HELLBOY
September 8th 2009 02:42
Category: Videos
Based on the Dark Horse Comic by; Mike Mignola
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Screenplay by: Guillermo Del Toro
Producers: Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson & Lloyd Levin
Starring: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman), John Hurt (Professor Trevor Bruttenholm), Karel Roden (Grigori Rasputin), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien), Jeffery Tambor (Dr Tom Manning), Rupert Evans (Agent John Myers), Brian Steel (Sammael), Ladislav Beran (Kroenen), Bridget Hodson (Ilsa) & Corey Johnson (Agent Clay)
Produced by: Revolution Studios in association with Dark Horse Entertainment
Released by Columbia Pictures
Running Time: 117 minutes Rating: M 15
It all begins with the Second World War and a group of Nazi occultists from the Thule Society undertaking some kind of super science experiment on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. The year is 1944 and things are looking very bleak for the Third Reich, in the east the Russians are literally knocking on the gates of Berlin whilst in the West everything is gearing up for the biggest seaborne invasion in the history of the world which will no doubt be the final nail in the coffin. So Hitler is looking for a miracle, something that his generals and secret police have been unable to do, enter Grigori Rasputin, the infamous Mad Monk of the early twentieth century Russia. He intends to do what Hitler’s generals and goons have been unable to do, deliver a bona fide miracle – namely unleashing the Ogdru Jahad, the seven gods of chaos. Which is why the Third Reich has its men engaged in an operation on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, the island in particular sits at a nexus point of mystical energy making it the perfect spot for unleashing all manner of occult and otherworldly mayhem. Some things are not meant to be known by man and some doors are best left shut, obviously the Third Reich and Rasputin do not subscribe to these particular tenets.
They also obviously never read the poetry of Robbie Burns either, as their plan to rain down hellfire and damnation comes swiftly agley in a truly catastrophic manner. Enter Professor Broom, a young scholar versed in esoteric matters and acting as an advisor on said matters to no less an individual than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with a team of American GI’s Broom has snuck onto the island where the dread and unholy ritual is about to occur that will unlock catastrophic forces if the Nazi’s succeed. Fortunately for the world at large the GI’s and Professor Broom thwart the Mad Monk, but even though the doorway is only briefly open something does manage to come through, a rather small red humanoid something. And that red humanoid is the being who becomes christened Hellboy, the hero of this flick and the adopted child of Professor Broom.
On one level this is a fairly straight forward action/horror drama where the very fate of the world rests in the hands of its somewhat unusual and ordinary protagonists and on another level it is a film very much about the identity of an individual and the fact that it is the choices we make that defines us, not our outward appearances or places of origin be they downtown Hicksville or the infernal realms. And finally it is also a film that uses the old maxim that sometimes our past does come back to haunt us in a very unpleasant way. But at the end of the day the most important thing about any film regardless of its message or the multi faceted intricacy of its plot and themes is whether or not it was entertaining. Audience enjoyment frankly has to count for something in the grand scheme of things and if a film is a well made production but has the entertainment quotient of watching grass grow then unfortunately for my way of thinking it is not a good film.
After the initial moments set in World War Two Scotland the film moves to the present day, to the contemporary world and where the character known as Hellboy has become something of an urban legend along with the organisation he is said to work for; the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence (B.P.R.D). Created by the order of FDR and headed by Professor Broom the BPRD investigates the things that go bump in the night and should such things prove threatening and or hostile it bumps right back. Our faithful protagonist is the main weapon and operative in the Bureaus efforts to defend the world and an unsuspecting humanity from such horrors. Not it seems that the very event that saw to the creation of both the Bureau and the advent of Hellboy is about to come back and bite the world in the backside.
Remember Rasputin and the ritual to unleash the inhuman blasphemous entities known as the Ogdru Jahad, those seven gods of chaos? It seems that the former mad monk has more lives than the proverbial cat, but then again his minions Ilsa and Kroenen also have weathered the years quite well. So well in fact that they travel to Birgau Pass in Moldavia (passing nod to Dracula here) and resurrect their mentor from whatever infernal realms his spirit has been wandering. This feat accomplished, with the demise of the guide who lead to the location, the trio they make plans to restart what they had initially began on that storm wracked and GI party crashed night all those many years ago, the end of the world as we know it. But in order for everything to succeed they must somehow lure Hellboy into their clutches, he is quite literally the very key that they need in order to effectively unleash the seven gods of chaos and bring about all manner of doom, hellfire and destruction upon the world. It obvious that this trio don’t believe in doing anything halfway; and it seems that they certainly have the budget to do it as well.
