HELLBOY (2019 (4K Ultra HD Review)

HELLBOY (2019) 

Label: Lionsgate
Release Date: July 23rd 2019
Rating: R
Duration: 121 Minutes
Video: 2160p Ultra High Definition (2.39:1) with Dolby Vision HDR, 1080p High Definition (2.39:1)
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, Spanish and French 5.1, Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio, with Optional English, Spanish, French, English SDH Subtitles
Director: Neil Marshall
Cast: David Harbour, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Milla Jovovich

Coming into this re-imagining of Hellboy I really had to disengage from the Guillermo del Toro films which I friggin' love, I'm still sore that he didn't get to finish off his trilogy. Likewise, I was a huge fan of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, the first two anyway, and I found it difficult to swallow the multiple re-imaginings that have followed. That said, taking in the Spider-man them on their own and out of the shadow of the previous incarnation there's definitely lots of fun to be had. The same can be said about Hellboy 2019, which is directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers), a guy with some serious genre film credibility, which doesn't hurt. On top of that you have Hellboy comic-creator Mike Mignola on board saying that this film is more true to his vision than the Guillermo del Toro films, which is cool. However, you must also remember that Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining, preferring the Mick Garris directed TV mini-series, so take that approval from the creator with a grain of salt!

Filling some literally big shoes here is David Harbour (Netflix's Stranger Things) as Hellboy, previously portrayed in the del Toro films by Ron Perlman (Cronos), whose red-shadow looms large here, with Harbour seemingly doing a riff on that portrayal, which I'm alright with. The film opens with a black and white prologue setting up an Arthurian legend involving the film's baddie, a powerful medieval witch named Vivienne Numie (Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil) a.k.a. the Blood Witch. Moving ahead to contemporary times we take a trip to Mexico where Hellboy must face off against a vampyric lucha libre wrestler before spiriting off to England to assist British occult society the Osiris Club - not the New jersey strip club - to battle a trio of recently reanimated man-eating giants who are terrorizing the countryside.

This leads to a flashback to the WWII era Project Raganrok, an event which we saw in the first Hellboy film, the origin of Hellboy as summoned from Hell by Rasputin and the Nazis. It plays out very much like the first film, but with a fun twist, the appearance of Hellboy comics character Lobster Johnson (Thomas Hayden Church, Sideways), a pulpy Nazi hunter with a searing claw-brand he uses to burns into the skulls of Nazis before sending them to Hell!

The story such as it is comes fast and furious, barely taking minutes to breath, pushing forward a plot line that brings together the resurrected witch with an apocalyptic Arthurian legend that ties into Hellboy's origins with plenty of trolls, demons and spirits to keep you entertained.

Hellboy this time around is aided by his father, and leader of the B.P.R.D. Trevor Bruttenholm (Ian McShane, American Gods), a spirit medium Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane, American Honey), and were-cat M11 agent Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim). Working against him is the resurrected blood witch, who is aided by the piggish fairy Gruagach and a rather disgusting Russian witch Baba Yaga,

The monster creations here are pretty cool-looking, the piggish Gruagach is created with old school practical effects and looks great. The new incarnation of Hellboy also looks fantastic, looking less like the Perlman Hellboy than initial promo image would have has me believe, looking a bit more red-ape like, and with yellow eyes, wearing his hair long like a teen metal head instead of a top-knot.

A big difference here is that the film is R-rated, so you get some obligatory cussing throughout, and some pretty decent looking gore. When Hellboy slays the marrow-sucking giants the grue is awesome, but the most sickening thing in the film is the Baba Yaga, a child eating witch seen feasting on kid-finger soup, slobbing all over the place, a deformed and hideous creature who lives in a house perched atop a pair of chicken legs, it's a strange world indeed, and this witch is a stomach churner.

While the r-rating secures a bit more gore and some bad words it shortchanges us on story and character development, the pivotal relationship between Bruttenholm and his adopted demon-son is never fleshed out the way that way that del Toro was able to do, and this film seems to be leaning on the previous films to establish the father-son dynamic.

The film feels more b-movie than the del Toro films ever felt, that's not an altogether bad thing though, it makes for a fun and very metal movie, with some great apocalyptic imagery of Hellboy carrying a flaming sword while flying on the back of a dragon, it looks like the cover of a bad-ass 80's metal album for sure, that's the sort of feel of the whole film, 80's metal to the bone, it's not perfect, but it is hell-bent on delivery the fun, and it succeeds. .

