Hellboy II: The Golden Army (PG-13)
Imaginative, campy comic book fun; lots of scares.
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- Studio: Paramount Pictures
- Directed By: Guillermo Del Toro
- Cast: Selma Blair, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones
- Running Time: 110 minutes
- Release Date: 7/9/2008
- Video/DVD Release Date: 11/10/2008
- Genre: Science Fiction
- MPAA Rating: PG-13
- MPAA Explanation: sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language.
Parents need to know
Families can talk about the film's underlying message of tolerance. What's more important, how someone looks, or how they act? How does the movie move Hellboy toward adult responsibility (although he ages slowly and is supernatural, Hellboy is fairly immature and teen-like at the beginning of the film)? Does that strike any chords with teens? What does being "human" mean for Hellboy? Where does he have the power of choice?
Message
Social Behavior:
Extensive discussion of acceptance and tolerance, as Hellboy and his outlandish paranormal-busting team endure scorn and derision due to their appearance and odd natures after they go public. The public reaction to the relationship between Hellboy and his human girlfriend prompts a news anchor to ask rhetorically "Inter-species marriage -- A threat to traditional marriage?" A German-accented character's name, Kraus, is misspoken (somewhat derisively) as "Kraut."
Consumerism:
Some real-world brands are featured, like Tecate and Tecate Light beers and Baby Ruth candy bars. A brief snippet of Jimmy Kimmel Live is incorporated into the plot.
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Characters speak of "needing a beer" as a prelude to talking about challenges and problems; mild comedic drunkenness involving non-human characters, resulting in a beer-fueled Barry Manilow sing-along; Hellboy smokes cigars.
Violence
Extensive fantasy violence throughout, including (but not limited to) super-powered fistfights, decapitations, stabbings, slashings, gun battles against gigantic monsters, and property damage. A paranormal supporting character controls flames to incinerate inhuman enemies. Pedestrians are threatened by debris and tentacles during a giant monster's urban rampage. Hellboy saves an infant from peril. A supernatural creature is interrupted as it prepares to eat a cat. A brutish monster is pulled into a large set of grinding gears and ground to bits. A character spends several scenes with a blade lodged in their body; epic battles between inhuman creatures; several supporting human characters are graphically devoured by tiny, hungry gnawing fantastic creatures. A supporting character commits a mystical murder-suicide.
Sex
Unmarried characters live together; a character takes a pregnancy test. Some kissing.
Language
Fairly mild, including "crap," "ass," "poop," "a--hole," "screw" and, obviously, "hell."
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by James Rocchi
Is it any good?
Loaded with action (some of which is intense, if otherworldly), Hellboy II: The Golden Army also takes the time to give us full-drawn characters. Hellboy sincerely cares for Liz, is a good friend to the team's psychic -- a genteel man-fish named Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and even comes to terms with his higher-ups at the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, including the all-too-human Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) and the disembodied spirit Johann Kraus (voiced by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane). For every eye-popping effects sequence or line of hokey comic-book dialog, there's also a brief moment of human warmth or goofy comedy, and if the film's a little loose and slapdash, that hyper-inventive spirit surprisingly enhances its charm instead of undercutting it. Hellboy is hardly the best-known big-screen superhero, but Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the most brilliantly bizarre, visually vibrant, slyly self-aware and freakishly funny example of the genre you could hope for.
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