El Laberinto del Fauno / Pan's Labrynth

Film Title: El Laberinto del Fauno / Pan's Labrynth
Year: 2006
MPAA Rating: R
Length: 112 minutes
Film Genre: Art / Drama / Fantasy / Thriller
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Producer(s): Belen Atienza, Elena Manrique
Writers(s): Guillermo del Toro
Players:
Ivana Baquero as Ofelia
Ariadna Gil as Carmen Vidal
Sergi Lopez as Capitan Vidal
Maribel Verdu as Mercedes
Alex Angulo as Dr. Ferreiro
Doug Jones as Pan / Pale Man
Plot: A young girl in Fascist Spain intertwines the real world with a fantasy world where she is a long-lost princess.
Acting: Baquero steals the show, at least among the human characters. Doug Jones as Pan (the faun) really makes the movie.
Cinematography: Oscar for Cinematography, check!
Visual: Oscar for Art Direction, check! Pan looks awesome!
When I watched it last: Two days prior to review
What to watch for: Awesome visual effects and cinematography; a world just beyond our own.
What to watch out for: Some disturbing violence; language in another language.
IMDB Rating: 8.5 out of 10; #50 on the Top 250 Movies of All Time as voted by users.
Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) Rating: 4 out of 4 stars; "Pan's Labyrinth is one of the cinema's great fantasies, rich with darkness and wonder."
The Cinema Standard Overall Score: 8.6 out of 10; Dark and mesmerizing! A fairy tale not intended for kids.
--Reviewed by Brady

Eragon

Film Title: Eragon
Year: 2006
MPAA Rating: PG
Length: 104 minutes
Film Genre: Action / Adventure / Fantasy
Director: Stefen Fangmeier
Producer: John Davis, Wyck Godfrey, Adam Goodman
Writer: Christopther Paolini (novel), Peter Buchman (screenplay)
Players:
Edward Speleers as Eragon
Jeremy Irons as Brom
Sienna Guillory as Arya
Robert Carlyle as Durza
Garrett Hedlund as Murtagh
John Malkovich as King Galbotorix
Plot: King Galbatorix has reigned as tyrant over Alegaesia for many years, ridding the land of the famed Dragon Riders. A young boy named Eragon steps forward to take hold of his destiny as the next - and possible last hope - of the riders.
Acting: A poor rating is probably giving too much credit to most of the actors in this film.
Cinematography: There are few scenes which show any real cinematographic merit. A few of the wide landscape sweeps are nice, but overall it is an average action adventure film.
Visual: Some of the flight scenes are good. Galbatorix's castle/hall/room/whatever you would call it is a poor job of design. It's just sad. I don't think there were actually any walls, it must have been an open set with a cloth map on one side and a big throne on the other.
Audio: A decent soundtrack.
When I watched it last: Two nights ago
What to watch for: Saphira and the incredibly beautiful Guillory as Arya.
What to watch out for: Dark magic, not much else. The acting and screenplay is bad enough. Thanks for ruining an incredible story!
IMDB Rating: 5.0 out of 10
Roger Ebert Rating: 2 out of 4 stars; "Tales of flying dragons and sword-wielding heroes are grand indeed, especially when the child in each of us can find a world of enchantment therein. Eragon could have, and should have been such a tale." (Miriam di Nunzio)
The Cinema Standard Overall Score: 5.6 out of 10. As Durza, the Shade, relates Eragon, "I expected you to be...well...more." I couldn't have said it better myself.
--Reviewed by Brady

Nochnoy Dozer / Night Watch

Film Title: Nochnoy Dozer (Russian)/ Night Watch (English)
Year: 2004 (Russia) 2006 (America)
MPAA Rating: R
Length: 114 minutes
Film Genre: Action / Fantasy / Horror / Fiction / Foreign
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Producer: Varvara Avdyushko
Writers: Timur Bekmambetov
Players:
Anton Gorodetsky: Konstantin Khabensky
Boris Gesser: Vladimir Menshov
Zavulon: Viktor Verzhbitsky
Svetlana: Mariya Poroshina
Olga, sorceress (owl): Galina Tyunina
Ignat: Gosha Kytsenko
Yegor: Dima Martynov
Larisa: Anna Dubrovskaya
Kostya: Aleksei Chadov
Bear: Aleksander Samojlenko
Plot: The forces of Light and Dark have been waging an eternal war. Known as the Others these two factions create a truce and as part of this truce create policing units called Night watch and Day Watch. The Night Watch is the police unit of the Light and enforce the rules of the truce and make sure that the Balance is held.
Acting:
The acting in this movie is good, nothing spectacular
Cinematography The cinematography is pretty standard nothing too fancy. However, the interlacing of the subtitles into the movie itself is shear brilliance.
Visual: Amazing special effects (over 400 in the movie).
Audio: The audio is about as good as the special effects, it really helps to emerse you in the film.
When I watched it last: Last night
What to watch for: Amazing and unique special effects. Interesting twist on an age old story. Awesome subtitles (you just have to see it for yourself)
What to watch out for: Language. Lots of blood. Slow at times
IMDB Rating: 6.4 out of 10
Roger Ebert Rating: 2 stars
The Cinema Standard Overall Score: 8.0 out of 10. An interesting concept. Special effects are amazing. Subtitle animation is unique. This movie is the 1st in a trilogy, and a good builder movie. Worth buying if you like these sort of movies.
--Reviewed by Jason

