Barnes & Noble

Ang Lee's inventive direction and some state-of-the-art special effects help to rip the incredible Hulk -- a green giant who is anything but jolly -- from the pages of Stan Lee's Marvel comics of the 1960s. In reality (to the extent that "reality" is a workable concept in films like this one), he is geneticist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), a troubled young man whose past holds terrible secrets he can never fully remember. Intense emotional stress turns him into the Hulk, a raging monster who smashes everything and everybody with whom he comes into contact. The lone exception, of course, is the lovely Betty Ross (Jennifer Connolly), Bruce's co-worker and the daughter of a hard-bitten general (Sam Elliott) overseeing top-secret government projects. Nick Nolte has a relatively small but showy supporting role as Bruce's father, a discredited scientist whose fall from grace has something to do with his son's deeply disturbed psyche. Resisting the temptation to fill the screen with live-action comic-book panels, Ang Lee alters the origin of the printed-page protagonist to include psychological complexities that even Stan Lee never anticipated for his troubled antihero. It takes a fairly long time for the Hulk to make his first significant appearance, but he does so in a dynamic, explosive manner. By rendering his leading character with computer graphics, Lee and the special-effects team enable the Hulk to perform feats that might look convincing in comics but would normally never pass muster in live-action movies. Hulk’s combination of larger-than-life action and intricate back-story made it an exceptionally ambitious undertaking, and the film succeeds on its own terms. Even if you've never read a Hulk comic book, you can enjoy this exceptionally well made thriller. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Ang Lee directs the live-action feature film The Hulk, based on the Marvel comic book created by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. Emotionally stunted Dr. Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is part of a research team at the University of California at Berkeley. Corporate hustler Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) takes notice of the lab and makes plans to take it over. Then Bruce accidentally gets hit by an experimental ray and grows into a huge beast, destroying the lab in the process. A creepy janitor who claims to be his real father, Dr. David Banner (Nick Nolte), starts to secretly use the experimental ray on himself. He creates some mutant dogs and sends them after Bruce's lab mate and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly). After Bruce saves her life in the form of the Hulk, she lets her distant father, General Ross (Sam Elliott), take him to an abandoned army base in the desert. However, Glenn Talbot takes over the operation and wants to patent the creature's superpowers for his own profit, so he holds Bruce unconscious in an isolation tank. When provoked, Bruce turns into the Hulk and makes a break for San Francisco, leading to a desert chase sequence involving military aircraft, tanks, and bombs. Only the sight of Betty can make him turn back to his human form. When he is eventually captured, Dr. David Banner shows up for a final confrontation with his son and his old adversary, General Ross. Andrea LeVasseur

New York Observer

An interesting effort to give one of the staples of mass entertainment something extra in the way of insight and feeling. Andrew Sarris

Product Details

• UPC: 025192307522
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Sound: Dolby Digital
• Time: 2:18:00
• Sales Rank: 44,200

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