Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

"Oh, the pain. Life is such hideous pain."

Guillermo del Toro brings us his longstanding vision of Pinocchio as a lovingly crafted stop-motion production with all the stops. It's a masterpiece of design and one of the best looking films I've seen all year. I like how it goes beyond the original story to show us how Geppetto was inspired to build the puppet. It has that classic story tale feeling, like the original 1940 Disney animation, but it adds a certain pathos and darkness that was missing from that film. I wasn't expecting to be quite so moved by the end of it. I think it's just wonderful.

4½ hourglasses out of 5

Frankenstein (2025)

Guillermo del Toro's long-gestating Frankenstein project finally comes to fruition, and it's a bit of a letdown. Visually, it's gorgeous and aesthetically pleasing, with del Toro's keen eye for the bizarre and unusual. The problem is, we've seen this all before in one form or another. The Creature himself leaves something to be desired. And it goes on for much too long. While I admire a lot about it, it just didn't connect with me as much as previous versions. But it's still worth recommending simply due to the sheer marvel of the production.

3½ cadavers out of 5

IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE [2016]

Director Ti West, known mostly for horror movies, takes a dedicated shot at the Western genre with the gritty revenge tale of In a Valley of Violence.
A moody stranger, and his awesome dog, saunter into a penniless town and get into a scuffle with the wrong folks: the Marshal's dim-witted hot-headed son and his gang of equally brain-dead hooligans.
There's no re-invention of the wheel here but we are spoiled with solid storytelling, acting and an yet another excellent film score from Jeff Grace.  James Ransone, Karen Gillan, Burn Gorman and Jumpy the Dog all offer tongue-in-cheek performances that you know they're all having a great ol' time, while Ethan Hawke, Taissa Farmiga and Travolta all play it straight which suits the tale just fine.  West's faithful traditional Western won't fill seats in the cinema but it will certainly please fans of genre looking for a good time.

4 wooden legs out of 5

IMPERIUM [2016]

Nearly a decade after his wonderful short film, Haber, director Daniel Ragussis finally makes his feature length debut with the tense crime thriller, Imperium.
Daniel Radcliffe continues to solidify his staying power as a FBI agent going undercover to infiltrate a radical group of white-supremacist's plans of a violent attack.
It's a fascinating reminder that there's plenty of homegrown terrorism spawned from the white-folk around the corner of Mayberry Street.  It still treads over familiar territory with it's "undercover officer loses his self" story but the more subtle humanizing moments and it's very impressive acting from the entire cast makes for a very engrossing, if not extremely unsettling watch.

3½ racist BBQ's out of 5

CRIMSON PEAK [2015]

Visual director Guillermo del Toro creeps over familiar territory with his Gothic romance/thriller Crimson Peak.
After a tragic event in her life, a young American woman moves to England with her new husband to a spooky old mansion that quite obviously has some bloody secrets buried beneath it.
Before, del Toro's non-English films were noticeably more mature than his North American films but here he seems to have finally found a way to lie between that border and revisit some of the themes, visuals and ideas he brought up in The Devil's Backbone.  It's a beautiful homage to the Hammer films with it's bright reds only representing death, the suffocating shadows and melodramatic music.  It's beautifully detailed atmosphere, well-spaced camerawork and extravagant set & costume designs almost make you forget the story is a little weak and offers no real surprises but if you're a fan of the director's previous films than this shouldn't present much of a problem.

3½ delicate butterflies out of 5

PACIFIC RIM [2013]

After being unable to get several projects off the ground, film-maker Guillermo Del Toro makes a triumphant return with the Saturday Morning Cartoon-esque sci-fi flick Pacific Rim.
Del Toro who usually makes his films dark and broody, wisely opted for a colorful and adventurous feel this time around making for the perfect type of popcorn film.  It's pretty light on substance but Del Toro's knack for great film-making is still firmly intact as he channels some more than obvious influences to create a damned great couple of hours of brainless fun.  It's ridiculous, loud, ballsy and probably as good as gets with this year's run of summer blockbusters.

3½ sons of anarchy out of 5

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES [2012]

The final installment of director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises is a fitting grand finale to arguably one of the best superhero film series ever made.

It mucks around a bit at the beginning but comes all together pretty quickly and wastes no time charging forward into the darkness.  As gloomy as the film may be, it explores themes of hope for humanity, the will to  keep fighting and some questionable political views.  While it might not have the same impact, well choreographed fight scenes or the smarts of the previous film, The Dark Knight Rises is a huge messy spectacle that is sure to please the fans of the series and leave them wanting more.

3 Moroccoan chants out of 5