Selma Blair Movie:

		List Price: $39.98		Label: Universal Studios Salesrank: 2270 Released: November 11, 2008
		Our Price: $14.75
		Used Price: $9.98
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 11/11/2008 Run time: 120 minutes Rating: Pg13

Description of Hellboy II: The Golden Army [Blu-ray]:
The feverish Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a very busy sequel that might have looked 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 mythical world but personal ties in the human realm. Still working, as he was in Hellboy, for a secret department of the federal government that deals (as in "Men In Black") with forces of the fantastic, Red and his colleagues take on a royal elf (Luke Goss) determined to smash a longtime truce between mankind and the forces of magic. Meanwhile, Red's relationship with girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), who can burst into flames at will, is going through a rocky stage observed by Red's fishy friend Abe (Doug Jones), himself struck by love in this film. Del Toro brilliantly integrates the ordinary and extraordinary, diving into an extended scene set in a troll market barely hidden behind the façade of typical city streets. He also unleashes a forest monster that devastates an urban neighborhood, but then--interestingly--brings a luminous beauty to the same area as the creature (an "elemental") succumbs to a terrible death. Del Toro's art direction proves masterful, too, in a climactic battle set in a clockworks-like stronghold tucked away in rugged Irish landscape. But it's really the juxtaposition of visual marvels with not-so-unusual relationship issues that gives Hellboy II a certain jaunty appeal hard to find in other superhero movies. --Tom Keogh




Stills from Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Click for larger image)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army [Blu-ray] Reviews:
One of the Most Rewarding Blu-rays
2009-11-16 - Not only is this a great movie to watch, but the feature on blu-ray is complimented with some of the best special features I've ever seen. Aside from the horrible idea called U-control, the second disc is a sugar-coated geek-treat for those of us who love behind-the-scenes. Guillermo Del Toro knows excatly what we want to see when we look through special features: Pre-Production, Production, and Post VIDEOS. I'm tired of seeing special features on blu-rays with pages of reading. I can go to wikipedia for that. The director, I'm sure, watches a lot of other directors' work and admires their clips behind the camera. So he made his own and made us fans all proud.

Universal, on the other hand, needs to take advice from Del Toro. Give us clips, not 5 movie tracks with different text and buttons coming out of every corner of the screen. It doesn't matter if U-control is user-friendly or not. The problem is that it is tedious and boring. Give us the feature film with one or two commentaries to choose from. Then gives us a picture in picture track to pay homage to the gift of blu-ray. Then leave it alone and pack all the behind the scenes raw footage on disc two. Nobody reads the fun facts while your movie plays, or rewinds the scene so he can catch every bit of his/her pre-visualization clip. Make special features that people can enjoy, and people might actually start watching them.



Now to the movie. Sorry, I digressed on the extras, but the appreciation of this blu-ray mainly comes from the admiration of the effort the director took to make a great disc 2. Anyway, Hellboy 2 is way better than it's predecessor. It's pacing, style, and story are all perfected in this sequel. Did you think Hellboy 1 was missing something? Well Hellboy 2 found it. It found a more enjoyable villain, a richer color pallette, and much more. The action has grown a lot more memorable in this one, due to choreography and CGI improvements. I'm proud to see that Guillermo has found the balance between CGI and practical effects that we all longed for. In addition to all these great improvements, the small things like humor and music compliment the movie even more, and make this Guillermo's most well-rounded film to date, besides Pan's Labyrinth.

What is my favorite part of this movie you ask? Probably the strong creativity it has. Theres so many interesting creatures and scenery that you have never seen before within this movie. Watch it again after you've seen it once, and I guarantee you, you will see something new. Hellboy 2 is a beautiful film that does justice to the poorly received first film. Most people weren't drawn in by the first movie, but by now, we're all ready for a sequel. Thank you Guillermo for giving us a great film with a blu-ray that makes all others look impaired.

Great special effects & action
2009-11-06 - PLease note that I saw this movie on HBO so I can't speak to the quality of the DVD transfer. But I did want to make a few comments about the movie.

