Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve done the weekend back-to-back film thing. First up was Stardust (A Neil Gaiman story) with my friends Kris and Thomas. Neil’s a fantastic writer, so I was very pleased to see his name on this and very sceptical that it would be done right as most films aren’t.
This film was so not what I expected that I can’t even measure it. It was funny, yet had its dark moments as well. The film was very much reminiscent of Princess Bride, which as you know is a true classic. I thought it would be a neat fantasy flick. But it was a neat flick that happened to be a fantasy film of a story. It was primarily, though, a love story. There’s a few scenes with Ricky Gervais who is always priceless and there’s a whole bit with Robert DeNiro who tears up his scenes. It’s just a well-done film that deserves to be seen.
Next up was Rush Hour 3. I laughed, I enjoyed myself. You go in knowing what, exactly, you’re going to get. And that’s what it delivers. No more and no less. You get hilarity in various situations coupled with martial arts action with a buddy-cop flick. It’s a bit on the short side, and not as good as Rush Hour 2, but certainly as good as if not better than the first. This is Chan’s movie the whole way, though. Tucker is almost an afterthought. I do have to warn you it was very poorly edited, and they just simply lost stuff. People vanish from the story for no reason, never appearing again.
See ’em both. You won’t be sorry. Stardust needs to be seen on the big screen (or HD if you’re waiting for home viewing) — Rush Hour 3 doesn’t matter so much.