Foreign Films

I'm looking forward to Hellboy II immensely. First and foremost there's the magnificent Ron Perlman who plays the titular demon. From the strong but forlorn Vincent in the TV show Beauty and the Beast to the sweet natured circus strong man One in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's City of Lost Children, no-one does the alienated, unappreciated hero thing as well as Ron.

Secondly, director Guillermo Del Toro is fast becoming a real favourite (of mine and everyone else's). Since making the first hugely overlooked Hellboy film, Del Toro has received deserved recognition for his fantasy epic Pan's Labyrinth.

Strangely, considering how much I love Hellboy, I was put off watching this critically acclaimed masterpiece for a long time. I somehow managed to utterly convince myself I would hate it. I think my reticence may have had something to do with the clips I'd seen of Ivana Baquero (Ophelia) crawling through muddy insect infested tunnels.

With this initial reluctance in mind, I decided to have a fresh look at Pan's Labyrinth to see if it does indeed manage to overcome the pre-conceptions many of us hold regarding fantasy films attempts at serious drama. Does it in fact live up to the hype? Find out inPan's Labyrinth Film Review.