DVD OF THE WEEK

HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY ****
Dir: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor

Of all the big comic book movies, Hellboy was the most unexpected pleasure. For a start very few people had actually heard of the comics, so there were no great expectations. And, more importantly, it had Guillermo Del Toro at the directorial reins and the Man Born To Play Hellboy – Ron Perlman – in the Big Red make-up.
Now the team is back and armed with a serious budget, and the sequel represents the same leap that took the X-Men franchise from its small first episode to the full-scale X2. Everything is bigger in this sequel and it is nothing but a good thing, as Del Toro combines his action experience from Blade 2 and the first Hellboy film and marries it with the visual delights and maturity that he showed in Pan's Labyrinth.
And the result is a thing of wonder.
The set-up posits a world of fantasy creatures who co-exist secretly with our world. This has gone smoothly for hundreds of years but the arrival of an unhappy prince with eyes set on world domination shakes things up as he hunts for a crown that will unleash the fearsome Golden Army of the title. Hellboy, along with his pyrotechnic girlfriend and aquatic blue mate, must sort things out.
What distinguishes this from any number of other recent fantasy films is the imagination of the director and of graphic artist creator Mike Mignola. They have served up a whole world of creatures that are both eye-popping and unique. This isn't a retread of the usual suspects but, like the Star Wars films when they were new, the creation of a completely novel universe, things you have never seen before. It is exhilarating to watch.
Best of all, the action and spectacle never get in the way of the characters and relationships, meaning that you actually care about what happens to the heroes. If you fancy a little relief after the oppressive bleakness of The Dark Knight, then this is the perfect antidote.

I'm not quite sure what the point of Clone Wars (**) is. It doesn't really feel like a film, more a feature length episode of a TV series. And that's what it is really – an extended promo for the TV cartoon. What is surprising is how shoddy it is. The animation itself, with a weird old-fashioned Greek look to the characters, is very stilted while new addotions are almost universally irritating. There's a cute baby Hutt and a new Padwan learner for Anakin who acts like a spoilt American teenage girl, while the robot army appear to be only around for comic relief. Story-wise this takes place between episodes 2 and 3. For devotees only, though even they will be disappointed.

The Orphanage (****) is the second classy outing that Guillermo del Toro has been involved in this week. He served as producer and the film has a similar mood to his Spanish-set ghost story The Devil's Backbone. But this is a very different beast, a supernatural thriller that continually surprises with its reversals – things that could be supernatural aren't and other things… well, saying too much would ruin this. The story involves a family with a sick child who move into an old orphanage where the mother was once brought up. Strange things happen and then the son mysteriously disappears. The mood is claustrophobic and spooky and the performances are all good, resulting in a film that is haunting in more ways than one. Brave the subtitles and see what all the fuss is about.

The Bank Job (***) is a fairly standard caper flick, given a rise by a zippy script and fast paced direction from Kiwi Roger Donaldson. Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are veterans of this kind of classy English hi-jinks and are well-served by Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows and others in the cast. The plot involves a heist that snags not just money but a host of sensitive documents and pictures. Many people want them back leading to general violence and blackmail. It's tidy stuff and its a pleasure to watch people making a film like this and doing it right.