Some movies.

Stardust (2007): A.

I'm not even going to pretend that this movie wasn't awesome. I'm completely serious. It initally caught my eye because I'm a sucker for fantasy movies, but it was on the backburner of my Netflix queue for some reason until I just couldn't take studying for the bar anymore (after only 3 days! who's in denial?). Once it started, I couldn't stop it. Tristan lives in a village called Wall, which borders a mysterious land. When he sees a falling star literally fall there, he vows to retrieve it for a girl he's trying to court. And off he goes.

Sometimes the fantasy genre forgets that even where magic trumps science, stories have to be grounded in rules. That's where Stardust succeeds. Each of Tristan's moves are logically human as he finds Yvaine, the star, and eludes the multiple characters pursuing them, each for their own reasons (that's another highlight -- it's not just a good v. bad tale -- multiple parties with independent objectives cross paths). The movie ends up being more cheeky than ironic, which evokes pleasant comparisons with The Princess Bride without feeling derivative. In the end, it's the best kind of bedtime story: exciting, romantic, and complete.



Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008): C+.

Don't read this if you're the three people who haven't seen the movie yet.

Indiana Jones was always grounded in magic realism of the very best kind. It didn't just look to same ol' mythology we knew and grew to love in 7th grade, with Zeus and Medusa and Odysseus being all kickass. No, Indy had the audacity to dive into religion and basically say, "yup, it's all true." What that did was engage in one of the best academic exercises you'll find at colleges and universities: it viewed the Bible as a historical text while simultaneously tapping into our faith.

And then Part IV shat all over that by giving as aliens. They just don't belong in this movie. Those stories have entirely separate rules from the Indyverse, and it was like none of that mattered. The only identifiable remnants of the original trilogy was that Indy could get into and out of trouble like Britney's... career. Cate and Shia deserve better.



Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008): A-.

Holy shit! Mila Kunis isn't an annoying windbag!