Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
66
(33 sources)
66
(33 sources)
-
90
Los Angeles Times
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 » -
90
Salon.com
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. Read Full Review » -
88
New York Daily News
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. Read Full Review » -
83
Baltimore Sun
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. Read Full Review » -
83
Christian Science Monitor
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. Read Full Review » -
75
Charlotte Observer
Its sensibility stays true to Gaiman's style: heroic, wryly funny, but bloodthirsty as great fairy tales can often be. Read Full Review » -
75
Entertainment Weekly
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 » -
75
ReelViews
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. Read Full Review » -
75
USA Today
Stardust lights up the screen with a splendid tale of heroism and romance. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Unlike "Pirates," Stardust is anything but a wretched mess. It's a charming and smartly plotted fantasy. Read Full Review » -
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
For audiences tired of summer sequels that grind through the familiar motions, Stardust provides a dizzying antidote. Read Full Review » -
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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. Read Full Review » -
75
Premiere
Stardust is an eye-poppingly elaborate fantasy that's shot through with action-movie adrenaline and attitude. Read Full Review » -
75
Miami Herald
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. Read Full Review » -
70
Wall Street Journal
Immensely winning and visually arresting adaptation of Gaiman's 1998 fantasy. Read Full Review » -
70
Film Threat
Delivers on the action front, laughs, and some great visual splendor. The only real problem with this film is the running time. Read Full Review » -
70
The New York Times
Michelle Pfeiffer is Lamia, as deliciously evil a witch as the movies have ever invented. 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
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
Washington Post
Stardust has it all: sweetness, magic, lusty wenches, evil witches, tankards of mead, a gay pirate. Read Full Review » -
67
Portland Oregonian
Stardust in a nutshell: hardly great shakes, but better and more satisfying than it first seems. Read Full Review » -
63
-
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Brings too much of EVERYTHING to the table: It's the cinema equivalent of a long, winding, run-on sentence. Read Full Review » -
63
Chicago Sun-Times
It's a film you enjoy in pieces, but the jigsaw never gets solved. Read Full Review » -
63
TV Guide
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. Read Full Review » -
60
New York Magazine
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. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Reader
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. Read Full Review » -
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Ponderously plotted, poorly cast, visually undistinguished and devoid of any real verve or charm. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Tribune
It's the big stuff that doesn't really work, at least well enough to be called special. Read Full Review » -
50
Newsweek
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. Read Full Review » -
50
Village Voice
This is just a silly movie about silly things starring famous people acting all silly. Read Full Review » -
50
Austin Chronicle
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. Read Full Review » -
38
Boston Globe
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. Read Full Review »
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