I never read the novella that it's based on, but the movie was pretty good. The beginning seemed a bit rushed and sometimes convoluted, but eventually it slowed down, allowing a story to emerge and its actors to shine.

I had a good time playing "spot the familiar face" or in Ian McKellen's case, the familiar voice. The director, who did "Layer Cake" and produced for "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" brought back a few familiar faces from those movies so that was nice to see. And it was fun to see a bit of humor in a fantasy movie. I've seen a lot of comparisons to "The Princess Bride", but it reminded me a bit of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen", though better. I think that's mostly due to the look and feel of it.

Overall, not in the least a waste of money or time.

I just got back from the movie, and I must say that it was a lot of fun.

It is also one of those rare movies that I consider to be better than the book. The book was good, it's just that the movie was better.

At the start of the movie, we see an astronomer at the Royal Society observing the Moon with a telescope. The way the telescope is set up though, the Moon's depicted location in the sky is right next to the North Star, and that's impossible.

And speaking of the Moon, the story takes place over the course of about a week, yet the Moon remains full the whole time, which is also impossible.