Stars: Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Brian Steele, Doug Jones, Selma Blair, Ron Perlman, Jason Alexander, John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

Summary: 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.

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.

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The feverish Hellboy 2: 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 2 a certain jaunty appeal hard to find in other superhero movies. --Tom Keogh

Main Language:	English
Year:	2008
Release Date:	August 22, 2008
Runtime:	120 minutes
Certification:
Keywords:	Golden, Army, Action, English, General, Adventure, Hellboy
Genre:	Action/Adventure