Oh yeah, I forgot the reason I first came on here today; to throw up a couple of movie reviews. Also, I don't think either one of you are saying the Cubs are bad, and I am probably looking through some rose tinted glasses, but I was just defending some points as unbiased as I possibly could. And the Reds will go 2-160; statistics are so stupid.

MOVIES:

HELLBOY: In my comic book collecting heyday (aka high school and about half of college), I never once read "Hellboy," and after seeing the movie, I wish I had, because I think this would be a storyline I would have enjoyed reading. As for the movie, I am seriously on the fence here. First the good.
Ron Perlman is a great choice to play this character; I've always been a big fan of his, much like Bruce Campbell, you really wish others would realize this guy's greatness, and then he would get a lot of cool roles that would give some of those big budget disasters a little more oomph. The look of this film is excellent; it's rare to see CG used so well in a movie; in fact I didn't even know Abe Sapien was CG everytime he was in the water. That was very impressive. Besides the CG though, the rest of the film looks great as well; unlike most comic book movies this one created a true comic book world. Most either try this and fail (e.g. the Batman movies), or just stick to placing these heroes in the real world, which not a terrible idea sometimes makes things a little goofy looking (e.g. the "X-Men" movies)
As for what I didn't really care for. The film is kind of boring. I never once thought going into this film that I would be bored. I thought it might be a little stupid and goofy at times, sure, but I never thought it would be boring. I really liked Del Toro's pace in "Blade II," that was the pace this movie needed, not "The Devil Backbone's" slow thriller moving pace. Also, after Hellboy, no one is really developed character wise. The bad guys are all mediocre stereotypes, and the rest of the heroes are just not there enough (where the hell did Abe Sapien go anyways), or you simply forget who some of these people are. Simply put, the writing is not very tight; it's almost as if they were more concerned about how cool the film looked they forgot to develop the story. Because I don't care that the movie's over two hours, hell, make it three if you've got enough story to tell, but the fact is not much really happens in that two hour and fifteen minute span. All-in-all, a decent effort, but I look forward to a sequel where they concentrate more on the story than how cool Ron Perlman looks munching on a cigar, which is very cool I might add.

WALKING TALL: Now, here's a movie that's not quite as cool as it thinks it is, but I will say this, it's not boring. In the tradition of recent trashfests like "Gothika," "Torque," and "Freddy Vs. Jason," this is fairly well done. As stupid as a lot of this movie is (the courtroom scene being the highlight) I found myself kind of enjoying it. It's a late night USA movie all the way, but it's a pretty good one as far as those go. I just wish the Rock had picked a better picture to follow up "The Rundown," which I thought was pretty fucking awesome for an action picture. He's got the potential to be a good action movie star, but pick something with a little more firepower than this silly mess.

Star Ratings:
HELLBOY **
WALKING TALL **1/2