Off The Walt

When I was a young kid and watched everything my mother did, I was entranced by a series in the late 80′s called Beauty and the Beast where a half-man, half-lion named Vincent, my brother‘s namesake, lived underground and fell in love with a lawyer from the surface called Catherine, played by Linda Hamilton after she became John Connor’s mommy. My Uncle Grant just introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons by then and it made the show all the more enticing. I do miss my Uncle Grant.

What amazes me as I think back to a lion-mutant running around in sewers taking advice from a fallen priest, I almost exclusively think of Vincent. As I got older, I realized it was because of the amazing range portrayed by the actor beneath the makeup, by Ron Perlman.

Over the years, any chance I’ve had to see Perlman in action, I’ve taken advantage of it. The man has been in Miami Vice, Max Hedroom, The Fall Guy, Batman, Animaniacs, The Tick, Danny Phantom, Aladdin, Mortal Kombat (animated), Blade II and tons more… 157 individual credits as of the time of this writing, in fact. Perlman is in such demand that he’s got nine projects either in post or production. What an amazing powerhouse!

This love for Perlman’s career lead my wife and I to see his latest silver screen release, Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

My beautiful wife has been wanting to see this movie so we went on a mini date for breakfast and Hellboy, yeah, we know how to do it! We got stuffed into one of the small auditoriums but it wasn’t actually that bad, only 4 parties were there so it was kinda cozy, actually.

Tiffany really enjoyed the movie… here are my thoughts…

We open on a military base where a young Hellboy that is awaiting Santa with great anticipation. John Hurt gives us a nice cameo as Professor Broom and reads a bedtime to our favorite red ape called "The Golden Army." The animation to help us visualize the story, which sets up the movie, is masterfully done in the way a child would see it. Can you imagine a child growing up to bedtime stories like that? No wonder he’s ornery as an adult!

Jeffrey Tambor returns as Tom "Manny" Manning but this time he’s a sniveling shoescrape, a far cry from what he saw him as in the last movie. Nonetheless, Tambor does a great job acting the character as written.

To see Red and Liz fighting the way that couples fight made me think of them like old friends, although the use of their powers does, well, spice things up a bit.

Abe Sapien now takes over Broom’s job even though Manny pretends to. Doug Jones does a great job portraying the fishman… it’s hard to picture him as the Silver Surfer and with 4 movies coming out, one of them being Silver Surfer as a stand alone, it’s good to see being a part of the Fantastic 4 series didn’t hurt his career.

Johann Krauss, I felt, was a useless character, although the voicework done by Seth MacFarlane was quite impressive. I’d like to see what else he’ll bring us in the future.

The effects were fantastic and completely believeable. The acting was flawless. del Torro certainly used his vision to continue the Hellboy IP that allows me to hope that in 2011 & 2012, we’ll have a great continuation of the Lord of the Rings IP with The Hobbit.

I wasn’t sure that I’d like the angle of using the boogymen would work, especially Prince Nuada/Princess Nuala, but I was plesantly surprised. Luke Goss (you may remember him as Nomak from Blade II) was brilliant and I’m really looking forward to seeing him in the upcoming Tekken movie, if for nothing else, his portrayal of Steve Fox. Anna Walton as Nuala was fantastic. She hasn’t done that many movies yet, but I hope to see her on the silver screen in the near future. I think she can offer any production a sense of class and youth.

If you’re a fan of the original Hellboy Movie, then you’ll want to see this. If you’re not, you may want to skip it.

Walt Snider is a Computer Technician and Webmaster in South Florida that operates Kore New Media, the fourth largest podcast group in the world, Florida’s largest podcast group. More about Walt Snider can found at www.WaltSnider.com or on his blog at www.OffTheWalt.com. His podcasting group, Kore New Media, can be found at www.KoreNewMedia.com where he produces one of the most-listened to movie podcasts, Kore Movies at www.KoreMovies.com.

Russian writer/director Timur Bekmambetov thrilled me with Night Watch in 2004 and sequel Day Watch in 2006.

When I saw previews of a movie called Wanted , I thought it looked strangely familiar and couldn’t put my finger on it until I looked up who was behind it. I was elated to find Bekmambetov was doing a movie for American cinema, in fact, I couldn”t wait!

All I knew walking into the theater was that it featured James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie , based on a comic book.

The plot, which does offer a nifty twist in Act III, is basically that Wesley’s (McAvoy ) father was killed by a rogue assassin from an elite assassin’s fraternity and Fox (Jolie ) is taking him under her wing and protecting him. The discovery/training sequences are overdone and frankly boring to me. Meeting Sloan (Morgan Freeman ) was kinda neat but I didn’t like him, I couldn’t figure out why. Sloan runs this branch of the fraternity, being the ‘eye of fate’ and writing death orders for his assassins to complete.

Act II teaches you there’s a giant loom that decides who has to die. Seriously. I’m not joking. Who’s the only one that’s allowed to read it? Yeah, it’s Sloan. So much for quality control.

