Friday, July 11, 2008

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 3.5 out of 4 stars


Hellboy and his team are ready to fight the golden army in "Hellboy II: The Golden Army".

This movie is directed by the visionary director, Guillermo del Toro who brought you his masterpiece "Pan's Labyrinth" in 2006. This is a sequel to the 2004 movie "Hellboy". The film begins with some flash back of a young hellboy. His father was telling him a bedtime story about an ancient battle between human and mythical creatures. Then he's talking about the crown which can take control of the unstoppable army called the golden army. The golden army killed all the human until the truce was made. So, the crown was break in to three pieces. Three pieces a going separately to human and elves. Then, the golden army are buried somewhere and became a legend. Then in the present, Prince Nuada the elf prince of underworld is trying to awake the golden army, so he made his way to find all three pieces of the crown. First, he kill his father. Then he took the second pieces from the auction house. The final pieces is from his twin sister Princess Nuada. Princess Nuada escaped and rescued by hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his team member Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and a new character Johann Kraus (Seth McFarlane) who is a psychic. They are the member of BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). After saving Princess Nuada, Abe Sapien found himself are in love with Princess Nuada. Later, Princess Nuada hide the pieces in the BPRD headquarters. But, things are not going as well as they want it to be. Prince Nuada discovered his sister location, then he kidnapped her for the third pieces of crown. After that, all of them travel to the place where the golden army are buried. For saving the Princess Nuada, Abe Sapien gave the third pieces to the Prince. Then Prince Nuada awake the golden army, then hellboy and his team fight for their life to save the world. Hellboy also confront with Prince Nuada and facing with a difficult choice whether he want to follow the life he knows or the unknown destiny that blinds him. First of all, when I first time watch the trailer of this movie, I think this will be a very cool movie. After I seen it, this movie is not as cool as I expected but it's cool anyway. This movie is really funny. It's more funnier than the first of course. What I'm really admire is the director done a great job in maintaining the comedy element with the actions but sometimes it feels "too much". He combined both of the element in a very good way. I just can't believe I watch this movie before watching "Hancock". Up until now, I still haven't watching "Hancock", based on my analysis, I can say that this movie will be a lot funnier than "Hancock". Other than that, in his other masterpiece "Pan's Labyrinth", he focus more in plot progression, visual effects, acting, character development. That's the reason why it became his masterpiece. In this movie, I can't say it is perfect, he didn't focus much in the plot progression instead of visual effects, actions, and character development. This movie has a very stunning visual effects especially the part where the hellboy destroy a giant creature at the Manhattan streets. The creature looks very bad ass but turn out to be very friendly when it's dead. The action sequences is great also, it has a great fighting scenes between hellboy and Prince Nuada which is very fast and intense. And the fighting scenes is the part where the movie looks very cool. Besides that, it has a lot more new weird creature than the first film which is very new for us and most of them is unimportant. For acting, Ron Perlman really fit for this character. His acting is great. The chemistry between him and Liz is great. And I like the part where hellboy drink beer with Abe. From there, it shows us the chemistry between both of them are getting much more better than the first film. Overall, this is a movie which delivered a lot of actions, and it is more funnier, more smashing and more new elements than the first film. This is great adaptation which is I really expected from Guillermo del Toro.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

College Road Trip

College Road Trip, 1.5 out of 4 stars


Eshaya Draper, Martin Lawrence, and Raven-Symone star in Walt Disney's "College Road Trip".


College Road Trip is a comedy directed by Roger Kumble and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film begins with some introduction of life lesson by a police officer, James Porter (Martin Lawrence), then he said that the trouble occurred when choosing a college which suitable for his daughter. 4000 colleges in the U.S, he wants his daughter, Melanie Porter (Raven-Symone) to study at college which have a good academics, campus safety, short distance from home and he repeated again that the most important is distance from home. So he choose Northwestern University. Then one day, Melanie received an offer which is there will be an interview with selected student including her at Georgetown university. The whole family were happy about it except her father. James was thinking about the distance of the University, which is 700miles away from home. Melanie thinks that she have an opportunity to learn how to be independence. So she plan a road trip with her friends to Georgetown University, but her father insisted on escorting her. Soon, Melanie found out that her trip are turning to a nightmare and there will be a lot of conflicts between both of them. This movie is family comedy genre film, the story sounds good but it turns out to be a boring, and unfunny film. This movie has a goofy plot which is sometimes it wants to make the audiences laugh and it fails to do it. It is so stupid until I cannot laugh at all when watching it. For example the part where a pig screws up other people marriage party, and every scene which include the pig is unfunny. It is so uninteresting because some of the pig movements are made of CGI. Other than that, the whole road trip is feels like no energy at all. It is just because of the stupid plot, it destroys the mood of the movie. The acting is fine, Raven's acting is full of energy but Martin's acting is not as well as I expected. The chemistry between both of them is fine and when almost reach the ending there will a part which is quite touching. I can say that, the actor are enjoying acting in this movie but the audiences are not enjoy watching it. The only few scenes which give the audiences the energy is the part where Melanie singing in the tourist bus with a bunch of crazy tourists. And there is a thing that I don't really understand, which is both father and daughter can do a perfect parachuting without a special training. This is impossible. Audiences sometimes seek for logic when watching a movie especially family genre film. This is a family genre film, many people whoever it is will like to watch it. And for people who like it sure hate me because I personally think this movie "Boring and sucks!".