Just A Great Ride From Start To Finish

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2006)

The Joe Cool Review: Hellboy(2004)
Starring: Ron Perlman as Hellboy, John Hurt as Professor Broom, Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, Rupert Evans as John Myers & Doug Jones as Ape Sapien(voiced by David Hyde Pierce)
Plot: Towards the tail end of WW2, the Nazis decided to resort to the occult to try and open up a portal which will bring about the end of the world. The allies managed to stop them but a baby demon made it through the portal. It is raised by Professor Broom and becomes known as Hellboy. 60 years later they're back and it's up to Hellboy to kick ass and stop them.
Openers: What a great ride this movie is from start to finish. Hellboy has just about everything you want a movie to have, and yet it's not a typical movie in any sense of the term. It has action, comedy, horror elements and even some romance.
The Good: Hellboy is sort of a melting pot of many different genres and that's what makes this movie work so well. It doesn't conform to one type of movie and therefore blows the viewer away from start to finish. Another reason this movie works is Ron Perlman. Make no mistake about it, Guillermo del Toro was 100% right in choosing Perlman and only considering him for the role. I couldn't get enough of him playing Big Red and when the movie was over I still wanted more. And the movie clocked in close to 2 hrs and ten minutes! Some of the supporting cast I feel did their jobs well too. Selma Blair and John Hurt were just sort of there but they didn't detract from the film. Doug Jones can act like a fish freak and could emote without talking. And since he didn't provide Abe Sapien's voice, that's kind of what he had to do. David Hyde Pierce was a good choice to provide the voice of Abe and one of those things that just seem perfect after the fact as far as casting goes. Everything else works too. The action is great(Love the subway fight scene) and the comedy and romance work too, with a few jump scares and emotional scenes thrown in. Honorable mention goes to Jeffery Tambor who manages to be pretty funny in a role that I originally hated but grew to love.
The Bad: My main problem with this movie is the character of John Myers. I feel like he was forced onto the audience and really doesn't do much. He was just about as expendable as the other agents looking after HB in my view. Nevermind the fact he acts like a pansy throughout the whole thing. I get the fact he was placed into the movie to be an outside person learning about this new strange world of Hellboy but I still didn't care for his character like I did everyone else.
The Ugly: The final battle, although short, relies heavily on CGI and looks kind of fake looking. However it doesn't really take away from the movie and is not that noticeable unless you're trying to find flaws.
Final Verdict: I was pretty sure I'd like Hellboy but I didn't think it'd be as good as it turned out being. Now it's one of my favorite movies and I eagerly await the sequel to see HB kick ass once more.
Rating: ****1/2 or *****