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Author
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Topic: Hellboy
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 04-04-2004 10:07 PM
04 April 2004, 12:30PM, Regal Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, House #3, probably DTS. Attendance about 40. Feature looked and sounded great; only 1 lab splice and some crap code in reel 2. Image quality was excellent, very sharp and lots of detail.
I enjoyed this. A lot of good eye and ear candy, interesting story, good performances. The CGI held up pretty well most of the time, but a couple of the physical stunts looked a little hokey. Worth the matinee price.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-16-2004 07:28 PM
I saw "Hellboy" a few nights ago (on a Monday night), but have been so freaking busy with other crap (my day job) I haven't had time to post a "review" until now.
Screening: Carmike 8, Lawton, screen #3, DTS ran through a Smart/QSC setup. 9:50pm show.
Pretty good sound mix. Enough so that the subwoofer fried itself before the movie was finished. Those drivers will need replacement. Damn! I will have to get the DVD though.
I guess I would rate this movie a good, solid three stars out of a possible four. It was entertaining. It had some kick ass action. The ending was a bit lame, but I pretty much expect that being kind of a "I've seen it all" guy on the downslope toward 40.
I really liked the bad guy, Kroenen. That's only because he was a formidable bad ass and you could never see his face and he never spoke and there was no reasoning with the guy before he tried to kill you. Just how a bad guy should be. Very cut and dry (literally --the guy had sand in his veins). Helps drive a story. There was a wierd, alien quality about him. Get in his path and you're dead.
Of course, Ron Pearlman was cast perfectly in the title role. After seeing the film, I really could not imagine anyone but him playing the role. Very well done. He handled the action great and delivered some really good one liners: "I'm immune to fire, you're not!"
The rest of the cast, well, I dunno. I guess I liked Selma Blair's take on the firestarter character, Liz. I forget the deadpan response she gives to "that's a beautiful name." But I guess I like brooding "goth" ladies. Maybe the "art school girls from hell" kind of thing rubbed off on me a little back in New York.
The fishy guy character (looking up IMDB) --oh yeah, "Abe Sapien". Well, I was kinda wanting the hell hounds to eat that guy. He just seemed out of place, even though he had some funny lines and helped drive the plot forward in a couple places. I just have trouble seeing some green Captain Nemo fishy dude sharing the same stage with a wise-cracking, horned monolith who engulfs and propogates fire. And fishy dude's real name sounded stupid. They just should have called him "fishy dude" or "scaley guy" or "tide smell" or Niles or David Hyde Pierce. He sounded like Niles, even when the subwoofer broke!
Agent Meyers? Bah. Nice guys finish last. I know. He's just standing at the end when...well, I don't want to give the movie away. But he ain't getting any cookies being like that.
The Rasputin character was pretty good, but he seemed a little under-used. I probably would have liked more Hellboy-versus-Rasputin action than too much of the hell hound stuff.
Overall, the movie is a good popcorn chewer. It's probably going to be one worth adding to a good DVD collection. Word is there may be at least a couple versions of this. Sony Pictures is getting known for doing big phiggidy 3-disc SE's of movies (like "Black Hawk Down" and "Panic Room") and "Hellboy" may get the same treatment. I didn't like Guillermo Del Toro's "Blade II" sequel very much. But I do hope he does the DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete DVD treatment on "Hellboy" that he did on "Blade II". That may rock. I'm willing to crack a couple window panes over that.
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