Hellboy (12a)

DVD Features and Information:

Tagline: Give Evil Hell

Blurb: As dark forces gather to hasten the apocalypse, Hellboy fights fire with fire in this mind blasting supernatural action-adventure from the visionary director of Blade 2. Based on the celebrated Dark Horse comic books, (www.darkhorse.com)

Running Time: 1 hour 57 minutes aprox.

Special Features:

Disc 1:

Feature length wide screen movie

Video introduction by director

4 short films, "From the Den: Hellboy recommends"

8 set visit featurettes

8 branching DVD comics

Cast commentary

Hellboy storyboard track

Disc 2:

27 part documentary: Hellboy: The seeds of creation

4 featurettes including introduction by Selma Blair

Multi-angle storyboard comps of Kroenan's lair

Deleted scenes with optional commentary

Character biographies

Photo montage video

TV spots

Rated: 12 "Contains moderate fantasy violence and horror"

Languages: English and Italian

Subtitles: Bulgarian ; Croatian ; Czech ; English ; Greek ; Hindi ; Hungarian ; Icelandic ; Italian ; Polish ; Romanian ; Serbian ; Slovenian ; Turkish

Released: October 19th 2004

Director: Guillermo Del Toro, (Blade 2)

Main Actors:

(For a full list of all credited and un-credited actors try www.imdb.com)

Ron Perlman - Hellboy, (Blade 2)

John Hurt - Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm, (Valiant and the Skeleton Key)

Selma Blair - Liz Sherman, (Legally blonde and the Sweetest Thing)

Rupert Evans - John Myers, (Fingersmith TV series)

Karel Roden - Grigori Rasputin, (Blade 2 and Bourne Supremacy)

Jeffrey Tambor - Tom Manning, (Loads of TV, check out www.imdb.com)

Doug Jones - Abe Sapien, (The Time Machine and Men in Black 2)

Review:

I love comics. I am a big kid, I'll see a comic and I just have to have it. I also love comic adaptations and this is the BEST ever!

Hellboy is not your normal super hero. He is not a human with super powers or even a mutant, he is some kind of big red creature from Hell and he rocks. Ron Perlman should win every movie award going for his exceptional performance as Hellboy. His only "super" powers are the fact that he is HUGE and has a giant stone arm. He kicks butt with attitude and style. He is also sensitive and witty; his stream of one-liners had me in stitches throughout the film as does the overall portrayal of Human society and how we treat outsiders.

Selma Blair is also great as Liz Sherman, (I love how normal her name is), Hellboy's on-off girlfriend and preternatural side-kick. She bursts into flames when emotionally stressed before learning to control her "powers" to save the world.

All the actors were great in this film and when the whole cast excels themselves it can only be down to one thing excellent casting and a superb director. Guillermo Del Toro directed Blade 2, which was fantastic, and has done an even better job here. He reputedly turned down the offer to direct a Harry Potter film to bring Hellboy to the Silver screen.

There are too many awesome scenes in this movie to single any out so just watch it as soon as you can. It isn't really scary and even has the big, red guy saving kittens from Hellspawn!

This film has all the action you could ever need from big red super dudes to fiery kick ass gals; from hellspawn and Undead Clockwork Nazis to sentient fish people!! Oh and there are explosions and sparks flying and ninjas. I love it!!

All in all, this is my favourite ever film and the DVD has so many excellent features that it is well worth buying. There are 4 cartoons on the DVD called Gerald McBoing Boing about a little boy who can't say words but says "Boing Boing" instead, which are great.

The soundtrack is good too with the aforementioned cover of "down with the sickness" by Richard Cheese. If you have never heard Richard Cheese check out www.richardcheese.com, you'll be glad you did!

Hellboy - When I found out that they were making a film about another Marvel character, I thought that they were just going to waste the idea of Hellboy but I was pleasantly suprised. I think they choose a good actor to play him as it looks quite like the comic book character. I liked that they said that it was Hitler who had wanted the portal to be opened at the start and that the bad guy with dust for blood was his top assassin. Overall it's a good film with great special effects.

Hellboy - Another super hero film to grace the big screen. Should we rejoice? Absolutely. Hellboy is unlike any other super hero film on the market, and holds its head up high in the comic book universe.

Hellboy, played by the notoriously badass Ron Perlman (Blade 2, Alien Resurrection), portrays so many human emotions and problems that you just can't help but ask: what the hell is Spidey moaning about??!! From his tendency to leave the underground facility to which he is confined, to his love for Selma Blair's character, Hellboy makes it so much more believable and humane, despite his horns and tail. He's good at what he does (fighting demons), but he'd rather be doing something else.

Liz, played by Selma Blair, is a firestarter who has troubles keeping the flames under control. Her character, despite the enormous potential for more action, stays relatively quiet throughout the film. Weak supporting cast? Maybe, but it definitely leaves potential for a kick-butt sequel.

The story itself revolves around an ancient creature (s) who has been trapped in outer space (at least that's what it looks like) for centuries, even millenia.

During World War 2, a group of Nazis, led by Rasputin, tries to free the creature and unleash it onto Earth. Unfortunately for them, an allied platoon led by a paranormal investigator thwarts their plans. They then find a baby demon that has accidentally been transported onto Earth during the ritual, and they name him Hellboy (what, they couldn't think of a normal name?).

Jump to present day Earth, and a mysterious Nazi cult group consisting of an attractive yet ruthless immortal blonde German (phew), and a masked skinny German with two blades succeeds in resurecting Rasputin who died during the raid decades ago. From then all, all hell breaks loose and it's up to Hellboy and his gang to stop the menace once and for all.

A very dark and entertaining movie that also manages to tickle your funny bone, Hellboy refrains iteself from acting 'cool' and 'suave' and does something that X-Men and Daredevil failed at: deliver a proper 'movie'. Harsh words, but true in every sense. However, if you enjoyed X-Men and Daredevil thoroughly, you may not enjoy this. It's a totally different breed of superhero films.

Hellboy - The make up is good, but the Computer Generated Graphics leave something to be desired. If you just want to be entertained with a run of the mill but fun film, its fine. Enjoy the time, and enjoy the fact that at least the film does not take itself seriously.