Movie Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Directed By: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, Seth MacFarlane

Amidst the same - and I stress this right down to the exact detail - crowd of socially-debilitated nerds that attened the midnight showing of The Incredible Hulk, my friends and I awaited the latest comic book adaptation of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. In the realm of film's comic book heros, Hellboy is more of a cult-object than the mainstays of, say, Spiderman or the X-Men. The first installment, Hellboy (also directed by del Toro), maintained relative popularity, but was cast in the shadows of the other comic book icons (see above), despite the film's accuracy to the original comic series.

In the newest addition, the main attraction is not so much Pearlman and his enjoyable role, but how del Toro has quickly become Hollywood's best visual-director. The creatures, known well in the real world (Goblins, Elves, etc,.) do not crumble into the stereotypical shapes of unearthed legends, but however resemble the much admired work Guillermo has accomplished in his last project, Pan's Labyrinth. In a simple meaning, Hellboy II is visually astounding. The CGI isn't over-used and over-exaggerated, and del Toro uses imaginative costume design far superior than any other director that can come to mind. His direction makes the film well-worth itself on it's own.

Ron Pearlman, on the other hand, makes Hellboy one of most pleasing and credible hero's that have ever made it into film. The character's human-taught nature, despite the look, makes him more attractive than most other hero's, but Pearlman has brought one other feature to him that makes him stand out even more; humor. Frankly speaking, Hellboy is the funniest comic book hero (and series) I've ever seen on screen.

Another appeasing character makes his debut into to join the Hellboy crew is a bodiless smoke screened German titled Johann Krauss, who is voiced oddly enough by the creator of Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane. I personally found his role appealing too, but just felt the necessity to point out that this is MacFarlane's first ever work in cinema, and he's already the 5th lead in the movie. Other than Krauss and Hellboy, the film's only for-naught appeal are the other character's and their personal anguishes, which in all rights aren't bad by any means, but they just pale in comparison to the guy with the Red Right Hand (that's a reference too - find out where).

Score: 8.6 out of 10

Hypebeast: Hip-hop files

Eugene Kan posted this Thomas Green documentary on Hypebeast about Martha Cooper, the hip-hop journalist in the early 80's with the next-door neighbor's Grandmother's name. It's good enough to ignore the name though.

Beck - Gamma Ray

Here's Beck's newest video 'Gamma Ray' off of his Modern Guilt LP.

Michael Bay's "Rejected Dark Knight Script."

Spill.com has posted a "what if Michael Bay did the Dark Knight" script on their website. It's pretty damn good too. By good, I mean funny and not actually "good." You can check it out here.

Damien Corell

I've discovered (that's a lie) Damien Corell's (lets call it self-discovery) work today. He works well with shapely pop-art, but not in that demeaning self-ironic sense - you know, the annoying one. He just seems to be collecting the image he solely knows well. You can visit his website here.

You Should Be Watching; The 4th Season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Certainly one of the best, and probably the most underrated sitcom on television - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - has released a music video of, guess what, "Going Back to Philly," to promote the upcoming 4th season of the show. I've always been a fan of the show since its premiere in three years ago, and it has only been getting better ever since. You can check the video out here.

The new season premieres September 18th.

You Should Be Wearing; Marty Mcfly's Nike Sneakers

Apparently (from high public demand?!), Nike has released Marty Mcfly's pseudo-future sneakers from Back to the Future Part II. The company will release 350 pairs of the shoes, according to Erik Davis at Cinematical, and they're going "for upwards of $2,000" on eBay. I'm not, however, going to shill out the money for the 2015's. At this point I'm wishing I could afford some Prada shoes, but they're 285 euro, and I'm not really sure what that translates into for American currency now. Anyway, I can't afford Mcfly's Nike's, and I'm pretty sure I'd never want them, based on the fact that by 2015, I'm sure that Americans will finally be able to crawl out of 80's nostalgia. Also, the movie wasn't too good either.

Famewhore Work

Kitsune Noir led me to the works of Vancouver based photographer Famewhore. I'm not one to gloat about photography, because basically I'm indifferent to the whole art world, barring a few exceptions. But I'm usually inclined to look at whatever Kitsune does, because I don't know any better. Check it out for yourself at his website if you want to see more.