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Stylish, action-oriented fantasy comic-book epic, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a film bereft of simplicity and bogged down with a plethora of style. Guillermo Del Toro, reprising the characters he originally originally brought to life in the original Hellboy, has not only recaptured the vagrant wit of the original film, but also the sense of whimsy the production design presents. Filled to the brim with eye candy of a magnitude afforded normally only the bigger budgeted films, Hellboy II remains, unfortunately, the domain of fanboys and genre aficionados. For the mainstream, I tend to think Hellboy will be over (or should that be beneath?) your heads. So, if you’re not a comic book geek or a fantasy film fanatic, then it’s fair to say this film isn’t aimed at you and you’d probably find more enjoyment with dreck like Valentine’s Day or The Bounty Hunter. Which is a subtle hint that perhaps you should broaden your cinematic outlook and give Hellboy a chance.

Enter the realm of the Golden Army… Click here to keep reading!!!

Patricia Neal - 1926-2010

Sad news this morning, folks, as we learn of the passing of Oscar winning actress Patricia Neal. Neal won her Oscar for her role in 1963′s Hud, opposite Paul Newman, and was nominated for the Best Actress category a few years later in The Subject Was Roses. Her mainstream debut was in The Fountainhead in 1949, and later appeared opposite Michael Rennie in The Day The Earth Stood Still. Other film appearances include Breakfast At Tiffany’s, A Face In The Crowd,  All Quiet On The Western Front (1979) and Operation Pacific.

Patricia Neal died at her home in Massachusetts. She was 84.

Okay, so the comedians are already on the hop about Inception and its convoluted, and at time baffling, plot. Here’s a vid from College Humor that pays particular attention to just how complicated Inception actually is. Warning: Spoilers!!! Don’t watch this if you haven’t seen the film!!

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Oh how I lament the years we lost having Robert Downey Jr. on our movie screens, due to his drug and jail issues. He is such a prodigious talent, his ability so beautiful to watch, he makes the art of acting seem so effortless. His recent resurgence in films like Zodiac, Iron Man (and its sequel) and now Sherlock Holmes, makes me glad he’s straightened himself out. In a way, the same can be said of director Guy Ritchie, whose work while married to Madonna was less than exemplary. In fact, the dearth of work from Ritchie during his “married period” indicates just how much of an influence the pop queen had on him. Now he’s free to pursue more work, and it’s starting to be seen. After Rock’nRolla came and went with a whimper (which is a pity, because Rock’n'Rolla isn’t a bad film!) he turned to an update of Sherlock Holmes. And what an update!

Check out the rest of our review on Holmes by clicking here!!!

This article was originally published on moviesmackdown.com, and you can follow the link to it here. We’ve modified it from that original post, which can be read below.

Vigilante justice is always a divisive issue. When crime is committed, often the most vile and reprehensible, and our justice system appears to be unwilling to take a hard stance against it, people often feel like taking matters into their own hands, to seek their own brand of justice instead. Many films have tried examining this duality of humanity: the desire to see justice done where it appears not to have been meted out, against the rule of common law and our conditioning to uphold it. Such deep and meaningful issues are very rarely taken lightly by cinema these days. So when we sit down to watch The Boondock Saints, it appears that the trend towards socially meaningful, morally forthright and restrained discussion of said topic is the last thing director Troy Duffy intended. With the recent release of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day on DVD and BluRay, we’ve decided to look at both films and try and determine which film is better at examining this serious social issue. Get out ya guns, get ready for violence and thick Irish accents, and let’s play, folks!!

When The Boondock Saints burst onto cinema screens in 1999, it was met with the muffled yawns of an audience seemingly unable to make sense of what was, to my mind, one of the great debut directing jobs ever seen. A trial of love for director Duffy, whose career stalled after this film and never recovered, The Boondock Saints was a brutal, stylish action yarn with a sense of the insane thrown in. Brothers Connor and Murphy have become disenchanted with the amount of crime corrupting their beloved city of Boston, and after an encounter with the Russian mob, decide to do something about it. Using their Irish luck and some high powered weaponry (and some rope!), they tackle the criminal underworld in ways the police are prevented from doing. In other words, there’s no such thing as “due process” in the MacManus vocabulary. Together with their friend Rocco, they must also survive the impending encounter with vicious Mob hitman El Duce (Billy Connolly), who is sent to track them down and eliminate them.

Released last year to a blaze of mediocre reviews and much hyped online anticipation, All Saints Day sees the return of characters introduced a decade earlier in The Boondock Saints, a cinematic explosion of ego, machismo and flair. All Saints Day returns almost all the original cast in this outing, including the deceased character of Rocco (played with glorious abandon by David Della Rocco again) in a bizarre dream sequence. Irish born brothers Connor and Murphy (Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus respectively) are now living in Ireland, with their father Noah (Billy Connolly), having fled there after the assassination of crime kingpin Papa Joe Yakavetta in the original film. When a Boston priest is killed by a mysterious new assassin, the boys seek revenge by returning to the States and once again taking on crime the only way they know how. With guns. Meanwhile, police detectives from the previous film (Bob Marley, David Ferry and Brian Mahoney) try and cover up the news that the brothers are returning, since they are complicit in the events of the previous film’s final act of violence, and they don’t want to be found out. Making things complicated is new FBI agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), a protege of Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe, who doesn’t have a lead role here) who shows up to lead the investigation. It seems a new criminal threat has come to power in the years the brothers have been away, and their mission once again brings them into conflict with the most deadly of foes.

