Quick movie reviews

The last two movies we've seen are The Illusionist on DVD and Pan's Labyrinth in the theater.

We saw The Illusionist last week, and I was pretty exicted about it. We weren't excited enough about this movie to see it in the theater, but I do love Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. And Dave loves Jessica Biel for entirely different reasons.
So, anyway, to the movie. A friend of mine with whom I usually agree had given this a so-so review. So I wasn't expecting much. Maybe that was a good thing. We really did enjoy this movie. The lighting was beautiful. It was like the entire movie was lit with candles. The acting was great. I don't specifically remember Jessica Biel turning in an amazing performance, but she also didn't seem outclassed by Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti, either, the way Katie Holmes did (against Christian Bale and Michael Caine) in Batman Begins.
And the story was a pretty cool one. Not a ringing endorsement, but we did enjoy it, and would recommend it as a rental.

Now, onto Pan's Labyrinth, which was just dark and cool. This is definitely NOT a kid's movie. It's also not a movie for What's a Blog. You want to talk about having nightmares. Some of these images will stick in your head for ages. Especially this guy (WaB, you really may not want to click on that link - fair warning). The movie progressed very slowly, but we enjoyed that about it. It goes btween the two worlds, building up the story about why this girl would want to escape. It doesn't take us long to understand, but they really do drive the point home. The bad guy is just horribly bad. This movie is dark and violent, in both supernatural and earthly ways. I'm amazed by people who have these kinds of things in their heads, and can translate them for the rest of us.