DVD Collectors Online

Hellboy, a review by Jon

Hellboy
4 out of 5



When a Nazi mystical experiment goes awry in 1944, the target of a wizard's spell, the child of Satan, Hellboy, is wrenched from his home, and adopted by the U.S. agents who intercept his arrival.

Hellboy is a wonderfully inventive and entertaining film, though it’s a hard sell and many novice viewers will be left scratching their heads. You have to “get” this film to have any chance of liking it! For me, I was familiar with the marvellous comics by Mike Mignola and he was heavily involved in the films development, so it’s all good.

It’s madder than a box of frogs and Guillermo Del Toro is the perfect director for something akin to Men In Black on drugs. It’s visually dazzling, but exciting too, as he is an accomplished action director. It’s more fantasy than anything else, but its tale of prophecies and demons makes it a bona fide horror too and Del Toro has a better understanding of classic horror than any other director working at the moment (one of his many upcoming films is a remake of Frankenstein).

The story is typical comic book stuff. The Nazi’s are messing with the occult and summon a demon. Unfortunately for them, said demon is a just a kid and is raised by the Government (specifically John Hurt’s kindly professor) as a member of a special task force to deal with paranormal. The problem is, Hellboy is part of a prophecy and his effective stone right hand is actually a key that could end the world!

Phew. What makes the film and comic so entertaining are the incredible characters, who are very human despite their appearance. The bruising unstoppable hulk that is Hellboy (Ron Perlman, having the time of his life), is actually a petulant, overgrown lovesick teenager, always in trouble with his “Dad” and pining after Selma Blair’s fiery (literally) Liz. It’s very much a sitcom at heart and it works very well indeed. So long as you are already on its wavelength! So the moment a corpse is resurrected to get directions and ends up in a hilarious argument with our hero will either be the moment you become a fully paid-up member of the Hellboy fan-club or you scream in frustration!

The villains are just as fantastic as the heroes, especially the clockwork assassin, and the ending is suitably serious, so far as something like this can be. The film is let down by concessions to making it marketable, such as the very human new-comer to the team (although the long-suffering boss is great). It’s a lazy plot device that hampers the film, but overall, it’s big and funny, just like its lead character.


(From Jon's Marathon of Horror! 2009 on November 1st, 2009)

Iron Man 2, a review by Tom

Iron Man 2 (2010/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Concorde Home Entertainment (Germany) Director: Jon Favreau Writing: Justin Theroux (Screenwriter) Length: 125 min. Video: Widescreen 2.35 Audio: German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Commentary: DTS 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Commentary, German

---

Stars:
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Don Cheadle as Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes
Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff
Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer

Plot:
Robert Downey Jr. returns as billionaire Tony Stark in this thrilling sequel to the worldwide blockbuster. Now that his superhero secret has been revealed, Tony's life is more intense than ever. Everyone wants in on the Iron Man technology, whether for power or profit...but for Ivan Vanko ('Whiplash'), it's revenge! Tony must once again suit up and face his most dangerous enemy yet, but not without a few new allies of his own. Co-starring Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson, Iron Man 2 is a 'total blast!' (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone)

Extras:

• AC/DC Sticker
• BD-Live
• Bonus Trailers
• Booklet
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Music Videos
• Photo Gallery
• Picture-in-picture
• S.H.I.E.L.D.-Datenbank
• Scene Access
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Trailers
• Wendecover

I had hoped that a second viewing (after my original cinema visit) will improve on this movie, now that I had the chance to watch it with the original language. But sadly this movie still is a huge disappointment to me. I don't like the villain and I don't like the alcohol/health problem storyline which has been done to death. Sadly I even thought that Samuel L. Jackson and SHIELD was out of place in this movie. I also didn't like the over-the-top egomania by Iron Man.
Also the action scenes do not have any bite and there are so obvious CGI Iron Man and Warhammer puppets thrown around.
For all my critique I still give a rather high mark, because objectively it is a nice superhero action movie. I probably just had too high of an expectation.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on October 9th, 2010)

Tom's Glee Marathon, a review by Tom

Glee
Season 1.22 Journey to Regionals
Writer: Ryan Murphy (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Created By), Ian Brennan (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Writer)
Director: Brad Falchuk
Cast: Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), Kevin McHale (Arty Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), Josh Groban (Himself), Jonathan Groff (Jesse St. James), Idina Menzel (Shelby Corcoran), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins), Charlotte Ross (Judy Fabray), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Bill A. Jones (Rod Remington), Heather Morris (Brittany Pierce), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang), Dijon Talton (Matt Rutherford), Olivia Newton-John (Herself), Carole Gutierrez (Nurse #1), Jennifer Saygan (Nurse #2)

The season one finale. I enjoyed it and it was a great conclusion for this season.
I liked that they lost the competition and only get another chance for a second year because Sue had a change of heart and shows compassion for the Glee club.

Brittana:
Linking pinkies during Will's performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Notable music:
Vocal Adreneline's performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was good, but cannot beat Queen's original. They just don't have any heart to it (which may be the point).

I enjoyed the Journey medley they perform at the competition. Especially their redux of "Don't Stop Believing" which they first sang in the first episode:

Another good song was the last one in this episode when Will is singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to the kids.

Rating:

(From Tom's Glee Marathon on September 22nd, 2012)