Production Year: 2008 - Action/Adventure - Director: Guillermo Del Toro - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Brian Steele, Doug Jones, Selma Blair, Ron Perlman, Jason Alexander, John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor more
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY begs any number of referential mash-ups to be used as description of its outlandish tonal and stylistic qualities. It's a little like a romantic and... more
unhinged in the hands of a less visionary director than Guillermo del Toro. Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, aka "Red," the Dark Horse Comics demon-hero with roots in the...
unhinged in the hands of a less visionary director than Guillermo del Toro. Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, aka "Red," the Dark Horse Comics demon-hero with roots in the...
world's toughest kitten-loving hero from Hell continues to unfold in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Bigger muscle badder weapons and more ungodly villains arrive in ...
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Luke Goss We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Luke Goss We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Joel Schumacher - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock, Peter Stormare, John Slattery, Brooke Smith, Kerry Washington, Shea Whigham
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
A review by thedevilinme on Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army (DVD) October 26th, 2009
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Liked it
Story
Satisfactory
Characters / Performances
Good
Special Effects
Good
Soundtrack
Average
Advantages:
Better that it should be
Disadvantages:
Long
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
After a run of flops from the expensive rack at Blockbusters I finally rented something I enjoyed this week. When I heard Guillermo Del Torro was to direct the Hell Boy sequel I was quite surprised and quietly excited, his magical and visually stunning style of direction an interesting choice for comic book territory. But he did and thank heavens for that, this a real belter, only Iron Man coming near the quality of this since the Spiderman trilogy. Yep, Del Torro does borrow heavily here from other movies, recent and not so recent, everything from The Mummy to Star Wars dabbled in here, the green monster knocking the top off the Manhattan skyscrapers like a tea spoon cracking a boiled egg a particularly blatant Cloverfield rip off. But that aside his use of humour throughout and his excellent sense of scene setting is excuse enough to let him get away with that and because he soon involves you in the story and with the characters you don't really care and just settle into the rhythm of it and enjoy. A good film maker creates dreams not cynicism.
-The Cast-
Ron Perlman ... Hellboy Selma Blair ... Liz Sherman Doug Jones ... Abe Sapien / The Chamberlain / The Angel of Death John Alexander ... Johann Krauss James Dodd ... Johann Krauss Jeffrey Tambor ... Tom Manning Luke Goss ... Prince Nuada Anna Walton ... Princess Nuala Seth MacFarlane ... Johann Krauss (voice) John Hurt ... Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm Brian Steele ... Mr. Wink / Cronie Troll / Cathedral Head
-The Plot-
After some early scene setting of when Hell Boy was just a kid and hidden away for his own good under the fatherly protection of Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt), who would read him fairytales of mythical worlds to try and soften the blow of a life long isolation he may well face, we then flash forward to the present day, HellBoy and the other freaks and mutants still contained in a Men In Black style secret complex under New York City, the one Moulder and Scully never knew about, working for the government to keep their anonymity and so protect them from the public and vice versa. Some of the mutants, X-Men style, have decided to help the humans fight their enemies, swanky costumes to boot, moving between the shadows by night, unseen. But HellBoy (Ron Pearlman) is bombastic and grumpy, a locker full of beer and cigars feeding his moods, feeling he's not getting enough credit for his heroics and so wants to be with the humans on street level and so earn their acclaim, increasingly exposing himself to that public in the newspapers and on youtube, much to the annoyance of the station chief Manning (Jeffery Tambor). He's also broody with his girlfriend, Liz Sherman, the human fireball (Selma Blair), the two arguing over everything, including melted toothbrushes!
The days of being hidden away will soon be over for Hellboy, though, when Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) rolls into town swooshing his sword, returning from the now not so mythical underworld that HellBoy learnt about as a kid, here to reclaim the pieces of his kingdoms crown, one such segment being auctioned at Christies. Many moons ago an alliance was struck between the humans, the Trolls and the Elfin, not to wage brutal war on earth anymore, the royal crown broken into three pieces and given to each leader to reinforce that treaty. But whoever holds the three pieces at the same time has the supreme power of unleashing the Golden Army, an immortal force of mechanical robots that only answer to the owner of the completed crown, and so the power to overrun the other two empires. With two of the three pieces quickly in Nuadas possession it leaves just one bit, his twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), the carrier. But even with the last piece first he still has to find the location of the army.
It seems only Hellboy can stop Nuada now and with the help of new station chief Professor Kraus (John Alexander/voice-Seth McFarlane) and scaly mutant 'Abe' (Doug Jones) and some good Cuban cigars and backchat, they are soon on Nuadas tail as they all close in on the secret location of the Golden Army..
-The Conclusion-
As I say Del Torro is a magpie here and doesn't really care what movies he begs and borrows from, as long as the film is exciting and entertains, which this clearly does. If I was you and you haven't seen the Dark Knight I would forget that and rent this and Iron Man first, two far superior movies.
