Hellboy (2004)
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Director: Cast: Country: Year: 2004 Score: MPAA Rating: |
USA 2004
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair
During World War II, the Nazis create a device that opens a portal to hell, through which they extract a baby demon whom they intend to use in their quest for world domination. But a kindly British professor rescues him, names him – wait for it – Hellboy and raises him to do good, battling monsters for the super-secretive U.S. Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.
And so goes Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of the quirky Dark Horse Comics series, with Ron Perlman headlining as the red-skinned, rock-handed, horn-filed, Baby Ruth-eating devil with a heart (and soul) of gold.
Like a supernatural mix of X-Men and Ghostbusters, the film has Hellboy and his fellow mutant pals – fishman Abe Sapien (voiced by David Hyde Pierce) and pyrotechnic Liz Sherman (the sour-faced Selma Blair) – battling slimy, tentacled monsters straight outta those old H.P. Lovecraft pulp stories. And, unfortunately, they fight and fight the same race of creatures over and over again, lending the movie a shiny sheen of repetition, offering only a half-handed attempt at a love story to bookend the action sequences.
Those action scenes are fun – after all, what fun is a comic-book movie if it can’t resemble a comic book, but they also serve to highlight the movie’s shortcomings. And, as with every del Toro film – including Mimic, Blade II and even The Devil’s Backbone – it’s the story, stupid. Though a fantastic
visualist, del Toro can’t quite seem to flesh out ideas into actual, A-to-B plot. Motivations float like MacGuffins, details feel like dressing.
With talking corpses and a sword-equipped, masked Nazi running via clockwork, all the elements for a cinematic ride are here. All that’s missing is the story to get us involved on an emotional level instead of strictly the visceral. In the role of his life, Perlman tries his hardest, imbuing the Hellboy
character with a tortured loneliness, but the movie fades to black just as his emotions come to the forefront.
For something with so little story, Hellboy is overlong at two hours. I’m convinced that if shaved by about a quarter, del Toro would have a true winner on his fat little hands. Instead, he has merely a slightly above-average contender.
Review by Rod Lott.
Review by: Rod Lott
No Responses to Hellboy
Hellboy (2004)
|
Director: Cast: Country: Year: 2004 Score: MPAA Rating: |
USA 2004
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair
Score: ***
The scene where FBI agent Jeffrey Tambor lights Hellboy’s (Ron Perlman) cigar with both thanking each other after being at logger heads throughout the first half of the movie sums up in one word what HELLBOY is all about. Compromise!
Guillermo Del Toro made his best films in Mexico and rose to fame with small budget but creative horror pieces like CRONOS and THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE. His has compromised his artistic roots by moving to Hollywood and directing less satisfying Hollywood flicks like BLADE II and MIMIC. HELLBOY, based on Mike Mignola’s popular Dark Horse Comics series of the same name, is a tame action adventure more fantasy than hellish, geared more towards the Disney style of film, probably to appeal to a larger family audience. The curse words “Aw, Crap!” uttered countless times by Hellboy say it all.
HELLBOY, however, is still interesting enough, while playing it safe, comic book wise. It begins with the origins of the superhero, doomed to be hidden from the society he is sought to protect. Brought out of the dark recesses of hell by the Nazis in 1944 Scotland (here, the ‘middle-ground’ English spoken is still strongly American so that all audiences can understand) but rescued by Allied Troops, Hellboy is reared by Dr. Broom (unrecognizable John Hurt) as a family at the Bureau of Paranormal Research together with other freaks such as Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman or Firestarter (Selma Blair). Like the other superhero SPIDERMAN, also brought to the screen by Columbia Pictures, the plot follows Hellboy through his love for Liz and his loss of both his foster parent, Dr. Broom and his good friend FBI agent Clay. The dialogue is corny at times but occasionally rises above expectations. “I’ll never give you up – ever!” These are simple effective words spoken of love by Hellboy. The action scenes are exciting enough, particularly the initial sequence involving a fight beneath the New York subway amidst speeding trains. The special effects and make-up by Oscar winner Rick Baker (MEN IN BLACK and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) are amazing enough. It is a pity the script (written by Del Toro) neglects Abe Sabien, the more interesting character, and fails to examine the darker aspects of the father/son relationship of Dr. Bloom and Hellboy.
With so many comic book films out including the new SPIDERMAN 2 by the end of June, it is tough competition for Hollywood comic book films. HELLBOY is convincing entertainment despite a lackluster climax emphasizing the point that audiences have already seen it all in one action flick or another.
Review by Gilbert Seah.
Review by: Gilbert Seah
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