Caught this film on Friday night. Wow, very cool and interesting fairy tale for grown ups.

The basic plot is a young girl in 1944 Fascist Spain moves to the country with her pregnant Mother to live with her Step-Father, an Army Captain in charge of managing the area as well as putting down the local resistance. She encounters a creature she calls a fairy on the way and through it discovers labyrinth with a faun in the middle, a faun that says she's actually the lost Princess of the Fairy realm and has a series of tasks for her to perform to prove that she hasn't become too human to pass through the portal back to her real home.

It is not for the squeamish, but thankfully the gore isn't excessive. The performances are great and the story is far more complex than what I've talked about so far.

I'd say more about it, but I don't want to give anything away. I think this is a very WAN film, though, and recommend it to everyone here. It will engage your heart and your mind.

It looks great.........I think its by the guy that made Hellboy(with the actor that played Abe Sapien) I would like to see it at the cinema,but I'll probably catch it on DVD

I may see that today since I waited too long to see The Departed. (I'm sure that film will be re-released in theatres once the Oscar nominations are announced.)

Saw Pan's Labyrinth on MLK day. It is VERY good and I highly recommend it. Hopefully it will be available in a theatre everybody can see, but because it is in Spanish, has NO English, is not an action-adventure film like "Brotherhood of the Wolf", is not a martial arts movie like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", isn't produced by Quentin Tarantino,isn't directed by Clint Eastwood, isn't directed by Mel Gibson, and most importantly of all--has the balls to have a sad ending, I strongly suspect most IMWANkers not living in large cities will have to wait until this comes out on DVD before they can see it.

I'll talk more about this later, but there's one thing I want to point out. Unlike Hellboy, Doug Jones uses his own voice in this movie. He was the only member of the cast who did not know Spanish, but he managed to learn all his lines anyway. He also had to learn his co-star's lines too since he was unable to hear very well underneath his make-up and he had to know when his cue was. You'd never realize he wasn't fluent.

Eddie Cunningham

Actually, it looks like I am wrong. If their web site is right, you should be able to see this film all over the country, even if you live in a small city. My apologies!

Nyaaaaaaaaaaarggggghhhhhhh!!! (Don't worry,I kinda figured as much,from what I read about the film.

I watched PAN'S LABYRINTH yesterday. It was okay, but nowhere near deserving the praise heaped on it (Rotten Tomatoes is at 94% with 100% for top critics).

The major fault I have with the movie is the opening scene which is pretty much a huge spoiler. It definitely doesn't work in the way, say, SUNSET BOULEVARD does.

Is there a bias in favor of foreign films? LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL was good, but the director Berneni (sp?) appears to be a one-trick pony. I'm not in favor of "affirmative action" for movies. All should be judged on equal merit. If anything, story should trump special effects.

I wasn't that impressed by LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, but I thought PAN'S LABYRINTH was very good. I think part of the reason it was so highly praised is that it's a fantasy film, and in that genre it's certainly one of the best.

Pan's Labyrinth was a great film. I enjoyed it especially because I went to it unaware of what it was besides fantasy.

I enjoyed Johnny Stecchino and Il Mostro (although i remember the critics being quite tough for Il mostro....a comedy about a serial killer)

Pan's Labyrinth is a masterful film and fully engaged the viewer in just a few minutes. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Be warned though; definitely NOT a kid's movie.

I recently found out the same thing about Caligula.

How embarrassing!

Do you think the opening visual of a girl laying on the ground with glassy eyes, bloody hand, and blood pouring back up her nose hurt the story?

Within the first twenty minutes you are introduced to one-dimensional characters (in the real world) and logic reveals the course of events before they happen (in regards to the Captain, pregnant wife, and stepdaughter).

Loved it.

I'll say! I asked for that to be played during my birthday party when I was eight years old. I didn't have as many friends after that party. Kids don't like Rome I guess.

Let's put the Tomatoes thing in perspective. From what I can gather from your reaction, if you were a critic, *you* would be contributing yet another positive review to it. All it does is compile the percentage of positive reviews, which is why they have some pretty mediocre films that score pretty high, even though there's not a single critic who is going WOW!

When I was thinking of going see the new Fantastic Four movie, the way I made the decision *not* to was to read the positive reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes. There were very few that were really excited about the movie, which was what I needed to know. I've been perfectly happy going see movies which scored lower, but had numerous critics that absolutely loved it.

Plus, critics really love movies that are different. They see a lot of movies and it's easy for them to get a Been There, Done That attitude toward movies... which is probably why you have a lot of poorly reviewed movies become huge hits, because the movie-goers don't watch that many movies and what is derivative and cliche to Roger Ebert is exciting and new to Joe Six-Pack. The flip-side of that, what's exciting and new to Roger Ebert might be kinda boring to Joe Six-Pack, because novelty doesn't trump slow pacing in his book.

Critics are just people. Their opinions are as meaningless or as important as the your own.

When I ignore them, I find I enjoy a higher percentage of movies I see.

If it's very highly reviewed, likely, I'm going to find it not so hot.

BTW I just saw Children of Men.

Meh.

Nothing happened.

Rob is a good barometer with which to judge something's artistic worth and quality.

Generally speaking, if Rob endorses it, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!, and if he gives it a thumbs down, get it into your viewing/reading/listening queue ASAP.

I don't care about artistic worth. It's meaningless to me.

Did I enjoy it? Was it worth $10 (or $5 rental?)? If so, thumbs up.

If not, thumbs down. No matter how praised, despised, "important", or unimportant.

Though I do weed out some to start with, I like over 90% of what I see.

Ummm... yeah, Caligula is not a kid's movie. Not many people's movie at all. It was definitely dark.

I'm laughing a lot at this because it is sooo true....I have honestly found it to be almost infallible

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
-Teddy Roosevelt