From Hell

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2008)

"In the coldest regions of space, the monstrous entities Ogdru Jahad -the Seven Gods of Chaos- slumber in their crystal prison, waiting to reclaim Earthand burn the heavens."
I wasn't and I'm not a follower of the comic book but back in 2004 I do had big desires to watch the Hellboy film so I invited my mom to the cinema since then nobody else had a big interest in the film of Guillermo del Toro (she liked it and for her was kind of cute to see the baby Hellboy). Since I found "Hellboy" as a very enjoyable, fast paced and terrific film, it doesn't took a lot time for me to get its DVD and just after I bought it I saw the film again, now with the entire family and since then I haven't seen it again, until today. The reason is obvious, you know getting in the mood and in the context before the sequel arrives but also to finally write a comment about it. Now I found the same terrific film that I remembered, practically because its release was just 4 years ago. Anyway, as I write I wasn't and I'm not a follower of the comic book and actually I have never read any complete comic of Hellboy so I'm going to write like I would have write in 2004, I mean as somebody who is realizing about all the mythology and knowing all the characters as the film goes.
The connections with our world this time are historical and involve the Nazis. The story begins in 1944 but Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) was in this "business" since long time ago and he has already been shoot, castrated, drowned, etc but there he was with the Nazis but there was also a small squad with the Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt) that could stop those plans but they could not stop the arrival of a demon to our world, a red baby with a really big arm who found in the Professor Trevor Bruttenholm a father; here is when this action film really begins.
Now there is the classic secret team with Hellboy (Ron Perlman), Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Abraham Sapien (Doug Jones) leaded by the Professor Trevor Bruttenholm but also there is John Myers (Rupert Evans), the classic new one on the business without any experience but with a good heart. Practically Rasputin and his partners (including the terrific character Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, played by Ladislav Beran) are back with the same objective and with a vengeance; Hellboy looks great and during the film he will be fighting with this Sammael aka Sammy in some great action sequences to finally be face to face with Rasputin and with his -apparent- destiny.
Cast: Perlman was the greatest choice in the cast and I'm just glad that both Guillermo del Toro and Mignola really fight to make Perlman Hellboy since the studio wanted the assh*le of Vin Diesel (somewhere I read that they were giving more budget to the sequel if Nicolas Cage replace Perlman, f*ck you said Guillermo del Toro). The great John Hurt is terrific as usual, the beautiful Selma Blair is also quite good and Doug Jones is perfect too as he was latter as the Fauno.
Conclusion: Great action, terrific story, fun stuff (thanks to Hellboy's attitude, sometimes punk rocker sometimes jealous) and after all a terrific comic book film. I'm more than ready for more so let's go to the cinema friends!!
Region 4 DVD: the special edition with two discs is very complete with a lot of great material including a -fantastic- 2 hours documentary (see Del Toro crying in front of a beautiful model of Abraham Sapien because "I'm ugly and fat" and "he's a f*cking god"), commentaries by Guillermo del Toro and Mignola, introduction to the film by Del Toro and to the disc 2 by Selma Blair and so many others to list them all. Great DVD!