July 11, 2008
New Movie Releases: Hellboy II, Journey to the Center of the Earth and More
Based on the popular Dark Horse Comics series, Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy films follow the exploits of the eponymous red demon as he fights to protect us mortals from the things that go bump in the night. And in this second installment, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) must do battle with an ancient badass elf who plans to resurrect an indestructible mechanical army in order to destroy humankind.
Bigger, badder, and exponentially goofier than its predecessor, Hellboy II is a heck of a lot of fun. The action is great, the visual effects are impressive and the humor is (mostly) dead on. Perlman is absolutely perfect as the beer-swilling, cigar-chomping superhero (Ron doesn't get enough respect, in our opinion), and del Toro's fantastical vision is just as stunningly realized as it was in his critically acclaimed Pan's Labyrinth.
Of course, it's not all cool explosions and badass monsters--you'll also have to sit through a fish/elf love story that's so lame it's almost uncomfortable, and a few slapstick gags that get taken way too far. But in the end, the good far outweighs the bad, and you'll almost certainly leave the theater smiling.--Matt Smith
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Sometimes you just want to feel like a kid again. You want to eat lots of candy and spin around until you vomit. That’s not just us, right? Granted we’re a little old for your typical 3-D fare, but frankly, it’s cool stuff. Shit, we love to watch 90 minutes of sharks in 3-D. We’d probably even watch Eddie Murphy if he wasn’t so 2-D. (Perhaps 90 minutes of sharks eating Eddie Murphy would make us too giddy?) But, we went along for the ride with Brendan Fraser (did he recently get hair plugs?) and his Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D.
This retooling declares that Jules Verne’s novel was no mere book of fiction, and that all the crazy man-eating plants, underground volcanoes, and giant Tyrannosaurus are real. Fraser, his 13-year-old nephew, and their hot spelunking Icelandic mountaineer head off in search of volcanic tubes where Fraser’s brother disappeared mysteriously ten years prior. Okay, so the plot ain’t so hot, but WOWEE, look at that yo-yo fly at my face!
Last time we checked Fraser hasn't been a leading man since Mummy 2, and yeah, he’s gotten beefy lately, but, you know, what? He was pretty tolerable in this, and with his new hair plugs (seriously, just a guess here), he’s not looking too shabby either.
For all those not venturing into Hellboy territory this weekend or for those saddled with your wee sibling, perhaps a fluffy Journey is worth the trip. Plus, it’s only 90 minutes, and HOLY CRAP, was that a flying fish whizzing by?! --Darcie Duttweiler
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
ALSO OPENING IN AUSTIN THIS WEEK
Bab'Aziz
A "visual poem of incomparable beauty", Bab'Aziz follows a man and his granddaughter as they search the desert for a reunion of dervish wanderers that takes place just once every thirty years. To pass the time, the titular Bab'Aziz tells the tale of a prince who gave up his kingdom in order to remain next to a small pool in the desert.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Before the Rains
This Macedonian film tells three tales of love and tragedy, set in contemporary London and rural Macedonia.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Jellyfish
Winner of the 2007 Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Jellyfish tells the interweaving stories of three Israeli women and their lives in modern Tel Aviv.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Meet Dave
No, seriously. Eddie Murphy hasn't given up yet.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
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As I sat at the Highland 10 theater waiting for Hellboy, a trailer for a computer-animated George Lucas Star Wars film screened. "Utter rubbish," I thought. Then, as I watched Hellboy 2, I couldn't stop thinking how embarrassed George Lucas should feel. If you've seen his recent fare (Indy Jones or any of the Star Wars prequels), you can't help but wonder if his storytelling ability has been impaired by a premature case of Alzheimer.
This guy, del Toro, has an imagination and knows how to craft a story. Hellboy 2 is an unbelievably rich world of characters, creatures and effects, all given a recognizable motivation and context.
As a direct comparison to Lucas, there's a scene at the "Troll Market" that smacks of the New Hope's Cantina, but instead of just throwing a bunch of odd-ball creatures on the screen, del Toro gives them purpose. If you watch the Indiana Jones movie, there's hardly any thought put into what's thrown in front of the audience. "Why are we showing this?" was never a question asked on the set of that hunk of crap. It's clear that while making Hellboy 2, everything you see was run through a filtering process that left only the best and richest material in the movie.
If you didn't see Hellboy 1, you'll get by fine with seeing this movie. The producers assume most people haven't seen it, so there's a synopsis at the beginning that sets everything up.
There aren't a lot of references I picked up to other movies in Hellboy 2, but there was a nice tip-of-the-hat to John Woo's Hardboiled. Perhaps it's a token of appreciation given to Woo for breaking down Hollywood's barriers to foreign directors. Sadly, Woo's career laid down on LA's barbed wire with Hollywood-crapfest films like Hard Target, Broken Arrow, and MI:2 so that another foreign talent could get studio backing to create a gem like Hellboy 2.
Seth