Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

It's been a while since I saw first Hellboy. I don't remember much about it. There have been talks about the third movie but nothing has materialized yet. Probably it is too late to get third movie.

There are two things I didn't like. Movie changed tone too much between scenes. Another was you knew how the movie will end when you learn connection between siblings. After it you just wait it to happen. Movie tried to have sad tone showing Hellboy killing creatures last of their kind and main villain trying make him change sides. Right after that Hellboy and Abe Sapien drink and talk about their love life. Movie's combination of humor and sad dark fantasy didn't work for me.

Probably someone else like this more. It is well made and Guillermo Del Toro's creatures look amazing as does everything else. I just hope they had less forced humour. Scene with elemental was magical. Dark fantasy parts worked best. Other parts either worked or ruined dark fantasy feel.

I see what they were aiming for but too different tones make movie less of what it could have been. Relationship between Hellboy and Liz didn't need to have problems. They had problems and then they didn't when scene needed it. New character Johann Strauss was interesting but needed more consistency. If you don't remembers first movie you have no idea why Hellboy treats Suit trying to control the team so badly. He just tries to do his job.

Hellboy II is ok movie which could have been better. Amazing scenes are coupled with less amazing scenes.

Death Race (2008)

Death Race is very loosely based on Roger Corman movie Death Race 2000. This time racers are prisoners racing on closed track. Two things remaining same are racer named Frankenstein and they are racing cars. Almost everything else has changed. Original was really dark comedy. This one is dark and gritty action movie. I am not sure can this be called science fiction. At least it is borderline science fiction.

For profit prisons have pay-per-view events where prisoners fight to the death. One such event is death race. Fan favorite racer called Frankenstein dies during race. Prison warden frames old race car rider for murder of his wife and talks him to take the role of Frankenstein.

I was surprised how good the movie was. I thought it would be another one of those random action movies. It had potential to be science fiction classic but it is not. Most of the movie works really well but then they go over the top or add Fast & Furious bling bling. Death Race would be exciting enough on itself but they had to introduce armed truck killing racers. It made no sense. Why would they want kill their racers. To make it even more stupid it gave better options for the guy they didn't want to win. There are also few obvious inconsistencies and scenes which make little sense.

Death Race is ultra violent and gritty. Story is something we have seen in other similar media critical science fiction movies like Gamer, Running Man and so on. Without few flaws this could have been classic. Now this is entertaining and interesting ride.

Sherlock - Season 4 (2017)

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

Here are my thoughts of fourth season of Sherlock. I didn't like it as much as first two season. It was not bad season but not as good as first two.

I decided not to save this background music only for Westworld reviews. I like it too much and we have to wait for next Westworld season for at least next year. Fifth season of Sherlock will come after that if it comes at all.

Planet Terror (2007)

Planet Terror succeeds in what Machete Kills failed. It is entertaining deliberately bad movie. It is a rarely successful feat. Planet Terror is one part of Robert Rodriguez's and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse two parter. Another one is Tarantino's Death Proof. Movies are homage to cheap exploitation movies.

Planet Terror is mix of science fiction, splatter, action and zombie movies. With all the added noise and other imperfections it feels like watching obscure movie in small outdated theater. Having one reel "missing" was nice detail. I would like to see what was in "missing" reel but I probably prefer it being "missing".

Planet Terror works if you are into obscure violent movies and splatter. It wears you down. First it feels stupid but little by little it starts to work. Characters are written like badly written characters. El Wray is my favorite. He is "ultracool" action hero who no-one wants to give gun for some reason. His backstory was told in "missing" reel.

Movie started with Machete trailer. I can't pinpoint why Planet Terror works and Machete Kills doesn't. Planet Terror tries to look authentic. Machete Kills looked too digital with awful cgi blood. I doubt it is only reason. Both try to achieve same thing. One works, one doesn't

Mass Effect

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

This is game review but I thought readers of this blog might enjoy it since it is science fiction game and I mostly review science fiction movies.

