Give 'em Hell, boy!

Rating: Null/10 (24 April 2004)

I had low expectations when I heard they were making a live action movie based on artist/writer Mike Mignola's comic book "Hellboy". Hollywood has a history of turning great comics into lousy movies (i.e. "Howard the Duck", "Swamp Thing", and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"). However, I was pleasantly surprised that director Guillermo del Toro stuck to the original vision of Mignola, who also served as an executive producer and designer for the film.
For those unfamiliar with the title character, he's an otherdimensional demon brought to Earth as an infant by the undead Russian mystic Rasputin (Karl Roden) and Nazi occultists near the end of World War II. Hellboy, as the baby demon is named by the American soldiers who found him, is raised to adulthood by the fatherly Professor Broom (John Hurt) and becomes a covert government monster-fighter for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. The adult Hellboy (Ron Perlman, under a ton of make-up) is aided by his pyrokinetic former flame Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), the mentally-advanced fish-man Abe Sapien (voice of David Hyde-Pierce), and ordinary human Agent Myers (Rupert Evans) as they fight to stop a monstrous demon freed by the resurrected Rasputin and his Nazi cohorts and a grander scheme to unleash the Seven Gods of Chaos.
Does that all make sense? Not really, but "Hellboy" is a joyous grab-bag of the horror, adventure, super-hero, and - yes - romantic-comedy genres that riffs on the familiar to create its own weird groove. It's like H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Kirby, George Lucas, Nora Ephron, and Matt Groening got together and wrote a script. This is the kind of movie that builds a cult following while leaving other viewers scratching their heads.
I admire that del Toro cast a group of actors that may not be expensive A-list stars, but are right for their roles. Leading the pack is Perlman, who seems to know this is his chance to shine and gives it his all. Perlman's Hellboy is a wisecracking tough guy on the outside and sweetly vulnerable on the inside. He smokes cigars, writes love letters, grinds down his horns so he can "fit in", and likes cats. Thank goodness they used an actor in make-up to play Hellboy, as opposed to the computer-generated cartoon we got in "Hulk".
"Hellboy" has its faults. Some of the stunts and special effects look fake, the mystical mumbo-jumbo gets confusing, and the film might be too scary, silly, or just plain strange for some audiences. However, like all good films of this type, I was able to suspend my disbelief, sit back, and enjoy the ride. "Hellboy" doesn't take its offbeat premise too seriously, but doesn't descend into camp either. How could I not like a movie that features a crimson-hued demon with a big stone fist as the leading man, and then manages to work Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "Red Right Hand" into the soundtrack?
8 out of 10.