With a signature blend of action, humor and character-based spectacle, the saga of the world’s toughest, kitten-loving hero continues to unfold in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Bigger muscle, badder weapons and more ungodly villains arrive in an epic vision of imagination from Oscar®-nominated director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy).

After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Now, it’s up to the planet’s toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red. He may be horned. He may be misunderstood. But when you need the job done right, it’s time to call in Hellboy (Ron Perlman).

Along with his expanding team in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense — pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones) and protoplasmic mystic Johann — the BPRD will travel between the surface strata and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal. And Hellboy, a creature of two worlds who’s accepted by neither, must choose between the life he knows and an unknown destiny that beckons him.

- Courtesy of Universal Pictures Canada

Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters next Friday, July 11th. Make sure to come back early next Friday morning to read the SizzlingPopcorn.com review.

We have included below some images, trailer and a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming action/adventure thriller.

Hellboy (RON PERLMAN) is the world’s toughest, kitten-loving superhero in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”.

Photo Credit: Egon Endrenyi

Copyright: © 2008 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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(L to R, foreground) Members of the B.P.R.D.–protoplasmic mystic Johann (voiced by SETH MACFARLANE), aquatic empath Abe (DOUG JONES), Hellboy (RON PERLMAN) and pyrokinetic Liz (SELMA BLAIR)–in front of ruthless leader Prince Nuada (LUKE GOSS) and his kind sister, Princess Nuala (ANNA WALTON), in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”.

Photo Credit: Egon Endrenyi

Copyright: © 2008 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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The world’s toughest, kitten-loving superhero, Hellboy (RON PERLMAN), locks and loads in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”.

Photo Credit: Egon Endrenyi

Copyright: © 2008 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Hellboy (RON PERLMAN) does battle with an Elemental in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”.

Photo Credit: Double Negative

Copyright: © 2008 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Ruthless leader Prince Nuada (LUKE GOSS) holds a piece of the Royal Crown of Bethmoora as his kind sister, Princess Nuala (ANNA WALTON), watches in fear in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”.

Photo Credit: Double Negative

Copyright: © 2008 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Trailer

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Behind-the-Scenes

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It was announced over the weekend that SizzlingPopcorn.com has received the BlogEngage Top Engaged award for the month of June for our Sex and the City review (How Sexy Is ‘Sex and the City’?). We received 21 engages (votes) throughout the month, tying with Dip03’s post “Too Many Money Blogs” for the most. We would like to thank everybody who voted for us throughout the past month.

BlogEngage is a free blog submission website where users share, view and comment blog posts.

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SizzlingPopcorn.com is pleased to present four teaser posters from Lexi Alexander’s upcoming action film, PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, starring Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle, the ruthless vigilante-hero who wages a one-man war on the world of organized crime. We have also included a trailer of the movie. Lionsgate will be releasing the film on December 5th, 2008.

What do you think of the posters? What do you think about the casting change for Frank Castle? Will Ray Stevenson be a better ‘Punisher’ than Thomas Jane?

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June has quickly passed by and that means the end to the SizzlingPopcorn.com June DVD & BD Giveaway Contest. Congratulations to the winners for the month of June:

• L. Pappas from Ontario, Canada - The Hammer
• B. Fitzpatrick from Colorado, United States - Cassandra’s Dream
• E. Bickell from Ontario, Canada - Invisible Target

SizzlingPopcorn.com would like to thank all those who registered for this past months contest.

The July contest is now on the Contest page. Make sure to register for your chance to win one of several DVD & Blu-ray Disc that we will giving away throughout the month.

