Dvd Movie Magazine Blog

The blu-ray disc DVD itself is excellent. I think that Universal is doing a great job of putting together their high

definition discs and all of the features. I’m really impressed with what they put together. The movie itself is fairly good. I am one who thought the last movie didn’t really deserve all of the negativity that it got. But this review is about the new movie. Ed Norton didn’t really have a lot of character to mess with here. He did a good job, but it wasn’t exactly American History X where he really got to do a lot. I thought William Hurt did really well, and Live Tyler did surprisingly well. I’m looking forward to what ever they do next with the franchise, but frankly, the movie was basically, chase Hulk. Hulk fight Abomination. Hulk smash. I really liked Hulk smash admittedly. From the deleted scenes, it looked like they were thinking about going into more depth with Liv Tyler’s new love interest, and they had some decent material for William Hurt. In the end, those scenes didn’t work, and I understand that. However, I do think they left some loose ends that could have been tied together with some extra plot-thinking while still providing fodder for future story. It’s a buy, but it’s not as good as this year’s Iron Man or obviously Batman as superhero movies go.

The big red man known as Hellboy (Ron Perlman) with his fellow B.P.R.D. member Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) returns for more monster hunting. This time an evil Elf prince named Nauda (Luke Gross) who lives in the underworld where fairies and other magical beings rule as he has murdered his father and has obtains two special parts of a magical crown to control an ancient army of warriors called The Golden Army who has been said to be industructable beings. His twin sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) has the final piece as she runs away with it to hide the object before he can get his hands on it. The Bearau Of Paranormal Research and Defense leaded by Agent Manning (Jeffery Tambor) with new ectoplasmic spirit creature recruit Dr. Johann Kruass (Voiced by Seth McFarland and played by John Alexander) all join forces with Hellboy, Liz and Abe to investigate the bizarre incidents that occurred in the city of New York. Once they discover a mystical underworld of magic, that’s when the battle between good and evil begins as Big Red himself must stop the evil prince before humanity is lost.

A grand and spectacular follow-up to Guillermo Del Toro’s brilliant and underrated instant cult horror fantasy
comedy adventure “Hellboy” manages to succeeded more then the original. The man who brought you the modern masterpiece “Pan’s Labyrinth” Del Toro who co-wrote, produced and directed this movie has delivered another fine film is his as he’s now one of the most visionary directors in recent memory. The storyline is quite good including the acting, there’s a good sense of humor like the memorable Hellboy singing along to Barry Manillow while being drunk scene. An excellent mix of puppetry, CGI and make-up effects for the imaginative creatures in this feature, a very cool prologue featuring a young Hellboy with a cameo by John Hurt and of course some heart with a moral about power & self-sacrifice with the power of love. The action sequences are also outstanding to go along with this film, now here’s a rare sequel that can surpass the original and any fan of fantasy, action, horror and even the comics would enjoy this movie.

This 2-disc Blu-Ray is outstanding stuff as it features mind-blowing picture and sound that will blow you away. The Extras are incredible such as the Blu-Ray exclusive U-Control features like Concept art Gallery to view the art during the movie, Director’s Notebook as it tells Del Toro notebook with sketches, notes and inteviews including Behind The Scenes tour through the Hellboy 2 set during the movie as it also views alternate takes from the movie and more stuff. There’s also an Scene Explorer Google View that explore on-screen action from four different Perspectives with this multi-angel feature. There’s also a two hour look at the making of Hellboy 2 called “Hellboy: In Service of the Demon”, Deleted scenes with optional director commmentary, BD-Live Features including share your own comic book as you can build, publish and send your friends on BD-Live scenes from the movie as a comic, cTroll Market tour with Del Toro, Epilogue Animated Comic, disc 2 intro, DVD-Rom: Script, Print gallery and Poster Explorations galleries.

Given the spate of disappointing superhero movies over the years, I wasn’t terribly excited about “Iron Man.” I probably would never have watched it if my wife hadn’t wanted to rent it. I’m glad she did, or else I would have missed a fun and entertaining movie.

Robert Downey Jr. really made this movie shine. It’s a measure of the writing and direction that film could have succeeded with a different actor as Tony Stark. But Downey really took the reins and put an indelible mark on the character all his own. He completely owned every scene he was in.

“Iron Man” successfully walked the fine line of taking itself seriously enough that you actually care about what happens without becoming so serious that the whole movie collapses under its own weight. Favreau and Downey deserve equal credit for that. And Favreau does a great job of keeping “Iron Man” moving. Who would have thought back in the day of “Swingers” that Favreau would become a big-time A-list director? Hollywood often fails to notice talent, so it’s great to see him succeed.

The Blu-Ray transfer is excellent, and the special features are enjoyable. Perhaps the most special feature is after the end credits, a la Ferris Bueller; be sure to watch until the very end!

I highly recommend this movie to fans of action movies, superhero films, SF movies, or anyone who just plain enjoys a good movie