Hellboy

Day 277 - 10/4/09 - Movie #277

BEFORE: I've been meaning to watch this one for a while - it's based on the Dark Horse comic book of the same name by Mike Mignola, who I've met several times at various Comic-Cons. I've read a few issues of the comic over the years, but not from the beginning, so I've always felt a little out of the loop, perhaps that will change tonight.

THE PLOT: A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

AFTER: No, I still feel like I didn't fully grok this one. Now I'm wishing I had read more issues of the comic book before watching the movie. I get that Hellboy is a demon, and that he doesn't act like a typical demon, since he was raised on Earth. But the stuff with the villain trying to summon the Elder Gods (which look like giant squids floating in space) was way over my head.

Hellboy works for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, an FBI-type organization created at the time of World War II in response to Hitler's interest in the occult. So it's like "X-Files" crossed with "Raiders of the Lost Ark", except the main character is a demon. And in addition to the seemingly-ageless Rasputin and a few leftover Nazis, the other villains are straight out of the movie "Predator".

It's really tough for me to judge this film, since it's such a mish-mash of other movies and ideas - it's visually striking, sure - and Ron Perlman is perfectly cast as the square-jawed Hellboy. But I don't know if there was enough storyline (that which I understood, anyway). I'd like to reserve most of my comments until I watch the sequel tomorrow night - maybe they just had to spend time introducing the characters in this film, and the story suffered a little.

With Selma Blair, John Hurt, and Jeffrey Tambor - and that HAD to be David Hyde-Pierce as the voice of Abe Sapien, even though he wasn't listed in the credits. Yep, IMDB confirms it. He's another actor who I met years ago, back when I was a young production assistant - and he was in a short video (made in 1990, in the early days of Hi-Def) that was a relationship farce set completely in an elevator. At the time he was starring in "The Heidi Chronicles" on Broadway - and though I have no proof of this, I do recall mentioning to someone on the set how much he resembled Kelsey Grammer. I said that if they were ever casting for Frasier's brother on "Cheers", he would be the one to call. I guess I wasn't the only one who saw the resemblance, because obviously he was cast in that exact role on the "Frasier" show a few years later.

RATING: 6 out of 10 Baby Ruth bars

SPOOK-O-METER: 2 out of 10 (a couple demon-fights, but nothing outrageously scary)