Audio/Video: Hellboy (2019) arrives on 4K UltraHD+Blu-ray+Digital from Lionsgate with the 4K offering a 2160p UltraHD image framed in 2.39:1 widescreen. This is a 4K disc sourced from a 4K digital-intermediate so the image is crisp and very sharp with the colors emboldened by the HDR enhancements. The digital effects look bit off at times, the lower resolution imaging definitely sticks out against the 4K backgrounds, but even still I think the film looks fantastic overall. The Dolby Atmos offers up a powerful surround mix, action scenes get plenty of panning effects, dialogue is crisp and clean, and the score from Benjamin Wallfisch sounds excellent, plus we get some tasty songs from Muse, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that spice up the film, keeping it metal.

Extras on both the 4K UltraHD and Bluy-ray discs include a 71-min making of doc, 8-min of deleted scenes and 7-min of previsualizations. I've heard this is a film with a few too many cooks in the kitchen, and with producers and star Harbour not always on the same page as director Neil Marshall, who didn't seem to have complete creative control on the film, but the making of doc doesn't really shine any light on this, with most of it centering on Harbour and the producers, but the finished film while uneven is still a blast.

The 2-disc release comes housed in a spiffy-looking black 4K keepcase with a cool-looking sleeve of artwork that is also featured on the glossy slipcover. Inside you will find the 4K and Blu-ray discs with dueling artworks, plus a digital redemption code for the film.

Special Features:
- Tales of the Wild Hunt: Hellboy Reborn (3-Part Documentary) (71 min) HD
- Deleted Scenes (8 min) HD
- Previsualizations (7 min) HD

Hellboy (2019) delivers bad-ass metal album cover imagery with a good blend of humor and horror along with some splashy gore and coll-looking monster creations. It might not live up to the depth and dimensions of Perlman/del Toro films but it's still a wicked fun time, and the 4K looks and sounds terrific.

DOG SOLDIERS (2002)

DOG SOLDIERS (2002)

Label: Scream Factory 

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 105 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Neil Marshall
Cast: Liam Cunningham, Kevin McKidd, Thomas Lockyer, Emma Cleasby, Sean Pertwee, Neil Marshall

A squad of six regular British Army soldiers lead by Sgt. Harry G. Wells (Sean Pertwee, Gotham) are dropped by helicopter into the chilly Scottish Highlands for what is to be a standard military exercise, they are up against a Special Forces unit lead by Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham, Centurion). Suddenly the training exercise turn to shit when the soldiers find the Special Forces unit have been eviscerated by an unknown enemy, the encampment is covered in blood and guts, with only the critically wounded Ryan having survived. While Ryan keeps repeating "there was only supposed to be one" the enemy make themselves known and the group retreat into the forest, in the ensuing panic one of the soldiers impales himself on a tree branch and Sgt. Harry is disemboweled by what turns out to werewolves. Patching the Sgt. up the remaining soldiers are found by a woman in a Jeep who transports them to a nearby woodland cottage where they regroup, and treat the injured. Meanwhile, the werewolves gather around the cottage and lay siege throughout the night. Neil Marshall made quite a werewolf film back in 2002, a darkly funny and gory mash-up combining a gritty war movie with the hairy-howls of a Howling-esque terror film, that at its prime feels a bit like Assault of Precinct 13 with werewolves thrown-in to the mix. 

The group of soldiers are spot-on fantastic, a great assortment of actors who imbue their characters with some minor depth as they each share war stories and fret about missing the big soccer match in between barbing each other about this and that, the dialogue is snappy and vibrant. An earlier scene with Private Cooper (Kevin McKidd) establishes both his own moral code and his antagonistic relationship with Capt. Ryan from the Special Forces. These are all decent blokes, except for maybe Ryan who is keeping vital information from the other soldiers, and whom strangely has recover from his injuries in record time, I wonder...

The pace is kinetic and the atmosphere is tense, the Scottish Highlands (Luxembourg actually) look damn great, loads mist-laden greenery with rocky outcroppings made even more ominous by the black and white wolf-vision employed by the filmmakers for the POV shots of our hairy-antagonists. The design of the werewolves is great, seven foot tall beasts with the head of a wolf, their bodies are somewhat hairless with a long mane descending down their back from their head, long-clawed fingers with seemingly overlong arms with quite a reach... the better to disembowel you with with my dear. I think the design gives a wink to the creatures from Joe Dante's The Howling, but they manage to hold their own without resorting to outright theft, plus we do not get an elaborate transformation scene, mostly achieved quite simply with just yellow contact lenses and a set of teeth, they duck down below a table or whatnot, a boom  they're transformed. I love that Marshall went practical for the appearance of the werewolves, thereby avoiding the shock and awfulness that was An American Werewolf in Paris, this has an great old school special effects vibe.

