Hellboy

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and John Hurt. Rated 14A.

It's not easy being green. But try being red and seven feet tall, with a couple of hacked-off salamis sticking out of your forehead and a right arm like a tank muffler. Such is the challenge for an infant spawned by the Nazis as a stepchild of Satan and Rasputin the mad Russian monk, but raised by a kindly British scientist (John Hurt) who taught him to use his powers for good--for all the thanks he gets.

After a preamble explaining all this stuff (guess we missed the good days of history class), Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro's outrageously entertaining Hellboy takes us to present-day New Jersey, where unspeakable horrors are happening outside a hidden bunker. Underground, the scientist watches over his paranormal brood, including the grown Hellboy (Ron Perlman, in a kick-ass version of his Beauty and the Beast persona) and an agile fish person who can feel the past and future (the body of Doug Jones, matched by the voice of David Hyde Pierce).

Hellboy has settled into a routine of fighting crime, occasionally being sighted by the public, and being attacked by a venal politician (Jeffrey Tambor at his oily best) actually in on the game. Mostly, the big guy is pining away for gamine Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), whose spontaneous fire-starting abilities have sent her straight to the loony bin. But he's made of nonflammable materials, so what's the problem?

The problem is that Rasputin (Czech actor Karel Roden, from del Toro's Blade II) is back and looking considerably more buff than when he was clubbed, shot, stabbed, and drowned by the czar's police. He still has lingering resentments, though, and is currently being helped to unleash new evil, in the form of slimy, self-replicating creatures straight out of Aliens, by a Nazi nutcase who has altered himself through constant surgery--kind of a Michael Jackson, if you will, with fascistic killing skills.

All HB has going for him in this new battle is his cigar-chomping, devil-may-care (but probably not) attitude and fresh-faced FBI agent John Myers (Englishman Rupert Evans, playing American), newly assigned to his side. He's not big on sharing, however, and when Myers seems to take a dangerous shine to Liz, well, how much more is a crimson-skinned son of Hades expected to take?

None of this may seem designed for the Merchant-Ivory crowd, but in fact there's a soulfully literate feel to del Toro's adaptation (with coscripter Peter Briggs) of Mike Mignola's graphic-novel series. Other than the first Batman movie, it's hard to recall another effort that has so perfectly captured the vulgar poetry of the comic book. The combination of endlessly dazzling production design (mostly on Prague sets), CGI that doesn't take itself too seriously, and characters who stay grounded in genuine emotion makes the viewer feel like a kid and a grownup at the same time.

One warning, though: there are some continuity jumps near the end that must have resulted from about 15 minutes lost from the print's original release.

Comments