Kevin's Watch

The Todd wrote:

Waddley Hasselhoff wrote:I don't want any freaking to occur.

UNLESS IT"S IN MY........

Oh, never mind.....

Dude! "Scrubs" rocks!

Saw this today, and I gotta say - well, perhaps it was just overhyped, but I didn't think it was as good as advertised. I will say that Captain Vidal is one of screen's best villians in a long time - he's a real bastard.

Did y'all see the number of Oscar nominations this got? Not bad for an art house foreign language film.

Going to see this tomorrow--FINALLY!!!! Will post what I think about it when I return.

IMO, over hyping this is hard to do, since it's really that good! Saw it and liked it lots. IMO, del Toro is an awesome director and writer. What I liked were the film's showcasing del Toro's directorial and writing influences; for example, Cronneberg, the Scott's, Peter Jackson, his own dicrectorial history, etc. I have a predispsition against subtitled movies, because usually having to concentrate on subtitles takes me out of the movie; however, in this case not so much. I movie I definitely would not mind seeing again.

Point of history. While the film takes place in 1944, it's not really about WWII, the film's historical context is the Spanish Civil War.

I liked it, but had purposely not read any comments about it, so was taken by surprise by the violence and general gore. And violence doesn't usually make me blink.

The movie left me feeling like I'd been to one of Shakespeare's tragedies. In fact, I pulled out my copy of Titus (after the play Titus Andronicus) starring Anthony Hopkins and watched that this weekend. I found them very similarly visually stunning, and visceral.

In the end, I liked Pan's Labrynith, but I think I will be careful in recommending it to others because of the extreme violence.

OMG, what a piece of Hooey! Over hyped, over gory and over lame. Great acting, though. No character development, gloomy storyline, not a real fantasy per se:

Spoiler

Just a young girls imagination..even as she lay there at the end.

This should have been hyped a pure horror flick, then I'd have been less disapointed.

KT says, don't waste your money. Worst movie I've seen in ages. What others see in this, critics and many here alike, I just don't see it. Of course, I had to look away during about 10 scenes...and I don't think I've ever had to do that at any other movie I've ever seen!

Really, you didn't like it that much?

I just saw this on Friday, and I have to say, I really liked it. I was kinda surprised too, since it wasn't what I expected. I was expecting a fantasy movie, which it really wasn't.

But I really enjoyed the whole thing. I kinda liked that it went back and forth between the "real" and "fantasy" sub-stories.-jay

This was a vry good film. However I do agree with others that the dipiction of violence in the movie was overdone. i do not shy away from violence in movies --- when it serves a point --- most of it here did not.

Spoiler

The part where the son gets beating in the face with a bottle was an example. All that need to be done to get the same effect is to sho the first blow, then cut to an up-shot of the Commander striking downward. It would have been a better decision in my opion.

But the movie was pure movie magic. Loved it. And I would disagree with Kil Tyme's notion:

Spoiler

Just a young girls imagination..even as she lay there at the end.

Although the movie gives people enough 'evidence' to choose either notion

Spoiler

all fake/imagined or all actually happening

I choose the latter. the reasons are many, however I will give two. Firstly, the narrative of the story. It fits. The way the movie is introduced gives us this feeling, and the bookend bits only support this narrative position.
Secondly

Spoiler

a visual clue. One of the stronger peices of evidence that makes you realize that things are actually happening, and not just in her imagination, is the scene when the Commander locks her in her room. Pan comes back and says she has one more chance: bring her baby brother to the labyrinth. She complains that she is locked in her room, Pan smiles and hands her the peice of magical chalk. Next scene she is in the Commander's room. Nice. But not evidence enough until later, when the resistance fighters take over the farm and break in to her locked room by smashing the door! AND she is not there. Only a chalk outline of a door on a solid stone wall in the now empty room...

neat ....


I could go on an on about this movie, as I admire it very much (except for excessive violence), and can't wait to see it a second time... or buy it on DVD!

I agree completely, Usivius. My only complaint was the excessive explicit display of violence.

Finally saw this tonight, i thought is was good, but not great. The voilence was harsh, but some bits - like the bottle parts - were just hilarious.

Leaving the veiwer to deceide whether it was real or not was a nice touch as well.

Warmark wrote:Finally saw this tonight, i thought is was good, but not great. The voilence was harsh, but some bits - like the bottle parts - were just hilarious.

Leaving the veiwer to deceide whether it was real or not was a nice touch as well.

The bottle was hilarious? You are a sick man, Warmark. *shudders*

Warmark wrote:Finally saw this tonight, i thought is was good, but not great. The voilence was harsh, but some bits - like the bottle parts - were just hilarious.

Leaving the veiwer to deceide whether it was real or not was a nice touch as well.

Great movie! I watched it last night...and for the record, the director weighs in on the real versus imagination question in the special features section...

Spoiler

it was not her imagination. the reason the Captain could not see the faun was because of HIS own moral/spritual lackings...she was truly a princess and transformed

.

YES! I am vindicated!

Just saw this on saturday. Knew absolutely nothing about it at all, other than "sorta a fantasy thing". Was not expecting it at all.

Yeah. Great movie. Visually awesome. Gory, but I disagree that it was overdone. By far the majority of it was implied.

Great villain too. Yeah...blown away.

--A

My brother was telling me about Pan's Labyrinth. He said that he didn't like it, but I think it was mostly because he went into it expecting David Bowie in a cod piece....

You're too much, Balon!

I watched on Friday last .... was a wee bit disappointed overall but some bits were amazing. I was seriously disturbed by some bits -

Spoiler

Honestly thought the faun was 'grooming' her to have his wicked way . Also loved 'hand-eye' monster thing

Totally agree about the hand-eye thing.

Spoiler

And expected the Satyr to be evil.

Couldn't be disappointed because I had no preconceptions...was surprised though. As I said, not what I expected at all.

--A

Hand eye monster thing was pretty cool!

I thought the movie was an even blend of fantasy and reality; I was equally interested in both storylines. The Captain was a great villain who would hopefully pay for his crimes in the end. Pan was demanding, magical and possibly manipulative, but hopefully not a threat to Ofelia. I thought they were the best characters in the movie.

The fantasy aspect of the movie was a little dark, which I thought fit well into the idea of the Underworld Kingdom. It sort of reminded me of the gloomy overtones of some of the original Grimm brother's fairy tales--not necessarily suitable for children.

I was a little reluctant to watch this movie because of the subtitles. I thought I would miss out on all of the stunning visual imagery I read about. As it turns out the dialogue was simple, so reading the subtitles wasn't a big deal.