A cheap excuse for violence

Rating: 5/10 (18 December 2006)

I can't understand why people are raving about Ivana Bacquero as the "greatest child performance ever". She hardly matches the performance of Ana Torrent in Victor Erice's "Spirit of the Beehive", another film about childhood and the Spanish civil war.
In fact Erice's film is far superior without the crutch of a computer graphics rendering bank.
Nothing here that hasn't been done far better by Erice, Bunuel or Tarkovsky.
If torture gets you off then don't miss this but if you want creative film-making without the pandering take a pass.