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.