How to change field of view in Mass Effect 1-3: https://hamstergene.github.io/post/fixing-mass-effect-fov/

This is not first game review on my channel. I probably make more of these in future. At least for Mass Effect trilogy. After Mass Effect I have other games I like to play through. At the moment I have no intention to do these all the time. Would I be casual gamer if I played all the time.

Machete Kills (2013)

I don't remember much about Machete. I remember it was enjoyable but forgettable. Machete Kills is forgettable but not enjoyable. It is weird to think same guy, Robert Rodriquez, directed this and Desperado. It's like he made this bad on purpose. Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn and others have shown he can make cool action movies.

Machete Kills was meant to be second movie in Machete trilogy. Meant because we have not seen the third movie Machete Kills in Space. Machete Kills in Space is bit overdue by now. Machete was released on 2010 so third movie was due 2016 if they wanted to keep the schedule.

First Machete was based on fake grind house trailer. Like I said I don't remember much about it. This movie has fake trailer for Machete Kills in Space. It is better than Machete Kills. The joke worked better in trailer form.

There is little to tell about the movie. It is just series of scenes where actors try to be cool. Movie has many actors who have been cool in other movies but this movie just doesn't work. It is series of would it be cool is ideas which aren't cool when you see them with this delivery. This might have worked better with practical effects. Terrible cgi was real turn off. There is only little to turn you on. Actor have been better in other movies. Most of the time you feel you have seen this done better in other movies.

I am curious to see Machete Kills in Space if it ever gets made. It is probably same joke done third time when second time was already too much. But I am still curious to see it. Movie had one good thing. It reminded me how good Desperado was and made me want to watch it again.

Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016)

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

I am little bit late with this one. I had other things during Christmas and published more videos than usually. I almost forgot a little thing called only episode of Doctor Who in 2016. Here are my short thoughts of The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

It is shorter video than normally and it is has connection to comics. So I tried to have more cartoonish look. Cartoonish look take ages to render. Even though I like it I don't want to spend time rendering if I don't have any excuse to use it. Now I had.

The Descent (2005), The Descent 2 (2009), The Cave (2005) and Sanctum (2011)

Group goes into underground caves. Something blocks their way back up. They have to find another way out. In first three movies they find something living down there. I expected Sanctum to be horror movie too but it wasn't. It just shared the premise with first three movies. If I needed fourth horror movie I could have added As Above, So Below which I thought I had reviewed but couldn't find the review.

I am not a horror guy but I had time and I wanted to check what is available in this trapped underground horror genre. Sanctum is disaster movie. I liked it most of these movie basically because not being a horror movie it had more time to study interesting topics. Others had to have the horror elements which took some time from character studies. Otherwise Sanctum suited this group.

Best horror movie was The Descent 2. It and The Descent didn't go overboard like The Cave. The Descent movies stayed more realistic in story and sets. The Cave was just grand sets and big action. Big sets took away the claustrophobic feel of being trapped underground. In other movies you felt like protagonists might end up in dead end and not make it.

I liked The Cave the least. It has many issues. It is too big and tries too much for its own good. The Descent movies are smaller in every way. You have to watch The Descent to get everything out of The Descent 2. Movies were made four years apart but they feel like first and second part of the same movie. They happen within days of each others. Second movie closes some open ends of first movie in a good way. I expected them to be closed in first movie but we had to wait for second movies. In this rare case second movie made first movie better.

There is very little to tell about stories without going into spoilers. Every movie tells about group of people trying to find new way out of the caves. Sanctum and The Descent 2 are actually good movies. With Sanctum you have to endure some time before tone changes. Horror movies follow more familiar formula and you know what you are getting into. Sanctum don't show where it is going from the start. It is disaster movie but it doesn't show how dark it gets.

I watched all these movies back to back in order they are in title. I had seen The Cave before. Others I saw first time. I didn't like The Cave that much first time either. Maybe it was more interesting when I didn't know what will happen. Overall this was interesting marathon. None of the movies were really bad. If you want to have all horror movies you should change Sanctum to As Above, So Below. It is more supernatural than these four so maybe Sanctum is better choice. Or you can watch all five movies.