Audio/Video: Dog soldiers was previously issues on Blu-ray from First Look Studios in North America and the image was lacking to say the least, when Scream Factory announced a new Collector's Edition of the movie was in the works I was very pleased. After a bit of a delay what we ended up with was a new 2K scan HD transfer approved by director Neil Marshall. Unfortunately, not from the original negative -- which by all accounts seems to be lost -- but from two 35mm film prints. So the expectations of a new 2K scan must be tempered by the fact that we have no negative and there's only so much you can do with a 35mm print -- that is actually a Super 16mm negative blown-up to 35mm. 

Keeping that in mind the PQ is not ideal, by the director's own admission the film is contrasty, overly bright and cursed with black crush and an abundance of grain. I don't mind the film grain, I love it, but the brightness and contrast issues are unsightly, but overall I think the grittiness of the image is actually complimentary to the kinetic hand-held nature of the film. Perhaps down the road someone will uncover the seemingly lost original 16m negative for the movie as we will have a superior transfer, but until such a time we will have to make due with what source elements that were available, and this appears to have been the best of what was available, not ideal but that's the reality.

There are two audio options, English language DTS-HD 2.0 and a Surround 5.1 mix, both are adequate but neither are gonna blow-up your home theater system. Dialogue, the score and special effects audio are nicely balanced, the surround sound option is more active with some use of the rear surrounds during the more action-oriented sequences with some pleasing ambient sound and gunfire. There are optional English subtitles are provided. 

Bonus content on the disc include an hour-long making of documentary with input from Director Neil Marshall, Producers Christopher Figg And Keith Bell, Actors Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Leslie Simpson And Emma Cleasby, Special Effects Artist Bob Keen. There's also a new featurette with Production Designer Simon Bowles who brings out a scale model of the cottage and speaks about the design and logistics of the cottage sequences.There's also a new audio commentary from the director loaded with anecdotal info about the making of the film, the cast and crew, and the genesis of the project. Neil Marshall's short film 'Combat' from 1999 is included on the set, a fun war-themed version of the pub dating scene at the time, it's a fun addition



A few extras not carried over from previous DVD editions worth mentioning are an audio commentary by writer/director Neil Marshall, producer Keith Bell, cameraman Sam McCurdy and actors Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham and Sean Pertwee which can be found on the Region 2 DVD, plus a  commentary by producers David Allen and Brian O'Toole which can be found on both the R2 and R1 DVD. Also missing are a brief Making of Dog Soldiers featurette (found on the R1/R2 DVD) and a selection of deleted scenes and gag reel with optional audio commentary by writer/director Neil Marshall -- only found on the R2 DVD from Pathe. Depending on your love of extras you might want to hang onto those DVDs. Notably, the previous Blu-ray from First Look Studios was completely bereft of extras, so this release from Scream Factory is much appreciated, and the new making of doc more than makes up for the missing supplemental material. 

As one of Scream's Collector's Edition we have a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring original artwork -- which sort of reminded me of the baboon horror fest 'Shakma' -- and new artwork from illustrator Scream regular Nathan Thomas Milner, with a slipcase featuring the new artwork. This is a DVD/BD Combo with a DVD disc that mirrors the same feature and extras only in standard edition, the disc art is the same on both the DVD and Blu-ray, which I think is a missed opportunity to showcase the new artwork. As I recall most of Scream's combo releases typically have the same artwork, with the exceptions of Escape from New York and Motel Hell which two art options on the disc -- it's a small thing but I love it when they do it. 

Special Features
- NEW 2K Scan HD Transfer Supervised And Approved By Director Neil Marshall
- NEW Audio Commentary With Director Neil Marshall
- NEW The Making Of DOG SOLDIERS Featuring New Interviews With Director Neil Marshall, Producers Christopher Figg And Keith Bell, Actors Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Leslie Simpson And Emma Cleasby, Special Effects Artist Bob Keen, And More! (62 Mins) HD
- NEW A Cottage in the Woods: A Look At The Model Of The Sets Created By Production Designer Simon Bowles (13 Mins) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (5 Mins) HD
- Neil Marshall's Short Film: Combat (8 Mins) HD
- Two Still Galleries – Photos From The Film And Rare Photos From Production Designer Simon Bowles And Special Effects Artist Dave Bonneywell's Archives (69 Images) SD