I basically watch movies like this for the special effects and the action, not expecting anything much in the way a convincing story, well developed characters, or even good acting. That way I avoid the anguished indignation of the many sci fi or fantasy fans when the sequel fails to live up to their overblown expectations. After all, it's sci fi/fantasy, what did they expect? Last Tango in Paris or Gone with the Wind?

Of course, the counter-argument is the movie, Bladerunner, which has everything, but then Bladerunner was based on the Philip K. Dick novel, and Dick was a half-wacked, dyspeptic but brilliant sci-fi writer who was in and out of psychiatric care or even mental hospitals much of his life. Maybe there's a lesson there somewhere when it comes to finding good ideas and move scripts.

But anyway, all that aside, I really enjoyed this movie, perhaps because I didn't see the original Hellboy which everyone here is unfavorably comparing this sequel to. But this movie has some of the best action, special effects, spectacular background sets, and fight sequences of any recent super hero movie. The fight between Hellboy and the Golden Army soldiers, who can reassemble themselves sort of like animated Leggos, is cool. The final fight scene in the clockwork-like underground cave is ingenious and suspenseful, and the super kung-fu elf bad guy is like something out of Hidden Tiger, Crouching Dragon.

Overall a pretty exciting action flick that is sort of like Tolkien's Middle Earth meets Lost in Space, since there are some campy sci-fi elements too. I give it a solid 4.5 stars just for its adrenalin pumping action and special effects. Just ignore the sappy love affair and sit back and watch the action. Plus when the ectoplasmic being in the cool looking space suit tells their CIA-clone boss he can "**** my ectoplasmic schwanstucker" at the end of the movie I just about fell out of my chair.

Very fun to watch.
2009-10-30 - I thought this film was a pretty good sequel to the first as it wasn't over the top as sequels usually are and the plot was decent as it focused on royal siblings at odds of each other with one trying to enslave humanity and the other trying to uphold the peace. Most of the original casts comes back for this one and Abe Sapien gets a lot more screen time than that from the first which is a good thing cuz I thought his performance was brilliant (especially the dialogues between him and the princess). The scenery of the film is also worth to mention because at one point of the film, it kind of reminded me of Tim Burton's "Edward Scissor Hands". Despite this comic hero does not belong to the notorious Marvel or DC, I still recommend this film to all comic book movie goers as this one is not one to miss.

Hellboy II... Yea, an Excellent Movie
2009-10-28 - 1. I recall the first HellBoy movie as a interesting and entertaining film, but nothing beyond that (it's just my recollection).

2. However, Hellboy II is really a well made movie. Well acted, witty and funny writing, nice storyline, great action sequences, all in all, a very good movie.

Not as enjoyable as the first Hellboy
2009-10-24 - Hellboy 2 is an average film and a let-down after an excellent showing in the first film. Without giving any of the plot away, Hellboy 2 spends far too much time on Hellboy acting like an immature pre-teen, which pulls the viewer out of key scenes throughout the movie that would otherwise cause a measurable emotional impact. I didn't feel any sort of 'response' or connection to the characters when things wrapped up, particularly for Abe Sapien. Sorry I'm being vague here, but I don't want to spoil the film for those who haven't seen it.

The video and audio on Blu-ray do not disappoint, however. This video is near reference quality, in my opinion, practically 'popping' off the display. Colors are definitely over-saturated, but I think that's what the makers had in mind when producing this film. It works, though. Audio will give your sound system a nice workout. Expect plenty of bass and excellent use of directional sound.

The digital copy is an excellent bonus. It's compatible with nearly every portable player out there including the iPod/iPhone. I did not view the bonus materials as I had little interest in watching anything more related to Hellboy 2. The video/audio quality and digital copy push this movie to 3/5 stars. Otherwise, unless you're a die-hard Hellboy fan, this movie is best left for a rental; and it's one you won't feel guilty passing over, either.