I do understand the movie is written and directed from Russian ideals, but it disturbs me that there was never concequence for killing people, in fact, it was sensationalized and made fun of. I would have liked to see some sort of remorse or questioning if it was acceptable, etc., but I was told in the past by a well-known director that if I wanted to see movies done a certain way that I should make them myself. Mr. S. was right, of course.

Overall this was a great movie. Despite the couple dozen lines she was given, Fox was by far my favorite character, a true believer in the fraternity and the end blew my mind… and theirs… you’ll understand when you see it.

I’m not interested in a sequel, but I will get the DVD just for the director’s commentary.

This is absolutely not something to let anyone under 14 watch.

Walt Snider is a Computer Technician and Webmaster in South Florida that operates Kore New Media , the fourth largest podcast group in the world, Florida’s largest podcast group. More about Walt Snider can found at www.WaltSnider.com or on his blog at www.OffTheWalt.com . His podcasting group, Kore New Media , can be found at www.KoreNewMedia.com where he produces one of the most-listened to movie podcasts, Kore Movies at www.KoreMovies.com .

Walking up the stairs to the Museum of Discovery and Science and Autonation IMAX 3D Theater for a screener was certainly a treat. The limited number of patrons outside gave the normally child-centric building a different feel and on the other side of the glass doors the crowd of adults reinforced this.

After speaking to Jody Ligas and picking up my ticket, I took the elevator up about 5 floors where I was repeatedly told to turn my cellphone off… that if it went off during the theater I’d be asked to leave. I love it! Finally a movie with no phones and conversations interrupting the movie! I love you Fort Lauderdale IMAX!

Walking into the press area, I sat next to a guy who introduced himself as Kit Mobley. I was having a conversation with Kit, ignoring the crowd below when he directed my attention to the ‘preshow’ in the middle rows below. It seems when you mix beer, 8pm and problems, you have a preshow. Fun stuff. It kept us amused for the minutes while waiting for the projector to fire.

So as the movie started and Dave clarified this was a DC Comics movie, I began to wonder if DC would follow Marvel in forming a large studio to film its own movies or what if they bound together for this?

A DJ from a local radio station spoke for a moment and the lights dimmed and the five-story screen came alive.

The film opens on the oddly-serene cityscape, zooming in toward a building finally slowing to reveal an exploding window and men in clown costumes firing a cable to the top of a lower building, zipping down and disabling an alarm, kicking off a bank heist.

Too bad for the robbers, the bank is managed by William Fichtner, who we’ve seen recently in Prison Break and who we last saw with Christian Bale in Equilibrium.

The introduction of The Joker was very well done. True fans of Heath Ledger will spot him despite being masked right away, just based on his gait. The “execution” (don’t worry, you’ll get it) of the bank heist is fantastic and sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

The Joker is also a great magician. In a meeting with fellow crime lords, he makes a pencil disappear. 10 points to you if figure out how as you’re watching.

Michael Caine as Alfred brings back memories of Alastair Duncan in previous incarnations of the IP. Alfred continues his role as protector and advisor of Batman and Caine plays the role with great finesse.

I was pleasantly surprised by Nestor Carbonell as Gotham’s mayor, but I couldn’t help thinking of him as Batmanuel in The Tick earlier this decade. (Watch The Tick for free at Hulu!) I do have to say that I enjoy his range as an actor and it’s unfortunate he doesn’t have too many projects in his queue.

Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jake Gyllenhaal of Jarhead and Donnie Darko’s sister) did a good job as Rachel Dawes, but I didn’t care for her in the previous movie, nor did I like her now. Maybe it was just the character or maybe I just don’t like her. She wasn’t bad in my opinion, mind you, just not stellar.

Dark Knight is absolutely, positively the best movie I’ve seen all year. The action scenes are amazing, well choreographed and realistic. The movie wears its PG-13 rating well and delivers all promises of action and grit. I’m really, really glad they are showing a more realistic portrayal of Gotham and taking it away from the Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney formulaic comic book method. This film shows a darkening knight.

All in all, you don’t have to like action, suspense, explosions, gunplay or anything else, you only have to see this movie . It is all things cool and it will be the center of discussion around the water cooler for weeks to come. I predict one of the best box office openings for the year, possibly in history of cinema.

If you have the opportunity, see it in IMAX. If you have to wait a day or travel to the next city, do it. There were certain scenes specifically filmed just for IMAX and you really should take advantage of it.

Kids under 14 will probably not want to see this unless they are nerds-in-training like my son. There’s a lot of plot development and not as much action as in the previous movie and it may bore those that can’t comprehend, so a babysitter may be in order.

The movie was generously dedicated to Heath Ledger. We’ll look forward to seeing his final stand in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The Dark Knight’s Official Website: http://www.thedarkknight.com/

Walt Snider is a Computer Technician and Webmaster in South Florida that operates the largest independent podcast group in the world. Walt Snider can be reached at www.WaltSnider.com, blog at www.OffTheWalt.com. His podcasting group, Kore New Media, can be found at www.KoreNewMedia.com.