Guillermo Del Toro is not a shy director.  He goes there!  He definitely has quite an imagination, since the few movies I’ve seen that he has done are rife with stunning visual effects and creatures that are beyond imagination and almost too disturbing to look at.  If you’ve seen Academy Award winner Pan’s Labrynth, then you know what I’m talking about by creatures that defy imagination and disturbing images and ideas.

Among some of the weirder creatures in Hellboy II Golden Army are these tiny little almost “cute” as one of the paranormal agents called it creatures called toothfairies that would naw you to the bone in seconds (they like teeth, hence they are called toothfairies).

Del Tor also isn’t afraid to use kids in his movies in ways that may not be totally pc, like in Hellboy, he has a baby that gets tossed and manhandled, of course the baby stays safe, but it’s nonetheless a disturbing image to see this baby being tossed in the air and falling.  In his dark movie “The Orphanage”, the adopted orphan who is missing not only has HIV and needs his medication, but the ending shows a disturbing image of the child that one can’t quickly erase from their mind.  Also, in Pan’s Labrynth, he shows violence against a little girl.

His movies, while visually stunning, nonetheless combine a darkness and taboo that we don’t want to see, leaving us feeling a little “strange” after viewing them, but still not being able to get them out of our head.  In stark contrast to the first Hellboy movie, which was more common cinema rather than groundbreaking or edgy, this one was taken out of the studio’s hands and bought out by Del Toros do he could do what he wanted and envisioned for the comic book movie in the first place.  The end result is a fun, edgy, and visually stunning movie that is much higher quality than the first.

They left it at the end to be open for a sequel and possibly more, so I do expect to see more of Hellboy.  This time I won’t be so reticent to see the next one now that I know he is doing something more original.  The first one stunk, but now it appears the integrity is back.

Well, the first few episodes of Showtime’s drama “Brotherhood” sure were short on orginality and likability of the characters, but I gotta tell you, the show has definitely grown on me.  The story about two brothers who are on opposite sides of the law, although those lines are very fuzzy a lot of times, is sometimes poorly written in terms of understanding who’s who and making you care when people go down.  For example, a character is killed in episode six and I have no idea who they even are until after they explain it, even though this character appeared several times before.

The show’s bright spot continues to be a surprise to me, it’s Annabeth Gish, who was of X Files notoriety, and for being a presence in a few other forgettable films.  She really brings some edge and charisma to the show as the emotionally damaged wife of the politician brother, Tommy Caffee.  She appears in the first episode to be a normal mother of three young girls, and the proper wife of a politician aspiring to do greater things, but we soon see that she is unhappy and mostly feels her life is a subterfuge for misery. 

In one scene, she tells her lover that she misses him and that she’s so lonely she feels like she’s gonna die, and we see that she is truly vulnerable, even though she puts on a brave, normal front to everyone.  Tommy Caffee, her husband, and the better half of the Caffee brothers (his brother is Michael, the thug criminal, but also their mother’s favorite son), seems to be oblivious to his wife’s plight.

Another bright spot is Ethan Embry, who’s also been in some forgettable films.  He plays a childhood friend of the Caffees who also happens to be investigating Michael for suspected criminal acitivities and possibly drug trafficking and racketeering.  Brotherhood has definitely grown on me.  I thought at first it was a poor man’s Sopranos, but it’s picked up the pace and it’s really gaining some momentum.