Fiendishly fun comic adaptation

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2005)

Director Guillermo del Toro fought hard to bring his vision of the Dark Horse Comics title to the screen intact and delivered the most faithful, offbeat and energetic superhero movie of 2004.
Ron Perlman is flawless casting as creator Mike Mignola's big red monster-masher, summoned to Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists led by Rasputin but raised by mentor Professor Broom (John Hurt) to work in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence.
He's not alone, though, at the BPRD and will need fishman Abe Sapiens (voiced by David Hyde Pierce), pyrotechnic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and several expendable agents to stop a resurrected Rasputin and his clockwork zombie assassin Kroenen from ushering in a new age of Hell on Earth.
Del Toro handles his multiple character introductions well, leaving the way clear for exhilarating demon smackdowns laced with Hellboy's sarcastic dry wit and punctuated by convincing moments of personal growth. And eating nachos.