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Based on the comic book series by Mike Mignola, Guillermo del Toro's gleefully eccentric film follows the supernatural adventures of Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a cigar-chomping, horn-filing demonic hero enlisted by an occult scholar (John Hurt) to fight evil in the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Along with the fire-.. Read more
| Starring | Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans |
|---|---|
| Director | Guillermo del Toro |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Audio Descriptive, Thriller |
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Based on the comic book series by Mike Mignola, Guillermo del Toro's gleefully eccentric film follows the supernatural adventures of Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a cigar-chomping, horn-filing demonic hero enlisted by an occult scholar (John Hurt) to fight evil in the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Along with the fire-throwing Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and the amphibious psychic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, with the voice of David Hyde Pierce), Hellboy is joined by new recruit John Myers (Rupert Evans), a squeaky-clean FBI agent assigned to keep the big red devil's exploits in check. Things get out of hand, however, when a vicious monster is unleashed by the villainous Rasputin (Karl Roden), leading to events that may set off an apocalyptic nightmare for humanity. Echoing Peter Jackson's passion for THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, HELLBOY is a labor of love from del Toro, a longtime fan of the comic and its creator. The director's enthusiasm shows, since HELLBOY is a wondrously strange slice of pulpy adventure, mixed with horror and humor, and enhanced by stunning visual effects. In the title role (and lots of red makeup), Perlman is pitch-perfect, giving the good-natured misfit a powerful--yet surprisingly sensitive--presence. Blair, Evans, Hurt, and other actors are similarly well cast, rounding out an ensemble intent on retaining the movie's dark yet superbly entertaining tone.
| Starring | Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans, Karel Roden, Jeff |
|---|---|
| Director | Guillermo del Toro |
| Studio | COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 57 mins Blu-ray: 1 hr 57 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Audio Descriptive, Thriller |
| Language | English, English Audio Description |
| Dubbed | Italian |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, English, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 10 Jan 2005 Blu-ray: 30 Apr 2007 Production year: 2004 |
| Format | DVD |
This brilliantly designed comic-book adaptation is an adventurous mix of gothic horror, action and romance that stands among the very best of the genre. Ron Perlman brings a wry humour and humanity to the role of Hellboy, the cigar-chomping demon who is brought into this world by Nazis to serve as an agent of evil, but is raised by John Hurt's kindly professor as a champion of good. When not fighting arch-enemy Rasputin (Karel Roden), he yearns with unrequited love for pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and — in a nice touch — tends after stray cats. Unusually for the genre, the character interactions are more convincing than the fight scenes, which, while exciting, are too numerous. However, Kroenen (Ladislav Beran) — a zombie assassin — is one of the most unsettling villains ever created and director Guillermo del Toro manages to bring intelligence and emotion to the film without sacrificing its pulp roots.
Fun. Its a crucial but often overlooked element in a summer blockbuster comic-book adaptation and its in... read more on Time Out
I really tried to like this movie, but I couldn't help but think there was some huge back story to each of the characters that I was left completely unaware of.
The goodies weren't likeable enough, the baddies simply not dangerous enough, and everyone else just seemed flat and featureless.
Hellboy as a character seemed to be pretty indestructible, so whenever he gets into any sort of peril it just seems to be a matter of time before he wins the fight. We're briefly informed of the existence of some nasty beings on the other side of the universe near the beginning, but we don't actually witness them being particularly nasty to anyone, or threatening the wellbeing of, well, *anything*.
And whenever any of the peripheral characters (ie most of them) were in any danger I failed to muster up even as much sympathy for them as I manage for the cavorting teens in the Friday 13th series.
Another real disappointment was that the comedy potential of the movie isn't fully exploited - there was tons of room for some real humour, (some of which was adequately filled with Hellboys extra-dry wisecracks,) but most of it just was either ignored or filled with weak gags. The reanimated corpse particularly could have been hilarious, but was a real missed opportunity.
Hellboy is adapted from a comic book which I've never read, so the key to my lack of understanding may lie there. But surely this movie was aimed at a wider audience than just those already in the know?
On the whole I felt like I'd walked in on a movie halfway through, despite the fact that I'd watched right from the start. Still, if you've enjoyed the comic book, (a nice touch being its presence in the film,) I expect you'll enjoy the movie. Everyone else who wants to see some comic-book action in their living room, see Robocop or Starship Troopers, or the masterly Sin City.
This is not a bad film, It`s well written (true to the comic) well directed, and good acting with good setts and villians. So why 4 star`s.... a love srory!!!! ahhh come on we`re fighting demons here not copulating the world. Gee
Hellboy is growing up. Not physically of course, but emotionally. At least, he should be: he’s married now, to pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair). He’s also an institutional beast, like it or not (not, in his case), at the beck and call of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, where he lives and works. The trouble is, the big fella (“Red” to his friends) still wants to be his own man – and that includes lapping up the adjulation he believes should be... Read more
FROM THE PAGE TO THE SCREEN (83)
67% from 17 members
