What a waste of my time!!!

Very well executed

recommended

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Rare fairy tale not- far -the -kiddies finds nutty scientific named Krank, Daniel Emilfork , abducting children helped by his one-eyed minions , the Cyclops , so that he can steal their dreams because Krank himself is incapable of dreaming . The lastest victim is the tiny brother of a single-mindedly hunk called One , Ron Perlman , a fairground strongman who sets out in rescuing him . One was a former whale hunter who along with a little girl , Miette : Judith Vittet , pursue a way to to get his brother back . Meantime , they are pursued by the Cyclops , the deadly automatic flea , the mad deep-sea diver and the evil Octopus siamese sisters , conjoined at the leg . The insane scientist Krank lives at a sea platform along with a dwarf woman , six cloned descendants : Dominique Pinon and a brain .This is a grotesque , gross, gruesome and overlong fantasy with nice moments here and there . Although far too long , though , for its content, an extremely fantastic flick from start to finish with some situations full of fascination and charm . Interpretations from the French cast are pretty good , but extremely rare ; as Daniel Emilfork as a mad doctor who abducts kiddies to harvest their dreams and hoping they slow his aging process . Pitted against him is One well played by Ron Perlman , Guillermo Del Toro's regular player , he was the only American actor on set ; Ron plays as a honest and simple bouncer , as strong as a horse . Other actors appearing and giving freak acting are the followings : Dominique Pinon, Jean Claude Dreyfuss, Mapi Galan , Jean Louis Trintignant , Ticky Holgado and Rufus .This one results to be a strange , bizarre , surrealist and haunting film set in a dystopian society in which several fantastic incidents take place . This peculiar movie has freaks galore , avant-garde costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier , breakgrounding special effects in charge by Pitof , and state-of-art production design by Marc Caro , all of whose function seems chiefly to be as bizarre as possible .Exceptional photography by Darius Khondji , a prestigious cameraman with known titles as Seven, 9th door , The beach , Wimbledon , Funny Games , The immigrant , Z lost city . It contains a magic and mysterious musical score by Angelo Baladamenti , David Lynch's usual. This is a French/Spanish coproduction financed by notorious producers as Elias Querejeta , Maria Victoria Herrero , Jose Luis Lopez and Claudio Ossard . The motion picture was well directed by Marc Caro and Jean Pierre Junet , though hard to follow . Caro has directed a few shorts , documentary and films as Dante 01 , Delicatessen . While , the successful director Jean Pierre Jeunet has realized prestigious movies such as Delicatessen , Alien resurrection, A very long engagement and Amelie played by his fetish actress Audrey Tautou . Fantasy buffs may enjoy total or partially of this , others will struggle to understand the half of it . Rating : 6/10 , acceptable and passable . Well worth watching .

Warning: If your children see this movie they may never enjoy the schlock churned out by Disney, Dreamworks or another soulless showbiz conglomerate. A memorable film which puts Hollywood to shame. As a parent I had to watch god knows how many mostly Disney movies but none of them stays in a memory for long. It's like a fast food for the soul; full of harmful ingredients which cause child's mind to become "obese". I am not sure why this movie is R rated. There's no profanity or nudity. I let my 10 year old watch it. And even though movie was scary at times there is nothing gory or sadistic that can deeply affect a child. I think "Modern family" or local TV news would hurt my child's psyche immeasurably more.

The story is both very simple and so complicated at the same time, set in a steam punk city with no name a mad scientist named Krank has set up a lab on an oil rig on the outskirts of the city. Krank has a gang of Cyclops men. A gang who are blind in one eye and use the aid of a machine to enhance their sight and hearing to kidnap children as young as possible but old enough to dream so that he can steal them and stop him aging, currently Krank is unable to dream and believes stealing the young kids dreams will make him live longer. What Krank doesn't understand though is that because the children are being stolen and scared the dreams they are having are only nightmares. A carnival strong man with a young mentality called One played by Ron Pearlman (Hellboy, Drive) goes searching for his brother Dunree and happens across conjoined twin sisters known as la Pieuvre (the Octopus in English) who send young kids of the city to steal what they can in dead of the night. One joins the thieves and in particular a young girl named Miette for a big steal, he spies his little brother amongst the Cyclops gang and attempts to steal him back. Everything soon changes though the night one of the dreams escapes and enters the city…There is a lot that goes on within this film and I haven't yet mentioned the Midget woman or the clones who constantly bicker about who is the original or even the brain in a box that tends to manipulate everyone it can or the music box that controls fleas. This film is so dark in nature and so amazingly beautiful, the directors took 14 years to bring this idea to film so they have had a lot of thought go into it. It's one of the first films to make full use of CGI as well which is very apparent in some amazing scenes. The unnamed city the story is set in is a very dark and twisted place but again so magnificent in its landscape, the way the city comes together can only been seen to be believed. The score really helps the film along as well, the right music is played in the right places and never gets in the way of anything. City of the Lost Children is filled with wonder and amazement from its opening scenes to its last it's a world within a world where escapism is only limited by your own imagination. The characters that have been developed are intense and so very well played and lastly I'll mention the beautiful cinematography without the close ups, unusual angels and filming techniques this film would most likely be very ordinary its these amazing sequences of footage that really help the film become what it is.Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro not only directed the film but also helped script it as well. The City of Lost Children is a French spoken film but those desperate enough should be able to find an English dubbed version without having to look too hard. Again I will say… Don't bother with the dubbed version you need the actual spoken word to her all the film has to offer within even though it is written words on the bottom of the screen, the language spoken and its tones is gorgeous especially during the sentimental moments.

The movie is not as entertaining and uplifting as Jean-Pierre Jeunet's more recent movies, which must be one of the reasons why "La cité des enfants perdus" isn't as praised and being loved as for instance some of his other movies like "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" and "Un long dimanche de fiançailles". This movie is definitely more dark or tone but with still its very distinctive imaginative, fantasy-like world, spirit attached to it.If you aren't really taken by the movie its story, you should at least be blown away by its visuals. The movie has a great look and it manages to create a world of its own. As far as fantasy movies go, this one is definitely up there with the most imaginative ones. Not just all of its sets and costumes are great looking but also its limited effects and odd looking actors who play the characters.Don't really understand why most people praise Ron Perlman for playing a French speaking role and all the claims that he does it flawlessly must have been written by his agent or something. I won't pretend as if I'm an expert on the language but I've been to the country and had French class at school, so at least I know how it should sound like and Ron Perlman just didn't sound very French. I can still understand and see how he got cast for the role though. It must have been because of his unique and distinctive look. The entire movie is being filled by a whole bunch of quirky but unique looking characters, so Perlman fits in perfectly with them.The story is not that complex but it's still quite hard to keep up to, since so many oddball things and characters show up in this movie. It does really slow the movie down at some parts and I do wish the movie would had been a bit more entertaining and comedy-like to watch but this is, as it seems, due to the hand of co-director Marc Caro, who seems to be more fond of post-apocalyptic and darker stories than Jean-Pierre Jeunet. don't know if this also was the reason for their creative split-up as directors but fact remains that Jean-Pierre Jeunet has continued to make some beautiful, classic movies, while Marc Caro has had very little work since.One greatly odd and beautiful looking film.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/