Dog Soldiers is in my opinion one of the best werewolf movies of the past twenty-years, without a doubt. Other than the very recent Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf (2014) there are precious few werewolf movies worth a re watch these days, if there are, please tell me what they are. Scream Factory new edition is a solid purchase, loaded with cool extras and highly recommended.  4/5

DVD Review: VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (Severin Films)

VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2010)  3-Disc DVD Set 

Label: Severin Films

Duration: 13 Hours, 58 Minutes

Refion Code: 0 NTSC

Rating: Unrated

Audio: English Dolby Didital Mono

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Jake West

Cast: Neil Marshall, Christopher Smith, Graham Bright, Emily Booth

It's great to see Jake West's documentary about the Video Nasties era when a few gore-soaked shockers threatened to corrupt the youth in the UK.  A threat so imminent that the Parliament brought about censorship that made it a damn crime to distribute a list of 72 movies deemed so repugnant that they might potentially endanger the moral fiber of children... and dogs! The documentary runs just 72 minutes and is quite a good watch, having read quite a bit about the Video Nasties and the films in question I didn't find a lot of new ground covered but it's damn decent watch just the same with some great vintage clips of stuffy Brits declaring war on the evils of horror cinema following the advent of VHS and the possibility of home viewing. Some of these twats had never even watched the films!

Disc one contains the documentary with an  extended menu screen with an extended Video Nasty inspired clip starring the seductive and dark Emily Booth. Bonus features include a nearly hour long video ident compilation which is sure to inspire a bit of VHS nostalgia in UK viewers. The Park Avenue ident is a particularly smutty and wonderful bit of video. The last feature on disc one one is gallery of vintage Video Nasty VHS sleeves, all salacious and wonderful and I'm sure these videos are worth a pretty penny in today's retro-VHS market. . 

The doc is a great watch but for my money the real value here is contained on disc two and three of the set. We have the trailers for the complete 72 films that were declared depraved Video Nasties. Split into two discs we have the thirty-nine titles that were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and deemed liable to deprave and corrupt and then we have the thirty-three titles that were initially banned, but subsequently removed from infamous list.  Each trailer receives a brief introduction from many of the talking heads from the doc who are a bit more animated and  interesting when speaking about the specific films, each espouse their love and admiration for each of the titles as well as pointing out how ridiculous and absurd many of them truly are. You have the option to watch with introduction or without as a straight-up trailer reel, don't skip the intros. 

Very pleased to see Jake west's doc get a North American release from Severin Films - it's a damn decent doc and turns out to be one of my favorite trailer reels sets of the year - of which there have been quite a few. A fantastic collection of depraved and gore-soaked trailers with the bonus of a decent doc about the Video Nasties and some great intros for every depraved slice of Video Nastiness. Nearly fourteen hours of classic Video Nasty hysteria spread out over three discs, this is a fantastic watch. 4 Outta 5

DVD Review: Centurion (2009)

CENTURION (2009)
Magnet Releasing / Magnolia Home Entertainment


RATING: R
RUNNING TIME: 98 Min.
DIRECTOR: Neil Marshall
CAST: Michael Fassbender (Centurion Quintus Dias), Dominic West (General Titus Flavius Virilius), Olga Kurylenko (Etain), Noel Clarke (Macros), Liam Cunningham (Brick), David Morrissey (Bothos), JJ Feild (Thax), Dimitri Leonidas (Leonidas), Imogen Poots (Arianne), Ulrich Thomsen (Gorlacon), David Legeni (Vortix), Axelle Carolyn (Aeron)
TAGLINE: Fight or Die

SYNOPSIS: AD 117. The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts. Quintus Dias (Fassbender), sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus’ (West) legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the earth. However, when the legion is ambushed and Virilus is taken captive, Quintus faces a desperate struggle to keep his small platoon alive behind enemy lines. Enduring the harsh terrain and evading their remorseless Pict pursuers, the band of soldiers race to rescue their General and to reach the safety of the Roman frontier.

FILM: Neil Marshall is one of my favorite genre filmmakers today and has been since his debut with the action-horror film DOG SOLDIERS (2002), a great entry into the werewolf pantheon. He then went on to make THE DESCENT (2005) about a group of spelunking women trapped in a cave with carnivorous creatures and then the genre mash-up DOOMSDAY (2008) which received  negative press for borrowing heavily from John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) and MAD MAX (1979). That was the point though, it's an homage to classic genre films and it completely rocked. His latest entry is the  swords and sandal battle-epic CENTURION (2010).

