Release Date:
Friday, April 2, 2004
Unlike most tights-wearing comic book heroes, Hellboythe cigar-chomping, tail-wagging, horn-filing freak smasher who decimates bad guys on instinctdoesnt care how good he looks stopping evil. Luckily, the makers of the effects-heavy romp, Hellboy, did.
After being seized from occult Nazis as a toddler, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) grows up within the FBI under the tutelage of Professor Broom (John Hurt), learning to use his freakishly large forearm and revolver (dubbed the Samaritan) for good. When his real father (Karel Roden) returns, flanked by a multiplying monster and ageless Nazi assassin, to claim his son for his destined purpose, ahem, all hell breaks loose. With a telekinetic love interest (Selma Blair) by his side, Hellboy finds himself having to smash, kick, and shoot his way out of one compromising position after another. But instead of an honorable action hero, Perlmans grouchy protagonist is just as eager to vanquish evil as you are to vanquish paperwork all day. The only flaws here involve HBs recycled one-liners, but the brisk-paced action eclipses any questionable dialogue until the battle between good and evil is settled. The grumpiest fictional hero since your drunken stepdad can now sit back and wait for his deserved sequel.
After being seized from occult Nazis as a toddler, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) grows up within the FBI under the tutelage of Professor Broom (John Hurt), learning to use his freakishly large forearm and revolver (dubbed the Samaritan) for good. When his real father (Karel Roden) returns, flanked by a multiplying monster and ageless Nazi assassin, to claim his son for his destined purpose, ahem, all hell breaks loose. With a telekinetic love interest (Selma Blair) by his side, Hellboy finds himself having to smash, kick, and shoot his way out of one compromising position after another. But instead of an honorable action hero, Perlmans grouchy protagonist is just as eager to vanquish evil as you are to vanquish paperwork all day. The only flaws here involve HBs recycled one-liners, but the brisk-paced action eclipses any questionable dialogue until the battle between good and evil is settled. The grumpiest fictional hero since your drunken stepdad can now sit back and wait for his deserved sequel.