Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Dir. Guillermo Del Toro.

So, for anyone with a super short attention span here’s the short version: I enjoyed the film enough to recommend it to everyone who likes any one of these things: Clockwork robots, fighting/fussin’/feudin’, Mignola (and a boat-load of other amazing designers) Monsters, well-choreographed fight scenes, Hellboy (the first movie), needlessly complex mechanical devices. It’s a great ride, with a extremely visual flare for design. Most, according to Guillermo Del Toro (who was in attendance at the opening here in Austin last night), of the effects were achieved with puppets/robots/physical effects. Only 10% digital? Fuck yeah.

I got the chance to go to the opening held in Austin’s own Alamo Drafthouse, Del Toro was there along with Mike Mignola and the affable physical actor Doug Jones. It was a stellar time, the movie was worth the wait (mainly sitting down while the guests volunteered to sign things for the audience), Universal did pay for all of the food for everyone in attendance (!?!) which was weird, but not unwelcome.

In any case, the film itself has all of the aspects which made me a fan of the original film, with the added benefit of being more naturally paced. There were some plot turns that were… not as interesting as they could have been, or a tad contrived, but on the whole the strong set-pieces and action scenes far out-weighed the clunkier sections.

It’s no art film, but it’s not intended to be, and so I suggest that everyone check it out this weekend when the crowds’ will make the experience all the better for laughing and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the right times. (all movies are better in a good crowd, obviously).

There Will Be Blood, Black Dahlia, Happiness of the Katakuris, Flash Gordon

There Will Be Blood (2006) Dir. P.T. Anderson. By far my favorite and best of his work. There is little hint of the overly self-obsessed and extravagant director of Magnolia (my apologies to those who love Magnolia, it does, in fact, suck.). I cannot even begin to discuss my love for the use of sound, silence, drones, nuance, lighting, and every other small piece of cinematic nuance that combine to make one of my favorite films of the last few years. It’s also as good the second time around.

Flash Gordon (1980) Dir. Whofuckingcares. Just got re-released, I’m sure that there’s a significant nostalgia community centered around this film. Word to the wise: It does in fact suck. Some good casting decisions paired with fucking awful casting. Case in point: Flash is played by someone who only physically might resemble a serious Flash casting. The superior choice would have been a good actor, with a forceful delivery. They ended up with an actor who couldn’t toughguy his way out of a fucking paper sack. He’s waaaay too passive for the role, also whomever decided that Flash needed to lose (or almost lose) every conflict needs to be punched. Max von Sydow is an ok Ming, basically, my point is that Flash is a bad actor, almost any masculine actor ever would have been a better choice even if he didn’t nominally meet the physical requirements… blah, could go on forever talking about the faults of this movie. It’s fun to watch, and the Queen songs are awesome, but there’s little else here.

The Black Dahlia (2006) Dir. Brian De Palma. Based on a pretty good book, and a weird crazy case. Somehow manages to miss all of the engaging parts of both the real life case and the novelized account by Ellroy. Makes me wish for De Palma’s great works like Body Double… Ah well, as Argento can no longer make a great film, so has D.P. fallen.

Happiness of the Katakuris. Dir. Miike Takashi. so weird and singular that it’s almost unwatchable. One word: doggerel. It’s no Visitor Q, that’s for certain. Takashi has the unfortunate habit of making the worlds’ weirdest movies. And more often than not making the worlds’ most vapid/poorly paced weirdest movies. It’s worth it if you’re willing to drink the kool-aid. As an accessible film it’s a mess.

Sunshine, Zodiac, and Dirty Harry

Sunshine (2007) Dir. Danny Boyle. One of the more nuanced, technically accomplished, and well-thought out science fiction films of the last few years. I’d say that there is currently a renaissance occurring in the sci-fi field. There have been a rash of incredibly well-acted ensemble sci-fi films recently, Children of Men leaps immediately to mind, and I, for one, am totally all for it. I can’t think of a single thing that was done ‘wrong’ in the whole film, small issues concerning aesthetic and cinematographic choices (the inevitable midline jumping shaky cam during the final fight sequence being my main beef). However, on the whole, I’m going to say that this is what there should be more of.

Zodiac (2007) Dir. David Fincher. So, I can see why this had problems at the box office. Slow, ambiguous, paced in such a way as to compress decades into meaningful markers on the timeline of Zodiac lore. Specifics will always stand out for me, certain scenes here are absolutely amazing. However, my personal feelings are that the narrative force leaks out of a story when each scene needs to be subtitled with how many days, months, years have passed since the last scene. It makes each successive encounter feel disjointed in a negative way, there’s just not enough implication that things important to our characters has been on hold since the last scene.

Dirty Harry (1971) Dir. Don Siegel. Perfect follow-up to Zodiac, even gets a scene where the characters in Zodiac get to watch this film. Imminently enjoyable cop vs. serial killer action. Not much more to it than that, though. Has been influential for a reason.