Centurion is a stripped-down battle epic depicting the Roman Empire's Ninth Legion as they crusade to eradicate the Picts, a united band of Celtic tribes in the highlands of Scotland. They've perfected a unique style of guerrilla warfare that proves to be quite troubling for the Romans. The Ninth Legion led by General Virilius (West) are joined by Centurion Quintas Dias whom they've rescued from the Picts after he was taken prisoner during a raid on his Roman frontier fort. While on march against their enemy the Legion are ambushed by the Pict and a bloody battle ensues. It begins as flaming boulders break through the Roman line of defense and the Picts savagely assault the Romans. Only a handful survive the battle and led by Quintas Dias they make a desperate attempt to recover General Virilus, whose been taken prisoner, and return to the safety of the Roman frontier. Michael Fassbender is great as Quintas and I count myself as a fan. Aside from appearing in films like 300 (2006), EDEN LAKE (2008) and Quentin Tarantino's WW2 epic INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) he's set to portray Magneto in the upcoming X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and possibly Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT. Definitely a guy to keep an eye on.

During the attempt to free Virilus from the Picts one of the Roman soldiers kills the young son of the Pict leader Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen) who swears vengeance and sends the huntress Etain in pursuit of the fleeing Romans to claim their heads. Etain (Klrylenko) is a mute tracker whose sworn vengeance against the Romans herself for the rape/murder of her mother and family. She is a skilled warrior and has uncanny tracking abilities. After Fassbender's Quintus it's Kurylenko's portrayal of Etain that is my second favorite character in the film, she's merciless and completely bad-ass. Good storytelling from Marshall, I really enjoyed the camaraderie amongst the Romans, great characters though nothing too deep, more well-developed caricatures - and that's all I needed. I must also mention Dominic West who gives a commanding performance as the respected and beloved General Virilus. My least favorite aspect of the majority of swords and sandals films is the usually extended running time and the long lulls in action but Centurion really gets to the meat of the story without being bogged down by a lot of melodramatic fluff.

Marshall  excels at survival-horror and Centurion is one gigantic chase film set in the beautiful Scottish Highland of north Britain. The battle scenes are brilliantly bloody and full of vivid bloodletting.  A good amount of the blood in Centurion is CGI but it is well rendered, thick and voluminous and it looks great. Limbs are severed as heads are cleaved, heads on pikes, and just a ton of sheer physical brutality. During these scenes people are popping like blood filled balloons and if that's your thing you'll not be disappointed, great gore. I love the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy but you can only watch people walk and run for so long before you wanna see some heads roll and Centurion does not disappoint in that respect.

A small issue for me with the film was I found myself rooting for the Picts. The film is designed so that we identify with the Romans but in the back of my mind I wanted to cheer on the Picts who were farmers and common folk forced to take up arms against the mighty Roman Empire to defend their homeland and way of life. Regardless, history shows the Pict were victorious over the Roman Empire in the end, so there's that.

DVD: The Centurion Region 1 DVD from Magnet Releasing is presented in the anamorphic scope aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it gorgeously captures the magnificent terrain of northern Britain and the bloody battlefields. The film has a 5.1 Dolby Digital EX soundtrack that really kicks in during the bloody and brutal battle scenes. The DVD is well-stocked with over 3 hours of supplemental materials including a great 4-part behind-the-scenes featurette. My only nit-picky complaint is that there are no English subtitles. Special Features include:

- Blood, Fire and Fury: Behind the Scenes of Centurion (26:22)
- Deleted Scenes with Commentary (7:57)
- Outtakes (6:14)
- Interviews with Cast & Crew - Neil Marshall, Robert Jones, Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko, Noel Clarke (25:30)
- Behind the Scenes Footage (11:11)
- Photo Galleries (4:15)
- HDNet: A Look at Centurion (4:48)
- Commentary with Neil Marshal and Crew (98 min)
- Trailer Gallery - Monsters, The Oxford Murders, Barry Munday, I'm Still Here, The Walking Dead (9:09)

VERDICT: Centurion is an adventurous action-packed historical epic full of battle worn soldiers spilling blood at every turn. I love Neil Marshall's filmography and I think this is his most well crafted film yet but the best is yet to come from this talented writer-director. A very high recommend from me, get this one now.
 **** (4 out of 5 stars) 

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- McBASTARD