Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Not Recommended

USA/Germany/Hungary

Feature Film

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writers: Guillermo del Toro, Mike Mignola

Cinematographer: Guillermo Navarro

Composer: Danny Elfman

Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor

After thousands of years of peace, an Elf prince becomes determined to wage war against the human race; but Hellboy, now living in domestic bliss with Liz, certainly isn't about to allow him to just achieve his goal without a fight, in del Toro’s technically magnificent and sporadically entertaining sequel, which crucially misses (as it toys with Star Wars like silliness) the grounding in the human world of the first film. Iain.Stott

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The Red and the White (1967)

Recommended

Hungary/Soviet Union

Feature Film

Original Title: Csillagosok katonák

Director: Jancsó Miklós

Writers: Hernádi Gyula, Jancsó Miklós, Karall Luca, Valeri Karen, Giorgi Mdivani

Cinematographer: Somló Tamás

Cast: Madaras József, Molnár Tibor, Kozák András, Juhász Jácint, Anatoli Yabbarov, Sergey Nikonenko, Mikhail Kozakov, Bolot Bejshenaliyev, Tatiana Koniukova, Krystyna Mikolajewska

After the Marxist revolution of 1917, Russian and Hungarian communists (the Reds) battle against the remnants of the defeated Tsarists (the Whites) in a series of ramshackle skirmishes, which invariably result in the capture and execution of opposition soldiers and perceived collaborators, in Jancsó’s cold and distanced yet thoughtful and compelling examination of the futility and arbitrariness of war. Iain.Stott

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