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Looking for a movie to watch today, on Canada Day? SizzlingPopcorn.com has the solution for you! We’ve looked through the various Canadian movies out there and have picked 5 of them that you would be able find at your local video store. Here are our Top 5 movies to rent on Canada Day, including some synopses, trailers and Canadian filming locations:

#5 The Shipping News

Trailer:

Filming Locations:

• Corner Brook, Newfoundland
• New Bonaventure, Newfoundland
• St. John’s, Newfoundland
• Trinity, Newfoundland
• Fox Point, Nova Scotia
• Halifax, Nova Scotia

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#4 Gaz Bar Blues

Synopsis:

Mr. Brochu, respectfully known as the Boss, has been running the Champlain gas station with his family for the last fifteen years. Despite the loss of his wife, the continual thefts and the onset of Parkinson’s disease, he has done the job to the best of his ability. Workdays begin early in the morning and last late into the night. A group of locals regularly hang around, passing the time smoking, drinking, trading stories and sharing laughs. However, the Boss’s two eldest sons are sick of the business and want more out of life than a gas pump. As a result, Mr. Brochu stuggles to hold not only himself together, but his family and the gas station that binds them. (Yahoo!)

Filming Locations:

• Montreal, Quebec

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#3 La Grande séduction (Seducing Dr. Lewis)

Trailer:

Filming Locations:

• Fox Island, Quebec
• Herrington Harbour Island, Quebec

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#2 Away From Her

Trailer:

Filming Locations:

• Hamilton, Ontario
• Freeport Health Centre, Kitchener, Ontario
• Kitchener, Ontario
• Lake of Bays, Ontario
• Paris, Ontario
• Toronto Film Studios, Toronto, Ontario

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#1 Canadian Bacon

Synopsis:

The bungling President of the U.S. is facing an approval rating plummeting almost as fast as the economy. Desperate, he approves a ludicrous plan to create a new “evil empire”… Canada? The plan appears foolproof–that is, until one particular fool proves otherwise. Overzealous patriot Bud Boomer, the Sheriff of Niagara Falls, decides to take matters into his own hands and leads a rag-tag group of deputies on a daring and thoroughly misguided raid across the border. Suddenly the “honeymoon capital of the world” is on the front lines of the coldest war America has ever fought. (Yahoo!)

Movie Clip:

Filming Locations:

• Hatley Castle, Royal Road, Colwood, Bristish Columbia
• Hamilton, Ontario
• Niagara Falls, Ontario
• Niagara-on-the-lake, Ontario
• Oshawa, Ontario
• St. Catherines, Ontario
• CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario
• Toronto, Ontario

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SizzlingPopcorn.com would like to wish you a happy Canada Day!

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Disney-Pixar’s masterpiece, WALL-E, hit theaters this past weekend with a whopping $62.500M debut. Not too far behind is Universal Pictures’ Wanted. Last week’s hit, Get Smart, drops down to #3. Can Hancock push his way through to the top spot next week? We’ll just have to wait and see!

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Rating: Kernel

Set in December 2004, a group of scientists create a harmful bio-hazard for defense purpose, but when scientist Govind Ramasaamy discovers that this virus cannot be controlled he decides to prevent others for using it.

Dasavathaaram stars Kamal Hassan, winner of 4 National Film Awards (India). Interestingly, Kamal plays the role of 10 different characters (Rangaraja Nambi/Govind Ramasaamy/The United States President/Avtar Singh/Christian Fletcher/Shinghen Narahasi/Krishnaveni/Vincent Poovaraagan/Kalifullah Khan/Balaram Naidu).

The movie is filmed in Tamil, India’s third most spoken language, and some English. Don’t be afraid if you don’t understand Tamal as the film includes subtitles. Dasavathaaram’s English title in India is The 10 Avatars. According to Hindu mythology, an avatar is the incarnation of a god.

Dasavathaaram is quite different from the stereotype-filled Hollywood films that we watch everyday. Russians and people of Middle-Eastern decent are most commonly stereotyped as the terrorists in American films, but Dasavathaaram gives you the opportunity to see through a different lens. Govind Ramasaamy (Indian-American) is the perceived terrorist in the film as he runs away with the vial containing the harmful bio-hazard, however Christian Fletcher (American), an ex-CIA agent, is the real terrorist as he seeks to find the virus and destroy the world. The various masks used by Kamal Hassan to impersonate Christian Fletcher and George W. Bush make Americans look ridiculously fake.