Abe is clearly C3PO and Princess Nuala, Princess Lea - the narrative all but Star Wars meets The Mummy, Hell Boy playing Brendan Fraser, even the carnivorous Scarab Beatles from that movie appearing here in different form ass the less than friendly tooth fairies. In fact pretty much every scene is nicked from another movie. But however plagiary riddled this is its great fun and ticks all the boxes and hits all the marks an action film for all ages need to, and skilfully too, a deliberate and cleverly engineered distinct lack of blood earning it a 12 rating.
It's funny, imaginative, creative and magical in that Del Torro way and you never feel any scenes are just stuck in there to flog the video game, an always smooth storyline that makes sense and drives you through the two hours. There are some hilarious scenes here; none more so than the drunken sing song between Abe and Hell Boy, the director able to completely flip the movies feel at any point. And what superhero film do you know that would have a line like: "I'm not a baby I'm a tumour!", this film working on many levels, father and son giggling along at the same time. Homer and Bart would love this.
The acting is solid and the dialogue anything but clunky, Luke Goss still not famous under the layers of latex but really rather good as the evil prince, a similar role as he played in Blade 2, also directed by Del Torro. Selma Blair drops neatly into the X-Men style mutant role in Kate Beckensales black leather cat suit and Ron Pearlman was made to play Hellboy, almost chiselled from stone for it, comfortably the ugliest leading man in cinema since the elephant man. My one negative would be the music wasn't quite loud enough in that Raiders of the Lost Ark way John Williams manages. On the whole it's a cracker and a must rent for 2009.
Hellboy: You're in love. Have a beer. Abe Sapien: Oh, my body's a temple. Hellboy: Now it's an amusement park
= = = Special Features = = =
-Audio Commentaries-
#1 Director Guillermo Del Torro talks about his movie.
#2 Cast & Crew talk about their experiences on the movie.
-Set Visits-
A rather lazy block of behind the scenes is well worth missing, some guy wandering around the set with a cheap camcorder seemingly fore filling some sort of studio quota on the amount of extras for this disc.
-Directors Notes-
You can press a button during the film on this setting to read the directors notes on the movie at this point.
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army: The Golden Army: *** Introduction *** Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was a film that I actually got excited about when it was released at the cinema. I wanted to go see it then but I don’t leave the house often to be honest and so I never got round to seeing it. I must have forgotten about it but I recently saw it for less than £2.99 and as I had vouchers I bought it. The version I have is the two disc special edition which ... ...Hellboy *** Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is the sequel to, (you guessed it), Hellboy. Hellboy is a big red demon from Hell but he is actually a nice guy despite him being a demon proven by the fact that he loves cats! He lives in a secret government agency type place with some other unusual characters like a fish-man called Abe Sapien and his love interest Liz who sometimes bursts into flames. Together they help solve problems involving other paranormal ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Finally the kind of budget del Toro needs. Disadvantages: A slightly weak ending
...human race. It’s up to Hellboy and his colleagues at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence to defeat him. To do so, they must travel between the surface world and the unseen magical one where mythical creatures take form. So with his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman, aquatic empath Abe Sapien and new gaseous mystic Bureau member Johann Krauss in tow, the big red one sets out to save the world. I have been a fan of writer-director Guillermo ... ...the scene where Abe and Hellboy get drunk, talk about their love lives and sing along to Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You”. In any other director’s hands this would have seemed self-indulgent, but this helmer has such a light touch that it becomes one of the highlights. It’s also a nice example of the sense of humour running through the film – there are frequent flashes of comedy to leaven the fantasy aspects. And many of the gags revolve ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Perlman and the action Disadvantages: Mediochre acting, uncomfortable plots and subplots
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the 2008 sequel to the 2004 film Hellboy. It is directed by Guillermo del Toro, and stars Ron Perlman as the red demonic superhero known to all as Hellboy. Hellboy was born around the time of World War 2, emerging from a void between this world and another, but was nurtured by Professor 'Broom' (John Hurt) and fights for the good of the earth.
Hellboy 2 takes off not long after the original film finishes. Hellboy and ... ...action scenes are very entertaining. Hellboy himself is a prize fighter with an indestructible fist, oversized and built for clobbering. Perlman's portrayal of the character gives a comedic element which does seem to fit for the majority of the film, but it is predictable when he is about to crack a joke.
The acting is nothing special in general. There is some snivelling from FBI agent Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) which in stereotypical of someone ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Did you enjoy it?
Story
Characters / Performances
Special Effects
Soundtrack
very helpful
11.09.2008
A HELL of a film. Review ofHellboy 2 - The Golden Army (DVD)by
Maximus-Qualitus
Advantages: Great sequel Disadvantages: None
HellBoy 2.
************
A nice film that lives up to the success of the first.
Hellboy a creature from another realm found by Professor Broom in the first film and brought up by him as his own son.
This film begins by laying out the premise of the movie by having John Hurt read a story to a young Hellboy just before bedtime on Christmas Eve.