Find out which film wins this battle of the Boondocks!!!

Watch this in the dark, with the sound off.

Tom Mankiewicz - 1942-2010

Sad news out of Hollywood this morning, with news of legendary screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz passing away. Makiewicz was responsible for the screenplays of the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films, as well as Bond films Diamonds Are Forever and Live And Let Die. Among his other credits, includes work on Ladyhawke, The Eagle Has Landed and Hot Pursuit.

He also worked on television series’ such as Hart To Hart, Tales From The Crypt, and TV Movie The Beat Of The Brass.

Mankiewicz died over the weekend, at his home in Los Angeles, aged 68.

After this and Legion, Paul Bettany must surely be trying to corner the market in post-Apocalyptic, semi-fantastical characters trying to fight an enormous evil. Although I think the effects looked better in Legion. Heck, they looked better in I Am Legend, and that’s saying something.

A quick note this morning, as we learn of the passing of Caddyshack actor Dan Resin, over the weekend. Resin appeared as Dr Beeper in the comedy classic, and had roles in films as diverse as The Man With one Red Shoe, God Told Me To, Hail, The Happy Hooker, and New York Undercover.

Dan Resin was 79.

Currently, we are unable to source an image of Dan Resin. If any of our readers are able to provide one to complete this post, please email:  fern...@gmail.com.

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One of Disney’s shortest animated features, featuring a lead character who doesn’t speak through the entire film, is still as appealing now as it was at the time of release, way back in 1941. This fact is a testament to the creative quality that makes Dumbo such a genuine family classic. It’s a simple tale, gorgeously animated and well performed, featuring some truly jaw-dropping ideas and imagery, which allows the audience to become drawn into the more “human” elements of the film. Considering the main cast are all animals, that’s no small feat.

Continue our exploration of Dumbo here…

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It’s hard to imagine that prior to reinventing the Batman franchise for Warner Brothers, Christopher Nolan was a damn fine filmmaker anyway: films such as Memento, Insomnia and The Prestige are mini-classics in their own right. Since Batman Begins and The Dark Knight swept public consciousness towards his talent like never before, Nolan’s follow-up to The Dark Knight was always going to be one of the years most anticipated films. Many people wanted to know if Nolan could back up after Dark Knight with another film of equal, or increased, quality, even if it wasn’t a Batman related movie. And so we are given Inception, a long-in-the-pipeline saga Nolan and his brother Jonathan have been working on for almost a decade. Starring the always solid Leonardo DiCaprio, and a supporting cast of Nolan’s gradually building troupe (including Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy), Inception is a brain-bending journey into dreams and alternative reality. Is it a good film? Assuredly. Is it a great film? That will remain to be seen in the fullness of time, but hyperbole and fanboy hysteria aside, Inception could quite possibly be the best film of the year.

The problem with reviewing such a complex film as Inception is that I constantly run the risk of including spoilers along the way, so let me just say this before you read on: if you haven’t seen Inception yet, then it’s probably going to be a bad idea to continue reading this review. In order to deliver a valid and comprehensive assessment of the film, I’m going to have to reveal some key plot elements that are unavoidable.  So, consider yourself fairly warned.

Click here to enter the fifth level of Inception…

Maury Chaykin - 1949-2010

A tinge of sadness this week as we learn of the passing of one of Hollywood’s quiet gentlemen, Maury Chaykin. Usually cast as slightly larger, verbose characters, Chaykin appeared in numerous projects since his mainstream debut in the TV series King Of Kensington. Personally, I came to recognise Chaykin’s ability in the vastly underrated Cutthroat Island, co-starring alongside Matthew Modine and Geena Davis. While not a household name by any stretch, the number of films he appeared in would indicate a popularity within the industry. Among the many films he appeared in, are WarGames, Iron Eagle II, Dances With Wolves, My Cousin Vinny, Devil In A Blue Dress,  A Life Less Ordinary, MouseHunt, The Mask Of Zorro and Entrapment.

Chaykin died on his 61st birthday, from complications of a heart valve problem. He will most certainly be missed.

Check out this trailer for Sucker Punch, and let us know what you think. We thought it looked… interesting…. Zach Snyder seems to have done it again. After Watchmen and 300, is there anything he can’t direct?

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You remember that Bryan Adams song, Summer of ’69? The fond remembrance of your childhood, the rose-coloured tint of historical inaccuracy seeping into the memories of your youth? Friends you had, and lost? Before, of course, finding them again on Facebook? Imagine a movie that could take you back to your childhood, a cinematic time-machine able to transport you into a time when your parents were your whole world, your friends were your true family, and the dust and angst of formative years still hung thick in the air. Stand By Me is just that movie. Stephen King’s non-horror works often make the best translation to screen, as we’ve seen in The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and even The Mist (which is borderline horror, more a great character study); they all rank as some of the better adaptations of the masters works. But prior to all those, Stand By Me, released in 1986, remains the classic coming-of-age story it was upon release.

To read more of our gushing praise for this film, click here!!

For those of you who enjoyed Disney’s 80′s sci-fi flick TRON, it might interest you to know that a sequel has been in the works for a while now. Here’s the latest trailer….