Red is Back!

For geeks like me, this has already been a really good year for movies. We've had two pretty good superhero movies with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, plus the long awaited fourth Indiana Jones. But all that is nothing compared to what we have to look forward to in July.

In two weeks the new X-Files movie comes out and speaking as someone who has seen every single episode of the series, I'm pretty psyched. Next week The Dark Knight comes out. The early buzz is universally positive for it. One review even compared it to one of my all time favorite movies (and aside from the first two Godfathers the best crime movie of all time), Heat. Annie and I will be going opening night to the Imax so look for my review next weekend, sure to be filled with nerdy joy.

To help tide us geeks over while waiting for those two movies, Hellboy 2 was released this week. I missed the first one in theaters. Actually I thought it looked kind of stupid but after hearing enough good reviews I checked it out on DVD. It's an absolute blast, one of the funnest movies I've ever seen. So how does the sequel do at living up to that legacy?

HB2 outdoes its predecessor in just about every way. The monsters are cooler and scarier. The action is bigger, louder and better. Plus, this one is even funnier than the first (the scene where Red and Abe get drunk and sing along to Barry Manilow is an instant classic). Where the first movie centered around Nazis and Lovecraftian monsters, there are a lot more fantasy elements here (elves, trolls, etc). That's of special interest to geeks since Guillermo Del Toro recently signed on to direct The Hobbit. It's good to have him show just brilliant he is bringing fantasy to life on the screen.

Unfortunately, the movie has a couple of weak points. While I don't want or expect perfect logic in a movie like this (half the fun is suspending belief) there are a couple of plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. They don't ruin the movie by any means but they're obvious enough to be annoying. Also the main threat in the movie, the golden army, is pretty much wasted.

HB2 isn't perfect but it is a lot fun and, in my opinion, even better than the first. While I'm sure it won't hold a candle to The Dark Knight, it helps get July off to great start for nerds. If you at all enjoyed the first movie or are just in the mood for mindless, quality fun check this one out