Pan’s Labyrinth
Pans Labyrinth
Every now and then, there comes along a movie that grips you from start to finish, and when the credits roll, you come out of a spell. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is one such. Probably one of the best fantasy films ever made, the movie is set during the Spanish Civil War. Eleven-year-old Ofelia finds herself in a remote part of Spain with her pregnant mother and fascist father who has been sent there to quell the anti-Franco rebels. In the middle of a frightening world dominated by her father’s cruelty, she wanders into the labyrinth of a scary faun who gives her a task to fulfil. The film oscillates between the horrors of these two worlds and looks at the darkness at the heart of every fairy tale. The film makes no distinction between the real and the imaginary and concludes that both can exist as part of the same frame.
New Line Home Video (Subtitles included)
Price: Rs 799
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum
So, now we know who Jason Bourne really is and also about people who stole his identity. A riveting and gritty spy movie, like the previous two Bourne movies, this, too, moves at breakneck speed through London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Tangiers and Turin. There are the usual CIA spooks, who can be classified as the utterly evil, the not-so-evil and the good. Director Paul Greengrass is a past master of suspense. And in this movie, he shows he can reinvent the old-fashioned chase movies. No real person could ever survive all that Bourne goes through, and Matt Damon’s mastery of the character lies in making it all seem quite plausible.
Universal Pictures
Price: Rs 799
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter franchise keeps getting better with every passing film. As the film opens, we see Harry and his friends trying to come to grips with the appearance of his arch-nemesis Voldemort. Both the wizard world and the normal world of us “Muggles” have been turned upside down.
Sinister events are multiplying, the dreaded Death Eaters (Voldemort’s cohorts) are striking at will. Add to this Potter’s raging teenage hormones and all the attendant angst, and the situation is fraught with peril.
Saregama
Price: Rs 499
Watch the walls between the real world and the imaginary collapse; survive your umpteenth car chase; and end up battling the Dark Lord with a wand this February.