Hellboy is an entertaining film with a well worked out back-story and plots that keep the action rolling along at a reasonable pace. It has moments of horror, terror, action, pathos, romance and humour and it never gets bogged down as its drama unfolds. There is nothing worse than when a film hits a point that just seems to drag on and on without let up, something I noticed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, there was a point in that feature that just was so painfully drawn out, like having a tooth pulled without the benefit of anaesthetic. Fortunately there are no such moments in Hellboy, if you get a chance to rent or even buy it, it’s going fairly cheap in the video shops, take the time out to give it a go if you are a horror/action fan. If not then I suggest the chick flick shelves or morbid senseless soap opera vaults…
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Screenplay by: Guillermo Del Toro
Producers: Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson & Lloyd Levin
Starring: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman), John Hurt (Professor Trevor Bruttenholm), Karel Roden (Grigori Rasputin), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien), Jeffery Tambor (Dr Tom Manning), Rupert Evans (Agent John Myers), Brian Steel (Sammael), Ladislav Beran (Kroenen), Bridget Hodson (Ilsa) & Corey Johnson (Agent Clay)
Produced by: Revolution Studios in association with Dark Horse Entertainment
Released by Columbia Pictures
It all begins with the Second World War and a group of Nazi occultists from the Thule Society undertaking some kind of super science experiment on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. The year is 1944 and things are looking very bleak for the Third Reich, in the east the Russians are literally knocking on the gates of Berlin whilst in the West everything is gearing up for the biggest seaborne invasion in the history of the world which will no doubt be the final nail in the coffin. So Hitler is looking for a miracle, something that his generals and secret police have been unable to do, enter Grigori Rasputin, the infamous Mad Monk of the early twentieth century Russia. He intends to do what Hitler’s generals and goons have been unable to do, deliver a bona fide miracle – namely unleashing the Ogdru Jahad, the seven gods of chaos. Which is why the Third Reich has its men engaged in an operation on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, the island in particular sits at a nexus point of mystical energy making it the perfect spot for unleashing all manner of occult and otherworldly mayhem. Some things are not meant to be known by man and some doors are best left shut, obviously the Third Reich and Rasputin do not subscribe to these particular tenets.
On one level this is a fairly straight forward action/horror drama where the very fate of the world rests in the hands of its somewhat unusual and ordinary protagonists and on another level it is a film very much about the identity of an individual and the fact that it is the choices we make that defines us, not our outward appearances or places of origin be they downtown Hicksville or the infernal realms. And finally it is also a film that uses the old maxim that sometimes our past does come back to haunt us in a very unpleasant way. But at the end of the day the most important thing about any film regardless of its message or the multi faceted intricacy of its plot and themes is whether or not it was entertaining. Audience enjoyment frankly has to count for something in the grand scheme of things and if a film is a well made production but has the entertainment quotient of watching grass grow then unfortunately for my way of thinking it is not a good film.
After the initial moments set in World War Two Scotland the film moves to the present day, to the contemporary world and where the character known as Hellboy has become something of an urban legend along with the organisation he is said to work for; the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence (B.P.R.D). Created by the order of FDR and headed by Professor Broom the BPRD investigates the things that go bump in the night and should such things prove threatening and or hostile it bumps right back. Our faithful protagonist is the main weapon and operative in the Bureaus efforts to defend the world and an unsuspecting humanity from such horrors. Not it seems that the very event that saw to the creation of both the Bureau and the advent of Hellboy is about to come back and bite the world in the backside.
Remember Rasputin and the ritual to unleash the inhuman blasphemous entities known as the Ogdru Jahad, those seven gods of chaos? It seems that the former mad monk has more lives than the proverbial cat, but then again his minions Ilsa and Kroenen also have weathered the years quite well. So well in fact that they travel to Birgau Pass in Moldavia (passing nod to Dracula here) and resurrect their mentor from whatever infernal realms his spirit has been wandering. This feat accomplished, with the demise of the guide who lead to the location, the trio they make plans to restart what they had initially began on that storm wracked and GI party crashed night all those many years ago, the end of the world as we know it. But in order for everything to succeed they must somehow lure Hellboy into their clutches, he is quite literally the very key that they need in order to effectively unleash the seven gods of chaos and bring about all manner of doom, hellfire and destruction upon the world. It obvious that this trio don’t believe in doing anything halfway; and it seems that they certainly have the budget to do it as well.
Hellboy is an entertaining film with a well worked out back-story and plots that keep the action rolling along at a reasonable pace. It has moments of horror, terror, action, pathos, romance and humour and it never gets bogged down as its drama unfolds. There is nothing worse than when a film hits a point that just seems to drag on and on without let up, something I noticed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, there was a point in that feature that just was so painfully drawn out, like having a tooth pulled without the benefit of anaesthetic. Fortunately there are no such moments in Hellboy, if you get a chance to rent or even buy it, it’s going fairly cheap in the video shops, take the time out to give it a go if you are a horror/action fan. If not then I suggest the chick flick shelves or morbid senseless soap opera vaults…
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