Lady in the Water

Film Title: Lady in the Water
Year: 2006
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 110 minutes
Film Genre(s): Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller, Bedtime Story
Director(s): M. Night Shyamalan
Producer(s): Sam Mercer, M. Night Shyamalan
Writer(s): M. Night Shyamalan
Players:
Paul Giamatti as Cleveland Heep
Bryce Dallas Howard as Story
Bob Balaban as Mr. Farber
Jeffrey Wright as Mr. Dury
Sarita Choudhury as Anna Ran
Cindy Cheung as Young Soon
M. Night Shyamalan as Vick
Freddy Rodriguez as Reggie
Plot: A water nymph comes to The Cove to find a special person that will warn man of his impending future, but there are creatures out to get her. A bedtime story through and through.
Acting: Most of the acting is standard Hollywood - nothing's fancy or stand-out about the actors in the film. The comedy of the film is good, a steady crescendo of funny due to the running gags (e.g. Young Soon and Cleveland's relationship with her mother, Reggie's arm, the stoners' conversations).
Cinematography: Shyamalan's camera direction is one-of-a-kind. It's easy to recognize his films (not a bad thing).
Visual: The special effects were very Shyamalan...things in the shadows, rarely seen.
Audio: A fanciful score
What to watch for: Rodriguez's Reggie = hilarity!
What to watch out for: Too much story-telling and not enough story-happening
When I watched it last: Several days before review
IMDB User Rating: 6.3 out of 10
Roger Ebert Rating: 1.5 out of 4 stars; "[I]mprovised and protracted, nonsensically and unnecessarily, just for the sake of stringing us along. And, maybe, putting us to sleep."
The Cinema Standard Overall Score: 6.0 out of 10; A decent film worth renting, but it probably doesn't belong in an aficianado's collection. Don't forget...it's a bedtime story. Try not to take it too seriously.
- - Reveiwed by JB

Hero; Ying Xiong

Film Title: Hero; Ying Xiong
Year: 2004 (USA release)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 99 minutes
Film Genre(s): Foreign, Martial Arts, Action, Drama, Adventure, Fantasy, History, Art
Director(s): Yimou Zhang
Producer(s): Yimou Zhang, Weiping Zhang, Shoufang Dou
Writer(s): Feng Li, Bin Wang, Yimou Zhang
Players:
Jet Li as Nameless
Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Broken Sword
Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow
Ziyi Zhang as Moon
Daoming Chen as King of Qin
Donnie Yen as Sky
Plot: A town prefect claims to have killed the three most dangerous assassins in the land of Qin. As a reward for his courage and bravery, the king of Qin allows the man to come close to the throne and drink with the king to tell the stories, but the king suspects that the prefect is a liar. It’s the tale of an unsung warrior becoming a national hero…in true Chinese mythical style.
Acting: The cast of this film is a veritable walk of fame as far - as Chinese actors are concerned. One could not ask for better performances of the players. Even if the story does not suit a person’s taste, the cast deserves lauds. Emotive and stirring performances pull one right into the action.
Cinematography: One would be hard-pressed to find a more awe-inspiring vision of China, or any part of the world for that matter. Rivaling New Zealand in The Lord of the Rings, the landscapes of the film are incredibly beautiful.
Visual: A-ma-zing! Few films can compare chromatically to the oversaturated palette of this movie. Color permeates the film making it seem surreal and dream-like, above and beyond reality, much like the choreography. “[T]he sets, costumes and special effects are of astonishing beauty” (rogerebert.suntimes.com). As with other Chinese fantasy-fables, physics is not even considered. Fight scenes make use of cables and digital effects. The characters whimsically float about, hang upside down and move with speed and fluidity that blurs time.
Audio: This movie is an audiophile’s dream. The music is wonderful. The best example of the film’s sound quality is in a fight scene between Nameless and Sky. Raindrops falling from eaves can be heard all around. The sounds of the fight envelope you in the action, making it seem as though you are right in the middle of the swordplay. An old man sits and plays a Guzheng (a popular, ancient Chinese, stringed musical instrument which is still played today). The music parodies the fight and at the climax of the scene the old man is playing so violently fast that he breaks all of the strings. That cacophony is the perfect peak point to the scene.
What to watch for: Jet Li’s best; Awesome choreography; Vivid color and imagery.
What to watch out for: A couple of places where the wire work was not fluid.
When I watched it last: One night prior to review
IMDB User Rating: 8.1 out of 10 stars; #153 on the top 250 movies of all time as voted by users.
Roger Ebert Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; "[B]eautiful and beguiling, a martial arts extravaganza..." "[A] visual poem of extraordinary beauty."
The Cinema Standard Overall Score: 8.2 out of 10; A must-see! One of the great Chinese martial arts movies.
- - Reveiwed by JB