The Hellboy Cottage Industry

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2008)

If Mike Mignola isn't careful he's going to have a whole cottage industry devoted to his comic strip creation Hellboy. Having just come from Hellboy II: The Golden Army and seeing his credits at this website makes me think about what a gold mine Mignola has found.
I saw the original Hellboy and I was struck by the fact at the time I could enjoy this film as an action/adventure and the tongue in cheek humor that is prevalent throughout. A lot of that is due to the fact that Mignola was apparently given a free hand to bring his comic book creation to life on the big screen. A lot is also due to Ron Perlman and the marvelous character he creates beneath all that demon makeup.
Hellboy is brought to life by the son of Rasputin the Mad Monk in the final days of World War II. Rasputin being the good royalist he is, finds work with the Nazis who are now down to using black magic to pull out a victory. Adolph Hitler was known in fact to delve into the occult.
Anyway their experiments produce an infant demon plucked from the spirit world, but he's rescued by John Hurt who raises him like a son and he grows up to be butt-kicking demon Ron Perlman who's grown to like such earthly pleasures as beer and cigars.
Hurt functions as the Obi Won Kenobe of this piece and when he's killed, there ain't no stopping Perlman.
Hellboy is rollicking good fun, Hellboy II is even better and I'm sure we've got a Hellboy, III in our future.