Videos I’ve watched this week, in 50 words or less.
Hellboy: Rough, tumbly, supernatural fun, faithfully adapated in tone and image if not tale. A bit disjointed in the plot at times, but Ron Perlman’s gruff, sassy demon with a human heart is great and a lot of the imagery looks like Mignola drew it (which he often did).
The Fifth Element: Action-adventure slapstick dramatic farcical sci-fi art film, which is a problem if you’re expecting just one genre. Bruce Willis plays his standard character expectedly well, with a fun cast backing him up for laughs and thrills. Enjoy the ride and put aside your expectations as Luc Besson writes and directs a film far too complex for most audiences.
Sin City: Preternaturally straight adaptation of the original Frank Miller graphic novels, gorgeous warts and all. Very strong casting which manages to pull off stilted dialog punctuated by shocking (if cartoony) bloody action. A noir comic book, both literally and figuratively, treated with the reverence of Shakespearean tragedy (which it closely resembles).
