HELLBOY 2 : FIREFLY

HELLBOY 2 – THE GOLDEN ARMY: Iron Man brought in the big bucks and The Dark Knight became a bonafide sensation, but for my money Hellboy 2 was the superhero movie that really delivered the goods last summer. You think making a guy in a cape look believable is tough? Try bringing a 10-foot tall cigar chomping demon to life...and making him your hero! But director Guillermo del Toro is at the top of his game, reuniting the cast from the first film and adding interesting new characters like Johann Krauss (voiced by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane) which ensures the sequel isn’t just more of the same. In fact, the plot is filled to bursting with fantastical monsters of myth and legend – enough for an entire Hellboy trilogy – which have declared war on mankind after years of subjugation. The only thing standing in their way is Red (Ron Perlman) and his team of supernatural superheroes. Universal’s Blu-ray sets a new gold standard for current releases on hi-def, sporting a huge documentary (we’re talking 2 1⁄2 hours, people), copious director’s notes, deleted scenes, two commentaries and BD-Live functionality which allows you to screen grab images from the film and design your own comic book. FIREFLY: Make no bones about it, we’re living in the second Golden Age of Television. Not since the medium’s infancy have we seen so much talent, time, effort and money thrown at the small screen. But that makes shows like Firefly even more vulnerable to a quick death, since studios demand an almost immediate return on their investment; and Joss Whedon’s space-western was a little too slow to develop. Featuring 9 major characters (including Summer Glau of the new Terminator series) and several different story arcs, the show was an odd mix of Gunsmoke and Battlestar Galactica that earned a faithful core group of fans...but not enough to stay on the air. Captain Malcom Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is a no-nonsense smuggler with a heart of gold who always seems to put people above his profession. While the episodes themselves often play out the same way (the crew takes on a job but winds up getting some poor sap out of a jam instead), Firefly has a great sense of humor and plays to Whedon’s strengths as a writer. Before you know it, this sci-fi take on the Old West will have you hooked. Too bad there’s only 14 episodes to enjoy, but they’re all presented in beautiful hi-def for the first time, along with exclusive Blu-ray extras like episode commentary and a Firefly reunion roundtable.