sequel to his 2004 working-class superhero movie Hellboy and his Oscar-winning 2006 masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth," Director Guillermo Del Toro has outdone himself in both absurd humor and wild imagination.

"The Golden Army" ostensibly follows the adventures of that the stogie-sucking demon of a crime fighter (once again played with anti-hero panache by Ron Perlman) - who's tough on the outside but tender underneath, - and his friends, the aquatic Abe Sapien and the flaming Liz Sherman, all super-secret government agents. They hunt wayward ghosts, goblins and ghoulies up and down the Eastern Seaboard, when they aren't battling personal problems.

Though Hellboy II caters to the fanboy crowd that wants to see killer monster fights, Del Toro and Mike Mignola, on whose comic book the Hellboy films are based, have expanded their scope to encompass a war against humanity by a race of underworld creatures led by Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who needs the third piece of a crown to bring to life the invincible Golden Army.

Unfortunately for Nuada, his sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), has the missing piece and doesn't plan to let him realize his evil intentions. As Nuada plots his takeover, Hellboy is trying to get used to life with his main pyrokinetic squeeze, Liz (Selma Blair), whose pyrokinetic abilities don't match the seeming lack of warmth in their relationship. Bureaucratic boob Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) is still trying to keep the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, of which Hellboy, Liz and Abe are members, a secret.