a little bit Heaven, a little bit Hell

Rating: Null/10 (4 April 2004)

"Hellboy" is an outrageous cut-and-paste of ideas that shoehorns Nazis, Rasputin, a fish man, hell-hounds, and a Lovecraftian tentacle monster into the familiar "X-Files" setup involving a government agency in pursuit of supernatural forces.
Unlike "X-Files," however, "Hellboy" is not a complete snoozer. There's action and spectacle aplenty, and the film's look actually far exceeds the expectations I had based on its modest budget (CGI must be getting rather good - and cheaper!).
Lord knows why Ebert thinks this is a 3 1/2 star movie, however. Frankly there's too much action, and it gets repetitive; Hellboy fights the same monster three times, for example. I wasn't too fond of the villains, either; Rasputin in particular is a bore who exhibits none of the charisma attributed to his real life counterpart.
Thankfully, the good guys pick up most of the slack. David Hyde Pierce's fish man voice is hilarious, and it's always great to see John Hurt (why is the old guy always the coolest part of these movies?). Perlman's Hellboy is good fun, and I'm glad that his makeup is unapologetically cartoony.
Entertaining, then, but not a masterpiece - not even in the popcorn movie genre.