. Tristan and Victoria steal away for a picnic where they drink champagne.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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