Man wished to expand his dominion over there entire earth but king Balor of the Elfin underworld is not ... ...the public don't take to Hellboy as he had hoped. The rest of the gang are not happy at being outed.
A new boss comes in to run the crew and look after Hellboy, an ectoplasmic being in a containment suit. Ok it's starting to get a bit far fetched now but then the whole movie is slightly off the map.
The Troll market takes weirdness to another level, hidden away behind a huge door and you can see the influence of Pans Labyrinth.
Meanwhile the prince ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Good Storyline Disadvantages: Not For People Who Hate Violence
Having seen the trailers for Hellboy 2 and being impressed by them I dragged my boyfriend and one of my mates along at the weekend to watch it. Plot
The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so as Hellboy and his team return they must save the world from the rebellious creatures. Now as the creatures who inhabit the spiritual realm gear-up for an all out attack on the human plane, the only one capable ... ...About The Film
Hellboy works for a hidden US agency to save the world from the paranormal and supernatural threats. Hellboys colleagues include Abe Sapian and Liz Sherman, Liz's mind can summon fire and is also Hellboy's girlfriend. Their boss has the team under strict orders to conduct themselves discretely, however Hellboy is acting act because he wants the world to know who he is, he wants to be on YouTube.
The ancient conflict between man ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Consumer Advice: Contains moderate fantasy violence and infrequent strong language
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Plot: Genre icon Ron Perlman returns to the comic book character Hellboy with this sequel from visionary director Guillermo Del Toro (PAN'S LABYRINTH, THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE). In HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, the red-skinned demon hero must face off against a new nemesis called 'the Prince' (former Bros member Luke Goss), a dastardly villain who is hellbent on summoning an army of dark forces in order to create a rebellion against humanity and conquer the planet. Aided by his fellow mutants Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Hellboy is Earth's only hope against it succumbing to the evil Prince's wicked plan.
Release details
DVD Region: DVD
Studio(s): UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK; CINRAM LOGISTICS (SWINDON), UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK VIDEO RENTAL; CINRAM LOGISTICS (SWINDON)
Languages
Main Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Feature commentary, 'Hellboy: In Service Of The Demon': Making of Featurette, Director's notebook, Production Workshop Puppet Theatre, Image galleries, Deleted scenes with optional commentary, 'Troll Market Tour' with Guillermo Del Toro, Zinco Epilogue, Featurette, Commentary with writer, director, Behind the scenes,, Director's notebook, Feature commentary with writer, director, Set visits
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital
DVD Description
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY begs any number of referential mash-ups to be used as description of its outlandish tonal and stylistic qualities. It's a little like a romantic and sophisticated live-action Ninja Turtles movie imbued with a cracked version of H.P. Lovecraft's monster storytelling. It's a feature-length version of STAR WARS's Mos Eisley Cantina mixed with a scrappy, proficient passion for creature design reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen. It's also kind of director/co-writer Guillermo del Toro's HELLBOY (2004) wrapped in a blanket of his PAN'S LABYRINTH. This sequel is all these things, but none of them can accurately capture the singularity of a movie which, in some ways, stands alone in its ability to capture the crass and literary luridness of reading a comic book. It's filled with gross creatures bursting with humanity, dark poetry, and slapstick comedy; in one scene, an argument between Hellboy and Johann Krauss, a formless gas contained in a mobilized suit, escalates to the point of Tom-and-Jerry-like violence.
As Hellboy himself, a heartfelt anti-hero who regularly eliminates supernatural threat as an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense alongside girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) and comrade Abe Sapien, Ron Perlman again embodies the role with the kind of pathos and humour that one can only expect from a horned, red-skinned Hell-spawn who loves kittens and acts like a hardboiled detective who happens to watch TV and drink a lot of canned beer. HELLBOY II's rather interesting antagonist, Prince Nuada, isn't just an evil dude. In the mold of the complex villains typically found in Hayao Miyazaki's animated fairy tales, his intentions of restoring control over Earth to an Elvish race by regaining the key to unlock the indestructible Golden Army are at least based on a legitimately noble sentiment before megalomania kicks in.
Professional reviews
Review: There is plenty of action [...] Del Toro's fondness for the macabre, and for clockwork, colour this film in a way that's instantly recognisable. (Empire, 05/11/2008)
[A] hard-driving psychedelic action-movie fantasia [...] del Toro stages all of the action brilliantly [...] Dazzling. (Entertainment Weekly, 05/11/2008)
[A]live with fantasy and invention. To see this film, beautifully shot by Guillermo Navarro, is to truly feel you've entered another world, filled with nightmarish things both unimaginable and indescribable. (Los Angeles Times, 05/11/2008)
HELLBOY II is a movie that's a tingling boost to the senses: and that sense of humour is such a stimulus to the other five. (The Guardian, 05/11/2008)
With Hellboy II, the comic-book blockbuster has finally grown up — without giving up the fairy-tale wonders of our youth. (The Times, 05/11/2008)
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Listed on Ciao since : 14/07/2008
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