Movie Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

 

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is back; this time, with a new team in the superior 2008 sequel to Hellboy, The Golden Army. (Source: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema)

After the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro decided to give the sequel to Hellboy a fantasy atmosphere. With a budget of $85 million ($20 million more than its predecessor), The Golden Army is a superior sequel with a lot more humor, wall-to-wall action, and wonderful characters from before–as well as introducing some new ones. Ron Perlman, again, plays Hellboy with the wit and charm as the original.

Here, he and his team of paranormal researchers–his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Dr. Manning (Jeffrey Tambor), and a German ectoplasmic psychic named Johann Krauss (voiced by Seth MacFarlane, the only movie where he doesn’t turn in a bad performance) to take down Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), a creature from a mystical underworld who has collected pieces of the crown, so he could be in charge of a massive army of mechanical soldiers, known as “The Golden Army”. Resulting in a battle between the humans and his people.

I love the attention to detail in the wonderful sets, particularly the troll market where Hellboy and his colleagues go through. I’m certain it will take many repeated viewings to catch everything going on in that sequence. For someone who is a sucker for fantasy, the atmosphere works for this kind of movie. With its great action set pieces, the movie also contains some of the most hilarious moments in any superhero movie. I love the scene where Abe and Hellboy discuss issues about women, after Abe falls in love with Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), and sing Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” while drinking some beer. It’s hard not to crack a smile during that scene.

It’s a shame to hear Hellboy III will never see the light of day. I will miss the great adventures with these actors, and I’ll watch them for the rest of my life, especially Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

10/10

Movie Review: Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) rids the Earth from paranormal threats while also dealing with personal issues in Guillermo del Toro’s first superhero movie. (Source: IMDb)

Years before he won an Oscar for The Shape of Water, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro adapted Mike Mignola’s graphic novel series, Hellboy, to the big screen. It became a modest box-office success when it hit theaters in 2004. Although it didn’t break any new ground in the superhero genre, it contains enough humor, fantastic visuals, and historical intrigue to outweigh its flaws.

Ron Perlman hits it out of the park as the title character, a demon who came out of a paranormal portal built by the Nazis during World War II to free the “Seven Gods of Chaos” to defeat the Allies. However, things don’t go according to plan as the Allies defeat the Nazis. Dr. Trevor Broom (the late John Hurt) adopts the creature and, eventually, training him to be an agent of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) to secretly protect the world from paranormal threats, with the help of a psychic half-amphibian/half-human Dr. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones; voiced by David Hyde Pierce), John Myers (Rupert Evans), and Dr. Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor). While a demanding role (considering the red make-up), Perlman plays Hellboy as a selfish yet charismatic creature who smokes cigars, loves Baby Ruth candy, and has a soft spot for cats (similar to Vito Corleone from The Godfather).

There is plenty of action in this movie, particularly one exhilarating scene leading to a subway station. For the most part, the movie works, due to del Toro’s sensitive directing and screenplay (though ridden with holes), the energy, the atmosphere, and the great characters. 

8/10

Movie Review: The Death of Stalin

Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) and the rest of the Central Committee set up a funeral for Joseph Stalin in Armando Iannucci’s political satire The Death of Stalin. (Source: IMDb)

Scottish filmmaker Armando Iannucci is known for making satires of American politics (HBO original series Veep) and British politics (The Thick of It and the spin-off feature film In the Loop). This time, he tackles a bit of Russian history in The Death of Stalin. Based on a series of graphic novels (originated in France), this political satire/dark comedy got banned in Russia by the Minister of Culture, who found the subject matter to be too offensive. “He said its satire was part of a Western plot to destabilize the country,” Iannucci said in The New York Times. “Now the Russian presidential election is looming, and we all know how vehemently Vladimir Putin despises the idea of anyone interfering in the elections of a foreign power; so onto the blacklist my movie went, and no one in Russia is officially allowed to see it.”

With the entire ordeal aside, the movie is beginning to expand throughout the United States. The Death of Stalin came out at a good time.

In March 1953, Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) has been running the Soviet Union for years, and is responsible for the lives of millions. One night, he unexpectedly dies from a stroke. He’s soon surrounded by the Central Committee, which includes Lavrenti Beria, the head of the NKVD (Simon Russell Beale), Deputy Gnl. Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin, Monty Python), and Minister of Agriculture Nikita Khruschev (Steve Buscemi). Hijinks ensue while they make funeral arrangements and invite Stalin’s son Vasily (Rupert Friend) and daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough) to give their condolences.

It’s been awhile since I laughed at a new comedy. Nowadays, comedies are becoming tiresome and cliched. Kudos to Iannucci and his team of wonderful actors, they offer enough to make the audience laugh. The jokes and one-liners come lightning fast yet they are perfectly timed. Buscemi’s Khruschev is portrayed as Stalin’s comedian turned “funeral director”. He leads a wonderful cast who are at the top of their game. Notice how none of the actors play their characters in a Russian accent. If they ended up doing that, it would have push things over the edge just a hair.

While the twenty minutes might run out of steam, The Death of Stalin is, nevertheless, a wild ride that is funny as it is unnerving. Who knew Stalin loved classical music and Hollywood movies so much?

3/4