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I'm looking forward to my rewatch of Pan's Labyrinth. I loved the visuals, but never really cared for the story. I'm hoping this time around I like the film as a whole a lot more.
I need to re-watch this too. Liked it, but can’t remember anything about it.
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Women will be your undoing, Pépé


Pan's Labyrinth was a rewatch for me and for me this is a film that demonstrates the value of practical effects and makeup over CGI(though I'm sure their is a little CGI) you can tell most of the film was made with practical effects. For me this is Del Toro's best looking film it's in essence a fairy tale and a fairly grim one. Set in the back drop of the post Spanish civil war Ofelia travels with her sick mother to met he new stepfather Captain Vidal.

The wicked Step-father is a nice twist to the typical Disney formula and Sergi Lopez is wonderfully terrifying and terrible in the role. I don't know if Del Toro ever had a more menacing villain like Lopez in his following works. But the stars of the film really are the monsters that Del Toro comes up with. It almost feels like a Hayao Miyazaki film brought to life though it replaces whimsy with dread.
Great review, and I like the reference to Miyazaki and the replacement of whimsy with dread. Good observation!
I'm looking forward to my rewatch of Pan's Labyrinth. I loved the visuals, but never really cared for the story. I'm hoping this time around I like the film as a whole a lot more.
I had that issue the very first time I saw it. I wanted more of the fairy tale, since the trailers focused mostly on that. But over the years I've really come to enjoy it as a full story. Especially this last time.
I need to re-watch this too. Liked it, but can’t remember anything about it.
Then it's due, isn't it?



I had that issue the very first time I saw it. I wanted more of the fairy tale, since the trailers focused mostly on that. But over the years I've really come to enjoy it as a full story. Especially this last time.
Yeah, I think when I watched it before I wanted a proper fantasy film, but those elements ended up being more allegorical, which didn't really appeal to me at the time. Now that I know what to expect, maybe I'll have a different opinion.

Though I do have similar problems with almost all of del Toro's films. While I like the visual style and general concept, I just never seem to love the actual execution. Hopefully that will change.



I tried watching Benny's Video but the English subs were way off from the film, like almost a minute delay. It was nuts, and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I think I've got it fixed though.



I tried watching Benny's Video but the English subs were way off from the film, like almost a minute delay. It was nuts, and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I think I've got it fixed though.
On a streaming site that already has subtitles? If so, how did you fix it?



On a streaming site that already has subtitles? If so, how did you fix it?
I grabbed a copy without titles then grabbed some titles and combined them. Which works but there's different uploads of the movie and so the timing is off.



Look for ones with the same name as the streaming video like if it says "Benny's VIdeo HDRip x6574" look for subs that say the same. Subs that don't say the same can work too though, it's just best checking if they are there first.



Look for ones with the same name as the streaming video like if it says "Benny's VIdeo HDRip x6574" look for subs that say the same. Subs that don't say the same can work too though, it's just best checking if they are there first.
That's good advice, only I renamed the movie file and don't remember where I got it from. But I grabbed 5 different srt subtitle files and so have 5 different Benny's Video files to see if it worked or not.



On a streaming site that already has subtitles? If so, how did you fix it?
If you are using Openload (which is often what i link you when you ask) you can turn them off by cicking the "cc" button and adding your own, some players have the subs embedded though and i don't think you can do anything about those.



If you are using Openload (which is often what i link you when you ask) you can turn them off by cicking the "cc" button and adding your own, some players have the subs embedded though and i don't think you can do anything about those.
I think you can do that with the VLC player to and I believe you can retime the sub text. But I'm watching them on my TV, so I can't do that myself.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Yeah, I think when I watched it before I wanted a proper fantasy film, but those elements ended up being more allegorical, which didn't really appeal to me at the time. Now that I know what to expect, maybe I'll have a different opinion.

Though I do have similar problems with almost all of del Toro's films. While I like the visual style and general concept, I just never seem to love the actual execution. Hopefully that will change.
Curious to see if it works better for you on this next run.



I think you can do that with the VLC player to and I believe you can retime the sub text. But I'm watching them on my TV, so I can't do that myself.
Yeah but you'd have to download the videos, cricket was only talking about streaming i believe, he doesn't download i don't think. My VLC Player went to *****, just randomly stopped synching every single video was messed up and no recalibration or anything that was suggested would fix it, even reinstalling it didn't help. Apparently it's a common thing with VLC over the last couple of years. I use MPC-HC now which is just as good.



On VLC, you can use keyboard shortcuts to manually resync both audio and subtitles +/-50ms at a time. J and K move the audio track forwards and back, and you can use G and H for subtitles. It can take some trial and error, but if audio not being perfectly synced bothers you like it does me, it's worth the effort haha.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Sword of Doom



The DVD I watched of this was not very good quality and it appeared as a very small box in the middle of the screen which bothered me at first but I was soon swept up into the story and stopped noticing it.

