With Pan’s Labyrinth, director Guillermo del Toro taps the same magical vein that made his Devil’s Backbone so memorable.
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01/18/07
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
95
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:188
Fresh:179
Rotten:9
Average Rating:8.5/10
Consensus: Pan's Labyrinth is Alice in Wonderland for grown-ups, with the horrors of both reality and fantasy blended together into an extraordinary, spellbinding fable. Told through the eyes of a little girl whose imaginary world is inhabited by nightmarish creatures, Pan's Labyrinth is a visually imaginative and allegorical take on the fears she faced in Spain during WWII.
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
US Box Office: $37,384,484
Synopsis: Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, PAN'S LABYRINTH is a thrilling, violent fairy tale set in post-Civil War Spain. Ivana Baquero stars as Ofelia, a young girl who moves with her mother,... [More]
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdú, Ariadna Gil
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Reviews for Pan's Labyrinth
81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Pan's Labyrinth is beautifully shot and designed, but it's the acting that makes it a remarkable emotional journey.
01/18/07
"Pan's Labyrinth" is one of those films that's so moving, heartbreaking and wonderfully haunting, you sigh when the end credits roll.
01/18/07
The movie is that original, and that attuned to the power of myth. I don't see why it shouldn't sit on the same altar of High Fantasy as the Lord of the Rings trilogy -- it's that worthy.
01/17/07
Guillermo del Toro gives us one of the masterpieces of the fantasy film.
01/17/07
The acting is superb, and Baquero steals the movie.
01/15/07
The sets, the sights and the sounds are original and imaginative, but the dirty little secret is that a little of it goes a long, long way.
01/13/07
The magic that many films promise actually works in Pan's Labyrinth.
01/13/07
There are lessons to be taken from Pan’s Labyrinth -- the value of belief, hope and courage, for example -- but the whole is such a dingy downer that despite the fine performances on display, it is impossible to recommend it.
01/13/07
Del Toro's gratifying surreal and fantastical instincts now have an unstinting moral eye on the world. Saying a filmmaker has matured suggests that he's forgone what made him so entertaining in the first place.
01/12/07
Pan's Labyrinth works on several levels. It boldly captures the horror of war, the bloody violence as well as the emotional stifling of the soul, and juxtaposes it with the enchantment of a nether land bathed in hope and eternity.
01/12/07
Pan's Labyrinth plays with dark magic, a hideous enchantment spun with grief and torment. It is emotionally devastating and sensuously rich: Details are as sharp as the ching of a straight-edge razor, as strange as the squeal of a magic root.
01/12/07
This isn't kids' stuff, though adventuresome teens would find plenty here to engage them. It's dark poetry set to startling images, a one-of-a-kind nightmare that has a soaring, spiritual center. It's not to be missed.
01/12/07
It's pitch-perfect, impeccably conceived and replete with subtext and meaning. It is, in other words, a masterpiece.
01/12/07
It all adds up to what many regard as the year's best film (a National Board of Review best picture), a work of imagination that is thrilling and feels like something completely new.
01/12/07
Technically magnificent and flawlessly acted, the picture incorporates 20th century Spanish history and classic fairy-tale elements in a way that seems completely new.
01/12/07
Pan's Labyrinth, like del Toro's previous and related The Devil's Backbone, is a saturated vision, an artist's work. What it lacks is successful unity.
01/12/07
The dark violence of the film (parents, note: Pan's Labyrinth is not for children) is leavened by its invention -- by the way it pushes the limits of reality and fantasy, each world overlapping with the other.
01/12/07
A magical, frightening and heartbreaking movie for adults who want to take the journey, and read the subtitles.
01/11/07
...as repellently fascinating as watching a snake devour a rabbit.
01/11/07
Latest News for Pan's Labyrinth
April 21, 2009:
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While he's become best known for portraying a red, horned antihero in Guillermo del Toro's popular comic book adaptations Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Ron Perlman... More...
November 14, 2008:
Five Favorite Films with Guillermo del Toro
RT caught up with Hellboy II director Guillermo del Toro at the DVD/Blu-ray Launch Event for Hellboy II: The Golden Army, where the celebrated fantasy auteur shared his favorite... More...
July 13, 2008:
Guillermo del Toro - RT's Dinner and the Movies Interview
We have an extended chat with the director of Cronos, Pan's Labyrinth and this week's Hellboy II to talk about his career past, present and future and tap him for juicy... More...
July 01, 2008:
Edinburgh 2008: What to Watch
We share twenty of the best films screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, currently running in the Scottish city. More...
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