Rrrrrrright so its about high time I did another post so here it is and it will cover the superhero film Hellboy based on the comic book character. So let's file down those horns, load up that big gun and brave the night and check out this un.....
So the film begins in 1944 during WWII where the Nazis have built a dimensional portal off the coast of Scotland. The nazis receive the help of Russian mystic, Girgori Rasputin (Karel Roden) who intends to release monsters to help them defeat the Allies. However they are soon ambushed by an Allied forces team who are guided by Trevor Bruttleholm, who is well hearsed in the occult. Together they are successful in closing the portal, killing the Germans, while Rasputin is absorbed into the portal before it closes. The Allied team soon find an infant demon with a right hand of stone who came through the portal and they nickname him "Hellboy" and Trevor adopts him. The story then moves forward 60 years where a young FBI agent, John Myers (Rupert Evans) is assigned to the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense at the request of the now aged Trevor (John Hurt) where he meets the adult Hellboy (Ron Pearlman) and also an amphibious humanoid named Abe Sapien (played by Doug Jones in physical form and David Hyde-Pierce as the voice of Abe). Myers also learns that there is a third member of the team, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) who was recently checked into a mental hospital because of her unstable pyrokinetic abilities and Hellboy has a thing for her.
In the meantime with the help of two of his aids, Rasputin is resurrected and together they unleash a hellhound known as Sammael, which Rasputin gives the power of reincarnation. This causes Hellboy much headaches as he repeatedly kills the creature only to have it respawn every time he does. Rasputin also pays a visit to Liz in the hospital and discreetly activates her powers during her sleep which nearly destroys the hospital and as a result Myers later persuades Liz to return to the Bureau. Later on the BRPD fall under attack from the Sammael again and also from one of Rasputin's aids, Karl Kroenen (Ladislav Beran) who is half human and half mechanical and shuts himself down in order to be taken straight to BRPD HQ. Later on Hellboy get's into trouble with the FBI director, Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) who is frequently displeased with Hellboy's recklessness. Hellboy also grows jealous when he notices that Myers takes Liz out for a coffee and he secretly follows them. However in the meantime Trevor exams Kroenen's body only to be faced by Rasputin who reactivates Kroenen, who kills Trevor by stabbing him in the back of the neck. After this Hellboy embarks on a dangerous mission to track down and defeat Rasputin and to get even for Trevor's death as well to prevent Rasputin from bringing about the end of the world.....
As a comic book adaptation of the Dark Horse comic books character, Hellboy is a highly entertaining film which features some moments of good fun as well as suspense and dark drama. Hellboy himself remains a really unique superhero who is actually a demon who has power to bring about the end of the world but due to his upbringing by Professor Bruttleholm he ultimately becomes one of its saviours. Hellboy also makes for an amusing character in that he is also quite a grouchy superhero and he does things out of heroism but at the same time he can be a bit begruding about it, but ultimatley despite those horns he is the good guy.
Which brings me onto the performances which are largely very good starting with Ron Pearlman who is perfect in the role as Hellboy as it was a part he was born to play and his rough facial features fit the part better than any actor. Pearlman himself underwent an impressive transformation into the character which saw him have to apply heavy make-up to take on the part of the red-faced big fisted demon. Pearlman who is an underrated actor in his own right, has quite a few highlights in the film and has plenty of good lines of which his most often repeated one is "oh crap!". And a few examples include his first scene where Myers is introduced to Hellboy and he picks up one of the Hellboy comics and looks at the roughly depicted comic book image of him and Hellboy says in the corner while lifting weights "I hate those comic books. They never get the eyes right!". Then there is the scene where Hellboy battles with one of he incarnations of the Sammael beast as he fries it on a train tracks with the electricity off the track and he says afterward "I'm fireproof, you're not!". Another good scene is when Hellboy talks to Liz and says to her about his appearance "I wish I could do something about this! But I can't. But I can promise you two things. One - I'll always look this good. Two - I'll never give up on you". Also after Hellboy has an attack with the Sammael, Abe stitches him up and notices that beast had implanted three eggs into Hellboy's arm and Abe asks "How long did he touch you?" and Hellboy says "5 seconds" and Abe pulls out the eggs saying "Touched you five seconds, laid three eggs" and Hellboy says "Didn't even buy me a drink!". Then there is the scene where Hellboy is about to do battle with the Behemoth and Myers asks him "Are you going to be alright? On your own?" and Hellboy smiles holding a belt of hand grenades "Hey, how big can it be?" and the Behemoth massive tentacles grab and pull him violently out of the corridor! And in the next scene the Behemoth swallows Hellboy who detonates the hand grenades from inside, blowing the creature apart and Hellboy is thrown out of it and landing heavily he slowly get's up and says "I'm gonna be sore in the morning!". And lastly there is the fun scene where Hellboy follows Myers and Liz over the rooftops and he meets a young 9 year boy who gives him some cookies and milk and he spies on them from above. And as the young boy says to Hellboy re: his feelings for Liz "Why don't you just tell her how you feel?" Hellboy replies "It's not that easy. Plus your nine! You're not old enough to be giving me advice!".