This film follows a taciturn samurai who kills a lot of people. I've seen him described as evil and amoral but I'm not sure that he is, he seems to have a different moral code to others but there's a certain code there nonetheless. For example, he kills the old man at the beginning which seems cruel, but the old man has just prayed for death. He has a conversation with the wife of the man he is due to fight in which she makes it clear she would give up honour for family which she sees as the right thing and he sees as the wrong thing. He's not often cruel for the sake of it, just because he really doesn't care about other people at all in a sociopath kind of way. Almost without meaning to he causes anger, violence and wrongdoing in others by his sheer infuriating, immovable presence.

I was really drawn into this at the start, but when it started with time/place jumps and historical organisational stuff rather than human folly it becomes less interesting. The ending was interesting, but annoying in that it didn't really wind up any of the subplots. If it had focused purely on Ryonosuke, it would have made more sense as his ending but we get to see other characters throughout the film and not find out what happens to them, like Omatsu, the granddaughter.

Sometimes there were bits that now look very dated and silly, such as sudden close-ups accompanied by sudden dramatic music, or when Ryonosuke and Ohama are at the mill and we get a shot of pounding machinery to indicate sex, I did laugh a bit. However, there are also some undeniably cool looking moments and well thought-out framing. I especially liked all of the scenes in the rain and snow.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
I like your argument about him NOT being evil per se, Thursday, they are pretty sound. Definitely makes me re-think my vision of the character.
And yeah, the pounding machinery make me chuckle as well.





The Leopard / Il Gattopardo
(1963)
Directed By: Luchino Visconti
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale

The Leopard was initially a difficult film for me to sit through, since it felt as though much of the first hour could've been edited down to a mere fraction of its length. Many shots well overstayed their welcome, or seemed ultimately inconsequential. It didn't help that the film assumes that its audience will have at least a passing familiarity with the history of Sicily, as nothing about the political climate is properly explained until approximately 2 hours into the runtime. It's the kind of film I really wish I'd read up on, instead of going in blind.

However after the long opening act, Angelica's introduction marked the start of the plot's shift in focus towards social and political manoeuvring, and the death of the aristocracy. Once everything was finally laid out, the film became much more enjoyable, and the remaining hour was actually a pleasure to watch. I wish it hadn't taken so long to get that point, because if I was watching this of my own volition, I never would've made it that far.

The set design and costume work were superbly handled. There was a great contrast between the lavish, luxurious, and expansive palaces the nobility enjoyed, compared to the dirty streets and buildings that were literally falling to ruin in the rest of the city. It made it seem as though the ruling elite were living in a world completely disconnected from the reality around them, which really was the case. I think if there had been more of an emphasis on those aspects at the start of the film, I would've enjoyed that first act a bit more. As it stands, my opinion is quite mixed, since I feel completely different about the first half than I do about the second.


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Benny's Video (1992)

I finally got the subs synced. I haven't read any of the other reviews about this, but I will as soon as I'm done typing out my thoughts. Which are:

Benny's Video is a film about a family of super dumb asses. OK maybe Benny is suppose to be a sociopath or perhaps autistic. I mean he has no emotions and verily can communicate. That aspect of him would have been worthy of film study. But instead the director fills his film with lots of filler shots that don't add anything to the story but felt like padding (singing scenes, shots of the photos done by mom, random shots of the city) all felt like left over film footage and gave the film an overall cheap feeling.

I get it that some of the scenes are poorer video quality because they represent what Benny has been filming. But the director uses too much of non-story telling shots and we really get very little insight into Benny...except he's from a family of really stupid people.

I couldn't believe how stupid the parents act in the one scene where they discuss how they will send Benny out of town, while the dad gets rid of the girl's body. What was so poorly done in this scene is how the actress who plays the mom kept smirking right before she would talk. It was horrible, it looked like she was on the verge of laughing all the time...The parents reaction was all so unbelievable that it took me out of the movie. And I did like the movie from the point where Benny meets the girl to the point where his parents find out what he's done... But after they witness the video tape of the killing, it becomes less interesting, which is odd as I would have expected the emotions to ramp up more after the dilemma comes to a head.

Not a fan of the pig killing at all. Shock film making=Schmuck film making. I don't know if the pig was killed directly for the film, if so the director should go to jail. If the pig was already to be killed for food and was just filmed as it was done, OK not unethical, but still shock film making is done in lieu of deeper film making skills.



I'm going to be watching The Leopard again even though I've already seen it. I always do that with movies that I didn't like the first time, to give them a chance for improvement in my eyes for a HoF. For instance I won't watch Cherbourg again since my opinion could only go down. Cosmic gave me the right idea, to read up on the movie first this time, something I normally don't do.



I'm going to be watching The Leopard again even though I've already seen it. I always do that with movies that I didn't like the first time, to give them a chance for improvement in my eyes for a HoF.

Cosmic gave me the right idea, to read up on the movie first this time, something I normally don't do.
That's a good idea. I'll have to read about The Leopard before watching it too, because I didn't care for the movie when I tried to watch it a few years ago.

I even posted about it at MoFo, it's kind of a funny thread and I go on about it in several post, just keep reading the thread, I post more on the next page.

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...39#post1213739