Dasavathaaram is also different from American movies by the way it is filmed. The director uses various shots, angles and special effects. Some of the filming is so bad that it makes me laugh. One of these moments is when President George W. Bush is riding in his limousine in India and we can see through the windows the crowds out on the streets. The crowd is not a real crowd, but a clip from Clint Eastwood’s In the Line of Fire, when the President is being escorted down the road in his limousine.

Reflecting on the movie, Dasavathaaram tells us that the Indian gods saved the world from a bio-chemical terrorist attack by washing away the virus with the tsunami that hit India on December 26th, 2004.

Dasavathaaram may not be one of the best foreign films, but it’s worth watching it on DVD (if it ever does and if it is released in Canada and the U.S.) for giving us a different view of the war on terrorism. The film is currently playing in select theaters across Canada.

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Congratulations to our latest contest winner for June! B. Fitzpatrick from Colorado, USA is the winner of the drama/thriller Cassandra’s Dream DVD! He has also been a longtime blogging friend of ours and writes periodically on his blog, Lair of the Green Knight.

You still have a day left to register. The current contest ends on June 30th. Visit our “Contests” page for rules and entry forms.

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Rating: Sizzling Popcorn

WALL-E brings the magical Disney experience, over 700 years into future, to a galaxy not so far away. WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been working alone on Earth ever since humans left the garbage infested planet for an all-inclusive 5 year cruise in outer space. WALL-E’s life changes when he meets EVE, a robot sent by humans to scan the Earth for vegetation. The two robots embark on a journey of friendship and discovery as they help mankind return to their planet.

WALL-E is written and directed by Academy Award winning writer-director Andrew Santon (Finding Nemo) and features the innovative soundtrack created by Academy Award winner Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial). The Disney-Pixar computer-animated film features the voices of Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver and an appearance by Fred Willard.

Some people may judge WALL-E to be boring as 30 mins elapse before we hear the first human speak, but the images in this computer-animated movie speak louder than words. Remember watching the Disney classics, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Beauty and the Beast? Remember the imagination and magic these movies brought to your childhood experience? WALL-E brings the same imagination and magic but to the next generation of children. Through the movie, we become attached to the characters. When WALL-E’s having fun, the audience is too. When he’s hurting, so are we. At one point in the movie, EVE is carrying WALL-E, who is pretty banged up, and his little green plant that looks like it’s dying too. This image brings back the childhood memory of watching E.T. the Extra-Terrastrial, when Elliott is taking care of E.T., who is dying. At the same time, we also see E.T.’s plant dying. The audience begins to cheer for the character, hoping that he’ll return to life.

With all the awe and wonder the film brings, Disney has a greater message to share with its audience. Disney shows us through the movie that if people around the world, especially North Americans, keep polluting Earth with all our garbage, we might end up with no living space and having to leave the planet to live elsewhere. The film also touches on the subject of obesity and warns us that with our culture wanting to stay in its comfort zone and not work for anything, we might end up like the couch-potato society found on the film’s Buy-n-Large space cruise ship.

With its stellar graphics, soundtrack and direction, WALL-E is a masterpiece of the 21st century that is bound to be nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature-length film. I have no complaints about the film and highly recommend seeing WALL-E in theaters for the cinematic experience. It might be an expensive trip to the theater if you have children, but if I had to recommend one movie to bring the whole family to the cinema to see, WALL-E would be the answer.

Release Date: June 27, 2008

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This past week, we had the privilege to interview a Hollywood screenwriter, Jaden from Screenwritingforhollywood.com. Jaden has worked for several major film studios in various jobs ranging from screenwriter all the way to director. She not only writes screenplays but also writes entertainment articles for various magazines, newspapers, journals and websites.

