Hellboy

Theatrical Release Date: 2004 04 02 (USA)

UPC: 043396112803

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Sci-Fi Violence]

Summary: Mike Mignola's acclaimed comic book series about a creature from Hades who joins the battle against evil arrives on the screen in vivid form in this adaptation directed by distinctive horror filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. During World War II, the Third Reich has joined forces with the evil Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden), who has used his occult powers to summon up a young demon from the depth of Hell to be used as the ultimate Axis weapon. However, the demonic creature is captured by American forces, and put in the care of Professor Broom (John Hurt), the founder of a top-secret organization called the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Under Broom's tutelage, the creature develops empathy and a desire to do good while his physical powers and paranormal talents are honed to a fine point. Sixty years later, the demon, now known as Hellboy (Ron Perlman), is part of an elite secret defense team alongside Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a beautiful young woman who can create fire with her mind, and Abe Sapian (Doug Jones), an aquatic humanoid with the power of telepathy. Despite his many years of fighting for right, Hellboy finds himself facing his greatest challenge when the powerful Rasputin returns, determined to bring the demon back to the forces of darkness so that evil may finally rule the world. Hellboy's supporting cast also includes Jeffrey Tambor, Rupert Evans, and Brian Steele. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Fantasy

Features: Full-length movie
Widescreen presentation
DVD picture quality

Hellboy

Format: Universal Media Disc

Release Date: 04/19/2005

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: 2 PCM stereo

Runtime: 132 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,Spanish,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Jeremy Wheeler

Completely original and stunningly realized, Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy is a masterstroke of awe-inspired entertainment that sparkles with bold storytelling that dares to go where no monster movie has gone before. Adapted from the original Hellboy comic miniseries The Seed of Destruction, the film takes creator Mike Mignola's dynamic graphic style and molds it into its own cinematic marvel, using a color palette that explodes around one of the strangest lead characters ever brought to the screen. However dark his origins might be, Hellboy (as brilliantly embodied by Ron Perlman) fits the American action-hero role to a T; full of witty one-liners and the first to fearlessly jump into the fray, the character is immediately personable and a perfect fit for the kind of bigger-than-life heroes to which people have flocked for years. What's wonderful, too, is that there's an incredible amount of heart to this beast -- in fact, to the whole film. When the movie's not wowing you with its stellar production design or thrilling you with its wall-to-wall action, the filmmakers have instilled real emotion into a story line that, for all good measure, probably wouldn't have been this juicy if it were not for del Toro. Bringing a loving humanity to each of this film's strange clique of characters isn't something that any storyteller would just pull out of their hat for a flick like this, which is all the more reason to soak it up here. For your buck, you not only get over-the-top action, but also a comical adventure that's based around a gothic tale of love and belonging (oh yes, with a whole lot of Lovecraftian horror for good measure). If that sounds like a little too much, don't worry, because all of those pieces only fit together only for the sake of pleasing you, the viewer. With a genuinely quirky score from Marco Beltrami that thankfully strays far away from Danny Elfman's recent cut-and-paste superhero jobs, Hellboy in every way looks, feels, and sounds completely different from anything else out there. If ever Hollywood had the cards stacked against it while selling a comic book idea to general audiences, this is it. The fact that it works is unbelievable. The fact that it's as fun as it is makes it that much more satisfying. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Bob Sherman  Actor 
Tara Hugo  Actor 
Emilio Navarro  Actor 
Justin Svoboda  Actor 
Pavel Cajzl  Actor 
Bettina Ask  Actor 
Petr Sekanina  Actor 
William Hoyland  Actor 
Andrea Miltner  Actor 
Albert May  Actor 
Guillermo del Toro  Actor 
Ellen Savaria  Actor 
Bridget Hodson  Actor 
Charles Grisham  Actor 
Santiago Segura  Actor 
Monty L. Simons  Actor 
John William Johnson  Actor 
Alvaro Navarro  Actor 
Ales Kosnar  Actor 
Richard Haas  Actor 
Rory Copus  Actor 
Winter Ave Zoli  Actor 
Jo Eastwood  Actor 
Jeremy Zimmerman  Actor 
Jan Holicek  Actor 
Andrea Stuart  Actor 
Daniel Aarsman  Actor 
Mille Wilkie  Actor 
Mark Taylor  Actor 
Lawrence Gordon  Producer 
Lloyd Levin  Producer 
Patrick Palmer  Executive Producer 
Guillermo del Toro  Director 
Guillermo del Toro  Screenwriter 
Mike Richardson  Producer 
Marco Beltrami  Composer (Music Score) 
Jules Roman  Executive Producer 
Buck Sanders  Producer 
Cheryl Bainum  Executive Producer 
Keith Bryant  Producer 
Luke O'Byrne  Executive Producer 
Alonzo Ruvalcaba  Executive Producer 
Marc Sadeghi  Executive Producer 
Jeff Barnes  Executive Producer 
Ron Perlman  Actor 
John Hurt  Actor 
Selma Blair  Actor 
Rupert Evans  Actor 
Karel Roden  Actor 
Jeffrey Tambor  Actor 
Doug Jones  Actor 
David Hyde Pierce  Actor 
Brian Steele  Actor 
Ladislav Beran  Actor 
Biddy Hodson  Actor 
Corey Johnson  Actor 
Kevin Trainor  Actor 
Brian Caspe  Actor 
James Babson  Actor 
Stephen H. Fisher  Actor 
Garth Cooper  Actor 
Angus MacInnes  Actor 
Jim Howick  Actor 

Country: USA