Review of 'Stardust'

Claire Danes as a fallen star! Robert De Niro as a campy ship captain! Excellent plot! Fantastic acting!

And that sums up Stardust. Everyone go watch it.

All right, since you came all the way here to read my review, I might as well go into a little bit more detail than that. But it's really quite unnecessary – Stardust is the best movie I've seen in a long while. It was engaging, it was colourful, witty, and intelligent and it was an epic film to watch. I actually sat in the movie theatre, completely engrossed in what was happening, before I suddenly thought, "This movie is really, really good!"

I went into the cinema not at all knowing what to expect; my sister just mentioned to me one evening that she wanted to go watch it. I was like, "What's it about? I've never heard of it – I haven't even seen a trailer for it," and she dropped Neil Gaiman's name and that was what persuaded me to go. I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, and I've heard very good things about his novels, so I was intrigued by Stardust.

Stardust should be classified as a "comedic fantasy adventure." Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare was definitely the highlight of the movie, and I hadn't expected Stardust to be quite as hilarious as it had turned out to be, but it was - and the comedic scenes actually worked in Stardust. All too often you see serious movies that have moments of comedy purely for the purpose of alleviating the stoicism of the film, but with Stardust, it's all incorporated seamlessly into the plot and acting. At the same time, Stardust is a serious movie. Actually, Stardust is everything... It's action-adventure, it's fantasy, it's a rom-com...

The actors were really good. Charlie Cox reminded me of a young Brendan Fraser, in The Mummy era (pretty much the only Brendan Fraser movie I can stand, and possibly the only good one that I can remember), and Claire Danes - well, I love Claire Danes so I might be a bit biased, but all the actors did their part and were true to character.

Hm, what else? I know I wanted to say something about certain parts of the movie that made me doubt the integrity of the film, but that would be spoiling a reader who hasn't watched it. I will only say that, in Stardust, some things aren't quite what they seem, and in the end, you won't be disappointed. My final rating for Stardust will be (and I'm changing my rating system to a score out of 10, instead of just five) 9.4/10. I'm not sure I'll ever watch a movie that I would be just as pleased with, as I was with Stardust.

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GREY'S ANATOMY AND PRIVATE PRACTICE: WILL THE SHARK JUMP FAR?

I almost had a hernia when I found out that Kate Walsh was leaving Grey's to head for the sunnier skies of Los Angeles. It spelled out an imminent case of shark-jumping and a move from ABC that one would only have expected of Disney (High School Musical 1000, anyone?).

Addison is – or should I say "was" – my favourite character on Grey's. She was the antagonist we turned into a protagonist – sometimes, for me, she turned me against MerDer (who are starting to tire me). Sure, she got around in Seattle Grace, but who didn't? The place was a circus. And, now, with Addison gone, I'm afraid that SGH will become more of a raging, uncontrolled carnival than it was before.

Season three of Grey's was relatively horrible. It revived itself a bit in the episodes just before the faux-pilot of Private Practice, but it tanked again – especially during the finale, which I actually liked initially because of Alex's uncharacteristic (but intrinsic) sweetness having a chance to shine through. Added to the controversy over Isaiah Washington's unforgettable fag-stab at T.R. Knight, which resulted in his contract getting axed (or simply not renewed), season three was like a beaten up Lada Stationwagon trying to race a Murcielago on the Top Gear test track. It might not have been that extreme, but it came pretty damn close to writing itself off at times. Shonda Rhimes says that season four will signal a return to its roots, i.e. more of the humour and atmosphere in seasons one and two, but she's said a lot of things already.

So, Private Practice (couldn't they have come up with something better?). Private Practice boasts a cast of very respectable names, including Taye Diggs and Tim Daly. Now, don't get me wrong; I love Tim Daly as much as other people who love him, but all his shows have gotten cancelled in the recent past – Eyes, The Nine… and Taye Diggs had Kevin Hill and Day Break (D for Disaster in the Ratings). It doesn't matter if they were really good shows (I wasn't an avid follower, so I don't really know), because when have TV networks ever sensibly cancelled a show (with the exception of the O.C)?

Personally, I can't stand Shonda Rhimes, who helms these two shows with enormous potential to succeed. She has already shown us that she can make an absolute cock-up of a winning formula, so what will she do with a spin-off (and spin-offs have never had very excellent track records)? She's also a wishy-washy, flip-floppy walking contradiction. But, masochistically, I like to watch train wrecks (after all, destruction is a form of creation), so I'll tune in to the premiere of Private Practice. I'll stick by Grey's. What relationship doesn't have a rough spot? You just keep on keeping on and hope it gets better, with time.

But, then again… how much time will ABC give Private Practice and Grey's?