Apocalypto

Pan's Labyrinth [Blu-ray]
$35.99
"Pan's Labyrinth" was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, and made its debut at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. It has been very highly regarded since its release, and the awards it has won include three Oscars and three BAFTAs

"Pan's Labyrinth" opens in 1944, and is set in Spain. Five years have passed since the Spanish Civil War "officially" finished, although there is still a Resistance fighting against the Franco's Falangists. As part of the state's solution, military outposts have been established to deal with the "problem." The film's main character is Ofelia, a young girl who is devoted to reading. As the film opens, she is travelling with her heavily pregnant mother to at one of these military outposts. Captain Vidal, the outpost's commanding officer, is Ofelia's stepfather and the outpost will become her new home. Vidal is as cruel, vindictive and selfish as you'd expect from a Fascist and Ofelia (unsurprisingly) grows to hate him. With her mother desperate to please him and provide a `safe' home, Ofelia's only real ally is Mercedes, the housekeeper. Mercedes, however, is anything but a collaborator : her brother is in the Maquis, and she helps them in any way she can.

Luckily, there is the chance of an escape. A long time ago in a wonderful underground kingdom, a young princess dreamt of blue skies and bright sunshine. One day, she managed to escape her guardians and found a way to the human world "up above". Unfortunately, the brightness of the sun blinded her and wiped her memory. She suffered pain and sickness and, in time, she died. Her father, however, knew her soul would return at another time and in another place and he would wait for her return. When Ofelia follows a fairy into the labyrinth close to her new home, she meets a faun...who tells her she is the princess returned. Unfortunately, she must first complete three tasks before she's allowed to return to her former home. However, from the film's opening scene, you know things are not going to be easy for Ofelia.

Despite the fairytales and mythical creatures, I wouldn't really say "Pan's Labyrinth" it a movie for children - it is quite dark and a couple of scenes are really very unpleasant. In fact, despite the fantasy element, the film's biggest monster is Vidal : poisonous, nasty, vicious and brutal, he barely tolerates Ofelia and views her mother as little more than a walking womb. Mercedes, on the other hand, is everything Vidal isn't - protective, honourable, loving and kind. However, it is an excellent movie overall and - so long as you don't mind subtitles - is totally recommended.

Royal Hunt of the Sun
$7.99
Translation of a play to the screen is sometimes problematic because stylized action is accepted on the stage as an abstraction of larger movement, but when this same stylized action remains in the film, the work takes on a surrealism that may interfere with the intention of the film-makers. The same criticism applied to dialogue that is acceptable on the stage despite over-dramatization, but in a film it appears as over-acting and can be distracting. This movie is based on a very successful stage production but the translation to film was somewhat awkward.

Christopher Plummer does an excellent job as the Inca King Atahuallpa, appearing trim, slim, dark, and athletic. His slender tall frame is that of a ballet dancer and thus is perfect for the other-worldly Athahuallpa. Robert Shaw is at his best as Pizzaro. He is a bundle of masculine enterprise, an agent for state and church and self. These two figures are meant for each other, or at least Athahuallpa was meant for Pizzaro to awaken hidden doubts and unquestioned concepts and repressed emotions - of course Athahuallpa is destroyed in the process. Shaw and Plummer bring a slight bit of homoeroticism to the play, actually strengthening its many layers of meaning. The film reveals that 17th century Spanish Catholic explorers were exploitive and the implication is that the church and the state play a major role in this exploitation. The screenplay is vivid and intellectually challenging.

The film quality is a bit poor with jumpy editing that even cuts dialogue short. This was distracting since the dialogue was strong.

The Passion of the Christ (Full Screen Edition)
$19.98
This is one of those rarest of films whose trajectory penetrates all of the intermediary sensory and cultural tissues and impacts the fibers of one's soul. It is not seen and heard, it is felt. It is nearly perfect in its power of telling.
Whether deist, theist, agnostic or atheist, the viewer may briefly taste the sum of all the world's pain. The sensations may engender knowledge; and with this knowledge, the beginning of wisdom?

The Passion of the Christ (Definitive Edition) [Blu-ray]
$29.99
This is one of those rarest of films whose trajectory penetrates all of the intermediary sensory and cultural tissues and impacts the fibers of one's soul. It is not seen and heard, it is felt. It is nearly perfect in its power of telling.
Whether deist, theist, agnostic or atheist, the viewer may briefly taste the sum of all the world's pain. The sensations may engender knowledge; and with this knowledge, the beginning of wisdom?