Batman? MIB? Raiders of the Lost Ark? Ghost Busters? How about a blend?

Rating: 8/10 (30 March 2006)

After a friend kept mentioning this movie for quite some time, my spouse and I finally viewed Hellboy and found it surprisingly entertaining.
Mind you, we were not expecting a great drama, but were worried that it might be too gory, too foul, too much a horror/shock-fest flick, etc.
But picture a cross between Batman (comic-book-styled "hero"/sidekick duo and sometimes-funny/sometimes-brooding/reflective dialog), Raiders of the Lost Ark (Nazi pursuit of powerful religious objects), Ghost Busters and Men in Black (Z-z-zap-'em back to where they came from!), and you'll have a fair idea of the tone of this movie.
So yes, due to the level of monster-shoot-em-up within (little blood but lots of slime), I'd adhere to the PG-13 rating and not let younger kids watch, but Hellboy turned out to be much more fun and cleaner (with a few "good lessons learned" thrown in) than we expected, possibly a good choice for a teen party!