With her website, Screenwritingforhollywood.com, Jaden encourages her readers to think through various articles and exercises. One of SizzlingPopcorn.com’s favorite exercise is Jaden’s “Sunday Picture Post”, where she posts a picture and asks her readers to come up with a title for the movie, one word describing the theme, mood, or scene, one sentence to describe the scene, and a pitch to sell the entire movie. She also includes a screenwriting tips to her posts that are quite interesting.

You’re probably wondering how Jaden ever got started in the entertainment business… well… here we go.

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Did you grow up in Hollywood all your life?

No. I grew up in the cattle and wine country north of San Francisco. Northern Californians have a high school-like rivalry with Southern California; I never wanted to move to Hollywood. After scrambling for work on every film and TV show that came through San Francisco, I finally decided to move to Hollywood where the work was plentiful.

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How was your experience growing up?

Unique! I have no complaints; I never went hungry nor was I beaten. It was a bit rocky because my parents are just about the wildest two partying people I ever met. They were together long enough to have me and then parted ways. Divided between the two, I lived mostly in a small town playing in the fields and creeks, while also traveling the world.

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When did you start getting involved in the film industry?

Well… If you want to know the dirty truth, I was a baby in a porn movie, the woman playing my mother gets raped by an ape in the forest. It was the 70s in San Francisco, what can I say?! That was my first role — a real family prize I was. As a small child, I was home alone a lot, so I watched a hefty amount of television and movies. At 13 years old, I took photography and animation, developing my own prints and sketching a cartoon. During college, I did some modeling, acting, commercials, small bits to make extra money while I studied film. It was fun, but there were way too many sleazy men trying to get action, so I really wanted to get to the backside of the camera where no one checks your pulse.

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You have worked with screenplays in various roles: script supervisor, legal assistant, costumer, cinematographer, director, marketer, casting agent and actor. Which role do you like the best and why?

Each job is great, the pay is the main difference. Acting is the highest paid of those listed above — strong union. Casting is amazing because you select someone and pull them out from their daily grind, offering them a lot of money; it feels good to find special talented people and reward them for being different. Legal assisting I like because it is straight forward dependable work that allows my mind to wander, leaving me the creative energy to write when I get home. Making my own movies is cool, but it’s hard work with no financial compensation. Writing and helping people are my favorite things to do and it pays the bills sometimes.

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What is your pet peeve about the film industry?

Watching millions of dollars be thrown away on meaningless scripts is painful.

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As a screenwriter, what do you do when you get writer’s block?

Mostly, I have the opposite problem, the ol’ cracked dam: a constant high pressure flow of ideas that will surely break me one day. Here is what I advise for writer’s block:

1. Sleep on it.
2. Reverse and go back to where you went off track. Delete scenes that are not working and have driven you to a dead end.
3. Go outside and be inspired by real life.
4. Read the works of talented successful writers, as well as the bad ones.
5. Watch the news.
6. Have a conversation with your characters and ask them what they want to do. Stop trying to control them. You will be surprised when they say, “Well, Bob, I thought you would never ask.”

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Through your website, www.screenwritingforhollywood.com, you provide various writing services. What are they?

I specialize in screenplays: coverage, analysis, consultation, and proofreading, but I also offer services for other creative writing styles and official work.

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Are you currently working on a screenplay or movie that you could quickly share about?

I’m always working on a number of projects: screenplays, novels, and articles. Whatever project has the best earning potential shifts into pole position. Right now I am polishing some true non-violent crime stories told in first person narrative. I wrote two other books last summer for which I need to do heavy editing — psychological human relations type stuff. And there is a spiritual adventure I am eager to write; hopefully the world won’t end before I get to it.

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What would be the one piece of advice you would want to give to aspiring actors, filmmakers and screenwriters?

Don’t let the bad guys get ya down; they’re not worth the crud under your toenails. Keep your spirits high — happy glowing people succeed.

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If you really like movies and would like to know how screenplays are written, read some of Jaden’s posts. Give the “Sunday Picture Post” a try! If you’re a screenwriter and are looking for services, check out her “services” section at Screenwritingforhollywood.com.

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