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Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2 Disc Special Edition) [2008] | ![Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2 Disc Special Edition) [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515MoIL8pML._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Actors: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, James Dodd, Seth Macfarlane
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Category: DVD
List Price: £22.99
Buy New: £9.98
You Save: £13.01 (57%)
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 24
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 115 Minutes
EAN: 5050582556162
ASIN: B001DZA2K4
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: December 8, 2008 (In 20 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet released
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Sympathy for the devil November 17, 2008
Damon K. J. Mitchell (Slovakia)
I, like many people, am becoming a huge fan of Del Toro's work both in English and Spanish and having really enjoyed the first Hellboy was excited about seeing this sequel.
I saw it twice in the cinema, once in London in a special preview screening and again back at home on it's last night - and was completely bowled over both times. For someone like me who watched Ray Harryhausen creatures slugging it out on TV as a kid with his jaw open - this movie is a dream come true, Del Toro has just unlatched the top of his head and spilled his imagination onto celluloid and the result is amazing. I really liked the first one, but I love this one!
The reason I gave this review the title I did was because I can see that for some people there maybe a flaw in this movie, and that is that there are no real human characters of any consequence in it. If you exclude Liz whose pyro-abilities leave her one foot in the creature camp anyway, we are left with only Manning who is a caricature bureaucrat, black suited agents that are tooth fairy fodder and obnoxious ungrateful members of the public.
In the first movie we had Myer's, Professor Broom and even one of the Black suits was given a personality and a name - Agent Clay, if I recall; with his hair plugs.
I'm not saying that this is a bad thing - what I am saying is that the movie is pretty damning of people and their behavior - it's sympathies are much more with the magical folk - but this can make it pretty hard to hate the 'villain'. Though I think the elf prince is an great character and his first scene in what seems like an ancient chamber, until a subway train screams past, is genius - there is moral complexity here. The story is in essence a timely environmental allegory - reminding us that there are many things that the world will be a sadder place without, and that the planet has many reasons to be very pissed off with us!
I won't say anything about the incredible design work and vision - as there isn't anything to add that others haven't already said - except maybe that it really stands up to repeat viewings; I spotted so many details on my second viewing that I missed first time (like all the crabs on the legless Goblin!)
There is an obvious hint in the scene with the Angel of Death at a third movie, but whether or not that story will ever get told seems doubtful (with Del Toro signed up for about 4 or 5 other projects - Including the 2 Hobbit movies and working as producer on a stop motion version of Pinocchio, which could be amazing given the bedtime story that opens Hellboy 2). I for one would love to see a Hellboy 3.
 Hellboy II....a parent's point of view November 15, 2008
Tarot Scribe (Scotland)
My son adored Hellboy I (and heck, so did I!), so I slipped off to the cinema to do a quick reccy on Hellboy II to decide whether he could watch it or not (he's 8 - and I'm fairly strict).
I'm not going to go into detail as to the content of the film, because that's covered very well in the other reviews.
As a parent, would I recommend that you let an 8 year old watch this? I have to say, purely on the basis of the Tooth-fairies (teeth-fairies?!) at the beginning and the absolutely amazing Death figure,no. Fabulous creations as you would expect from Del Toro, but the stuff of nightmares if you're a kid! These are escapees from Pan's Labyrinth
Other than this, Hellboy II isn't a scary movie, indeed it spills over into silliness (that Barry Manilow song was a bit bizarre!) The trademark humour is still there, but the pathos of Hellboy I is, imo, missing.
I had a lot of sympathy for the Elfin Prince and his co-horts, intent on taking out the whole human race. I think he had a point - mankind is making a bit of a mess of things! The Tree God is a wonderful creation - terrifying in its grandeur and magnificent in its death.
While I really enjoyed this film and would buy it for myself, for the moment, it will remain on the top shelf next to Del Toro's Spanish language classics and out of reach of my son for another 12 months anyway.
Del Toro,s astonishing imagination illuminates standard fantasy fare. November 15, 2008
russell clarke (halifax, west yorks)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having loved the original Hellboy [2004] I was fervently looking forward to this sequel and while Hellboy II The Golden Army isn't a disappointment neither is it up to the standard of the first film. Having said that anything that lets director Guillermo Del Toro propagate his extraordinary imagination is well worth seeing for that reason alone and this film displays that to superlatively sumptuous effect.
