Guillermo Del Toro

[The Buzz 0]

Are you a fan of his work? What's your favorite movie of Del Toro's resume and why? I just thought this would be thread worthy as I've been getting into his movies over the past few years slowly, and after listening to a few of his dvd commentaries I've gained quite a bit of respect for what he does. Personally my favorites are the two Hellboy movies along with Pan's Labryinth and Devil's Backbone. His use of color in his films always amazes me, and he really knows how to get the most out of budget, actors, artists, etc. So let's see how everyone else feels about him.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Del_Toro

 

Films he directed

 

Chronos(1993)

Mimic(1997)

The Devil's Backbone(2001)

Blade 2(2002)

Hellboy(2004)

Pan's Labryinth(2006)

Hellboy 2:The Golden Army(2008)

 

He's also helped produce the two Hellboy animated features, Cronicas, The Orphanage, and several others. His future movies are listed as the two Hobbit films, a possible Hellboy 3, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, a remake of Slaughterhouse-Five, and an adaptation of the novel Drood by Dan Simmons. Also interested in working on bringing the H.P. Lovecraft story At The Mountains of Madness to the big screen.

[The Niggardly King 0]

Blade 2

Hellboy 2

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

For a moment I thought that this thread was about Guillermo Diaz.

 

No, I've never seen any of those movies, to my knowledge. I think that I once checked out Pan's Labyrinth from the library. That's it.

 

Looks to have a successful career going. Good for him.

 

We should discuss Guillermo Diaz some time.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I don't care much for any of his movies but Pan's Labyrinth. That movie could easily have contended for Best Picture, let alone Best Foreign Language Film, if the Academy gave it the respect it deserved. The movie that won instead was okay, but it put me to sleep twice before I could finally finish it.

[Mik 0]

I really don't like the fact that he's reached some sort of genius territory where all of his trailers start off with, "From the mind of Guillermo Del Toro"...

 

[The Niggardly King 0]

I much prefer his action movie work than wank fest egotistical art films, but I found the first 40 minutes of Pan's Labyrinth incredible. Never finished it.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Were you worried it'd drop off after that and ruin it for you?

[The Niggardly King 0]

I had prior engagements to attend to and when I returned to finish it my DVR went out, erasing it. Never tried watching it again, as it's one of those things that just slip my mind.

[BigPoppaKev 0]

I love Blade 2, both Hellboys and Pan's Labrynth is simply amazing. Can't wait to see what he does with The Hobbit which he'll be directing with Peter Jackson on as executive producer.

[dubq 0]

No Chronos love?

[The Buzz 0]

I've been wanting to see Chronos since 2002 when I saw a profile of Del Toro on some Masters of Horror documentary that Bruce Campbell narrated. Keeps slipping my mind though.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I really don't like the fact that he's reached some sort of genius territory where all of his trailers start off with, "From the mind of Guillermo Del Toro"...

How do you feel about "visionary director Zack Snyder"?

[Turbo Lion 0]

I haven't seen his entire catalog, but I have enjoyed his work. I think his creature designs are really interesting, but I also think he needs to go in some different directions with it. Distinctive can too easily become repetitive.

[haws bah gawd 0]

I've only seen the 2 Hellboy films, and both are great.

[Jingus 0]

Am I the only one who wasn't feeling Pan's Labyrinth? It was marketed as a fantasy adventure about a young girl in some kind of fairyland, but the real movie was actually the story of this asshole army officer being a douchebag for two hours. They tried to sell it as a kids' movie, which made me fairly uncomfortable when we saw shit like him graphically caving in a dude's nose with a bottle.

And having the little girl die at the end felt like that kind of Award-Winning Children's Book bullshit where everyone thinks it's a serious work of art just because it had a downer ending.

The fantasy segments made up like twenty minutes of the film, if that. Yet I've heard endless praise about how great the sets and the costumes and the effects were. Huh? They had a grand total of about four creatures, in three fantasy sets which looked like every other fantasy set from every other fantasy movie ever. I can't understand why people rate this movie so highly, when something like, say, Mirrormask (which had an exponentially greater amount of actual fantastic content) goes unheeded by the same folks.

[Turbo Lion 0]

Mirrormask was great and I probably like it better than Pan's. That said though, I'm pretty sure the Fantasy elements comprised more than twenty minues.

 

And it was rated R. If a parent can't figure out that it's not a kids movie from that information alone, they need to let someone with common sense have a crack at raising their kids.

 

While I don't think it was quite marketed towards children, I do think there was a little bit of misdirection. But in an age where most movies give you the entire writer's outline in the trailer, I'm ok with that.

[Gary Floyd 0]

"The Devil's Backbone" deserves some love here. Wonderfully creepy Gothic Horror movie.

 

"Hellboy" is pretty good, but "Hellboy 2" is even better. The themes are more fleshed out, the humor more well realized, and the whole thing just works better as a whole.

[DarKnight 0]

I agree with everything you said Jingus, about Pan's Labyrinth. It is Del Toro's most acclaimed work, but I found it to be the weakest film that I've seen from him. Both Hellboy films I thought were easily superior. And I didn't remember Pan's Labyrinth being marketed as a kid's movie, since its rated R, but it was marketed as a fantasy film, so I expected the whole movie to be fantasy, and not just about 4 scenes or so.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I actually love Pan's Labyrinth because it shows why the little girl is escaping to the fantasy world: to get away from the sheer hell around her. It makes plenty of sense that the fantasy segments start off very brief and increase in both length and intensity throughout as the General becomes more and more of a human monster. It's a pair of movies in one, and I think it works perfectly.