Reviewed by Geno McGahee
It took me quite a while to watch this film. It just never appealed to me. Some douche bag got the DVD for me for Christmas a few years back and it just didn’t “do it” for me. Well, I saw the trailer for the sequel and it looked interesting, so I decided to give this one a try and I’m glad that I did. HELLBOY is a unique and fun movie with a charismatic hero and some pretty neat monsters. The sell in this movie is 90% Hellboy (Ron Perlman), who plays the tough guy, one time demon turned hero.
This film starts off with some great villains: the Nazis. You can’t go wrong with Nazis. They were great in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE and they are always the perfect bad guys. Here, they are opening the porthole to Hell to get some demonic forces on their side to help their cause, but the US forces try to put a stop to it, led by a young Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm (Kevin Trainor). They are somewhat successful, but they discover a little baby demon running around. They win it over and name it “Hellboy.”
Old “Broom” (John Hurt) has put together a special forces team to deal with outer world evil, headed up by Hellboy. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), a fishlike man, is Hellboy’s partner and a very amusing character as well. He is so proper compared to Hellboy, making for an odd couple and a lot of entertainment. Added to the mix is a rookie, John Myers (Rupert Evans), introduced to the group and is basically put there to babysit the rebellious Hellboy. Over time, Hellboy has become a legend like Sasquatch. Many people have seen him but most don’t believe that he exists. Dismissing the Hellboy incidents as well as the fact that there is a paranormal investigation department in the government is Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor). Tambor is a perfect choice for this role. He is a great actor and can play the biggest sleaze in the world but can also pull off a good guy role and he floats between in this part. The scenes where Hellboy deals with Manning are great. Perlman and Tambor work very well together.
There is a love interest for Hellboy in the equally fiery Liz (Selma Blair), who has worked very hard to control her power, which has caused her trouble in the past. She becomes engulfed in blue flames and carrying a torch for her is Hellboy, but he has competition in Myers. Liz seems to want to forget about Hellboy because by forgetting him, she can forget about her problem. Hellboy can’t forget that easily and is obsessed with her, hoping to win her back.
The climax of the movie is where everything comes together. We have the evil forces trying to destroy the world and Hellboy and his group, along with Liz, trying to stop it. It is a great finish to a pretty darn good movie.
This movie reminds me of Indiana Jones with the scenery and some of the strange traps that they encounter. Even when Hellboy slides under a door and barely gets his tail back before the door closes on it, you have to be reminded of when Jones reaches over to retrieve his hat. Hellboy is a great character and breathes most of the life into this movie. Every time that he is on screen, you are compelled. He is hilarious and there is a reason why this was successful and why they are making a sequel to it. The reason is that it is just that good. After seeing this, I’m looking forward to the second one. HELLBOY is a fun film.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10. A Hell of a Time
Hey Hellboy, are you going to eat that Hot Dog?