Ron Perlman reprises the role of the wisecracking Hellboy who we see as a boy in the opening sequence being told the story of the golden Army by his human father ( John Hurt) who once fought against human kind( the golden army that is , not his father ) but have been mothballed by dividing the crown that controls them into three separate pieces kept in secret locations. Elf prince Nuada ( Luke Goss) may look a little on the pasty side but he is a great warrior and is determined to awaken the golden army so he can wage war on human kind. His twin sister Nuala (Ann Walton) is rather more moderate realising the chaos this would unleash .She also holds one of those missing pieces.
This is pretty standard fantasy fare and there is an argument that Del Toro and Hellboy creator Mike Mingola , the writers should have come up with something stronger in terms of the story , though the script does have a certain sardonic frisson and there is some tremendous character interplay.
Hellboy is still working for the secretive Bureau For Paranormal Research And Defence and still annoying his overbearing boss Manning (Jeffrey Tambor ) who laments his lack of discipline and the fact he keeps getting photographed and put on "You Tube" ."I hate You Tube" he tells Abe Sapian ( Doug Jones) the polite blue skinned amphibian . Hellboy,s partner the fiery (literally ) Liz (Selma Blair) is finding "Reds" lack of domesticity a problem and there is another potential dilemma lurking . Agent John Myers from the first film has been dispatched to Antarctica we are told ( this is because Rupert Evans who played him in Hellboy was unavoidable due to stage commitments)"He likes the cold" Hellboy sneers, and is replaced by ectoplasmic agent Johann Krauss ( voiced byFamily Guy - Series 1 To 5 - Complete " Seth McFarlane with an amusing mangled German accent which he based on Jeremy Irons character in Die Hard 3) whose officiousness rubs up Hellboy the wrong way.
The film makes points about selfless sacrifice , the power of love, the magnetic need for normality (Which it shares with Batman ) and hints broadly at a potential conflict of interest for Hellboy to resolve if there is another Hellboy film . The performances are great again and it,s nice that Liz is given a more developed role other than looking mopey. Really though it's the visuals and set pieces that astound with this film .Del Toro has an incredible eye and will make a scene fantastical even when something ordinary would do. The "Troll Market" scene is astonishing and the high-speed acrobatic denouement between Hellboy and Nuada in a cavernous city surrounded by enormous golden mechanical beings and massive rotating cogs is just breathtaking . There is no cheap CGI for Del Toro , everything looks authentic and he even invokes the demise of a giant "elemental" creature with a sense of magic and loss.
Del Toro clearly feels close to the Hellboy character .He turned down the chance to direct "Halo " , Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince" and "I Am Legend [2007]" to bring this sequel to the screen . It wouldn't be the same without his marvellous vision yet if there is to be another Hellboy ( I very much hope there is) film he needs to work more on the story . Can you imagine a Hellboy film with the same allegorical and dramatic punch as his masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth [2006] ? Till then this will do nicely though.
 do we need this? November 11, 2008
Mr. James G. Bradford
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
I had long been awaiting for the next installment, having watched hellboy many a time, and interested in Del Toro films in general.
The problem was this was all really about breeding, from the winy little brat young hellboy at the start then the choices of demoted Liz Sherman to being stroppy and pregnant, this effecting all decisions of the film. I was expecting an evolution in character this just devolutions her character, who is a Heroine, stuffing a woman back down as our society says "you aren't a real woman unless you are a mother" hence there are very little women who haven't bred and have careers, those who do have a career then pop off and breed as if what ever they do isn't of value as having children. In Liz's demotion to the normal and makes everything normal.
The entering into the fairy lands meeting the angel of death seem like a way from and back to the same things, babies pregnancy and relationships or normal magnitude which isn't why we watch this genre, these films give us another view, deeper view, a mythology of self discovery. Even Abe finds someone and is almost threatening to breed himself. You end up wanting hellboy to go off and the Prince of the Elves to come the slaughter, rather than have to worry at the films finish of the waving characters surrounded by brats looking down at them with tight smiles.
Then the unstoppable golden army is stopped, and the end fizzles away, its not even inspired me to watch again, to buy it on DVD.
But the vision remains Del toro which is the one star, hoping he isn't descending like Ridley Scot into only purely visual and meaningless films.
Great fun, terrific story, good action November 4, 2008
Chris Wood (UK)
This is a very, very good movie. It's very entertaining from the get-go and has some stunning visuals. There's also a good few laughs as well as some top notch action. Very enjoyable stuff.
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