John Hurt is also pretty good in his role as Professor Bruttleholm who adopts Hellboy as his own son and provides Hellboy his moral compass along the way. And Hurt has some good moments in the film also one of his best lines comes when he says to Myers near the start of the film "In the absence of light, darkness prevails. There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back!". Then there is the scene where the Professor makes the suprising revelation about Hitler "The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense is born. 1958: the Occult Wars finally come to an end with the death of Adolf Hitler" and Myers surprised says "1945, you mean. Hitler died in 1945" and the Professor smiles and says "Did he now?".
Rupert Evans is also quite good as the young rookie FBI agent, John Myers who is assigned to work with Hellboy. Evans has some good moments and an amusing scene where Myers walks with Liz outside at night and they sit on a bench and he yawns and spreads out his arms and discreetly puts his arm behind Liz. This then prompts Hellboy, spying above, to throw a stone at him and Myers stands up not amused he calls out "Hey! Who threw that??!". Evans also get's to deliver the film's last line as Myers finishes the film with a piece of narration "What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don't think so. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them".
Selma Blair it has to be said however is the weak link in the cast here but her performance is still not too bad but a great actress she sure ain't. Blair's delivery most of the time is pretty much in a dreary monotone although perhaps you could argue that this is because her character is somewhat morose and has endured quite alot but its still a bit lame sounding all the same. Blair does have one or two good lines though such as in the scene where Liz and Myers are surrounded by Sammaels when they are in Russia in the caves and Liz insists that Myers slap her and he reluctantly does so and she starts to ignite her pyrokinetic powers and says to Myers "You should be running!". And later after Liz has limited success in her attempts to destroy the monsters and they keep respawning she yells on her radio to Hellboy "Marco. Marco. Get your big red butt down here!".
Doug Jones and David Hyde-Pierce also do very well in their roles as both the physical and vocal side of the Abe Sapien, the psychic amphibious humanoid. Hyde-Pierce (of Frasier fame) was so impressed with Jones's physical performance in the role that he later felt he did not want to receive a film credit for his voice (and Jones later voiced and played the physical part in the sequel). Hyde-Pierce also get's some good lines of dialogue in the film as Abe at one point says to Myers "Listen, I'm not much of a problem solver. Three decades... and I've only completed two sides!". And there is also the scene where Hellboy and Abe go out at night to track the Sammael in the truck and Abe teases Hellboy by saying how he knows how he feels about Liz and Hellboy says "I could be outside" and Abe says "You mean, outside with her" and Hellboy snappily says "Don't get psychic with me fella!" and Abe replies "Nothing psychic about it! You're easy!".
And getting onto the last few Karel Roden is quite effective in his part as the villainous Rasputin as is Ladislav Beran as the creepy former Nazi officer and now half mechanical assassin, Kroenen and Bridget Hodson also fairs well as Rasputin's lady interest and disciple, Ilsa Haupstein. And last of all Jeffrey Tambor is great in his part as the FBI director and provides some amusment in the film. Tambor also has some good lines too and one of his best moments comes when Manning angrily confronts Hellboy by saying to him "Yeah, that's what you do. That's why we need you. You have an insight. You know monsters! This whole thing is a farce, because in the end, after you've killed and captured every freak out there - there's still one left: YOU!". But near the end of the film they put aside their differences in Moscow after Hellboy saves Manning and Hellboy tries to light his cigar (which he chews during parts of the film!) and Manning tells him "You never, ever light a cigar that way! Use a wooden match. It preserves the flavor". And as Manning uses the match Hellboy smokes it and grins saying "Thank you".
Finally getting to the director, Guillermo Del Toro who has done a fine job with Hellboy as he is no stranger to dealing with fantasy characters he perfectly get's to grips with the red demon and also provides just the right amount of fun, action, suspense and drama to the proceedings. As for the film's music score well its a pretty good one by Marco Beltrami which provides just the right tone to the film as it is quite brooding in places and playful in others. The film also makes good use of a couple of songs, Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" but the film uses a cover version by Pete Yorn as well as Tom Waits "Heart attack and vine" (which is quite well suited to the film in a way as Tom Waits and Ron Pearlman don't look entirely dissimilar!).
As for any flaws..... well Hellboy isn't quite perfect of course and one of my main criticisms is that the film at times feels just a bit overlong even though it is just over two hours some of the scenes feel a bit slow, such as the film's opening scene and also the trek to Moscow. It also has to be said that the plot is pretty silly but then again it was based on the comic book novel "Hellboy seed of destruction" with the idea of the Nazis abnormal scientific experiments and also the notion that Hitler died in 1958! Yeah OK it is just a fantasy after all. In fact it isn't too far removed from the Wolfenstein video game series and even one of the later games in that series (called Wolfenstein released in 2009) seemed to copy the same idea of the Nazi assassin Karl Kroenen, except in the game the assassin could turn invisibile then reappear to surprise its victims. It also has to be said that Liz and Myers characters are also somewhat underwritten and they pale in comparison next to the film's main star in Hellboy. But again these are niggles and nothing too major that really ruin the enjoyment of the film.
So that's it for my look at Hellboy which remains a very entertaining superhero film which is still worth checking out after 11 years later.
And with that I shall leave yee there and will be back with a look at Hellboy II in a day or two.
Until then bye fer now!
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