Brian Caspe, Corey Johnson, Doug Jones

Born in the flames of hell and brought to earth to perpetrate evil, Hellboy was rescued from sinister forces by the benevolent Professor Broom, who raised him to be a hero. In Dr. Broom's secret Burea...( read more  read more... )u of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), Hellboy creates an unlikely family consisting of the telepathic "Mer-Man" Abe Sapien, and "Pyrokenetic" Liz Sherman, the woman he loves who can control fire. Hidden from the very society that they protect, they stand as the key line of defense against an evil madman who seeks to reclaim Hellboy to the dark side and use his powers to destroy mankind.

Flixster Users

63% liked it

255,134 ratings

Critics

80% liked it

188 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 52 min.

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Release Date: April 2, 2004

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DVD Release Date: July 27, 2004

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Flixster Reviews (18,879)


  • September 16, 2009
    Guillermo del Toro lovingly brings Hellboy to the big screen. It's visually stunning and stays very true to the comic and its characters. Getting Ron Perlman to play Hellboy is probably the best bit of casting in the history of cinema! One of the better comic adaptations of recen...( read more)t years!
  • August 29, 2009
    not on par with the follow up but still very imaginative as is to be expected from guillermo del toro. probably actually one of his weaker movies which says alot as it's a damned fine effort. the slapstick comedy moments are a nice touch
  • July 18, 2009
    A well made sci fi comic book adaptation. The effects, make up, Pearlman, Hellboy and action is all topps, faultless. Just the usual problem, its again aimed towards the younger audience and loses out. It should be much darker and more gorey really, but Pearlman is just too good ...( read more)here for it to collapse.
  • April 21, 2009
    Normally, with dialog this stunning, I turn the movie off and switch over to Turner. But because it's Guillermo del Toro, I wanted to "see" the whole thing. This is definitely an interesting visual piece. For that alone, it's worth watching. The story is shaky, however, and r...( read more)eally, the dialogue is not stellar. But I enjoyed the visual aspects enough that I'm going to seek out HBII.
  • March 14, 2009
    Hellboy: "I hate those comic books. They never get the eyes right."

    The original comic-book superheroes were mythic projectiles launched straight out of the id. Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man embodied such essential facts of adolescent life as the nerd's desire to be st...( read more)rong, and the hidden dark side of courage. The new comic-book crime fighters still give vent to those feelings, but as characters they often appear to be based less on human drives than on... previous comic-book superheroes. Their powers may differ, but their ''identities'' are a bit like Xerox copies; you could call just about any of them X-Men.

    Photobucket

    Take, for instance, the title character of Hellboy, a likably squirmy special-effects zapfest based on Mike Mignola's popular series of Dark Horse graphic novels. Hellboy, as played by Ron Perlman, is a tall, indestructible battler of evil, a thickly muscled humongo freak with skin as red as tandoori chicken. Born - literally - as a devil (he emerged, as a cute baby demon, through an underworld portal at the end of WWII), Hellboy has spent the years in virtual lockdown at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, where he's a prisoner of his mutant physique and - on those occasions when he's allowed out - his clandestine role as evil-basher. He still has his snapping tail, but he keeps his two thick horns shaved all the way down to his forehead; it's his way of trying to look ordinary - and, more tellingly, of suppressing his demonic nature in order to do good.

    Perlman, who, coincidence or not, starred in the 1987 TV series ''Beauty and the Beast" as... the beast, has been given oversize teeth, muttonchop sideburns, and a samurai top-knot, and his jawline and brow have been built up to look even more thick-boned than they already are. Yet his performance is anything but heavy. Chomping on a stogie as he spits out epithets like ''Aw, crap,'' he plays Hellboy with the airy, cynical shrug of a guy who will take down any menace, trash any monster, because somebody's gotta do it. He battles leaping, snorting creatures that look like oversize digital warthogs with tentacles, but his charm is that he goes about it as casually as a repairman. Those shaved horns look like work goggles.

    He has also been stitched together, like Frankenstein's monster, out of old familiar images and concepts. In essence, Hellboy is the Hulk with rosier skin tones and the ability to talk - at this point, a welcome quality in a magnum-lug superhero. Suited up for action in his leather trench coat, wielding a colossal, stone-like right hand that might have been transplanted from the Thing in Fantastic Four, Hellboy struts through danger zones like a Schwarzenegger commando. But he's a rippling demon Arnold with a tender soul. Staring at his fellow misfit Liz (Selma Blair), a lonely girl with pyrokinetic powers who is also enlisted by the BPRD, he says, ''I wish I could do something about this,'' waving a hand in front of his face. He's in the sensitive-brute tradition of outcasts like the Beast and the Hunchback of Notre Dame: a monster who's hurtin' inside because he's too ugly to be loved.

    Hellboy is directed by Guillermo del Toro with a colourfully kinetic visual imagination that seldom lets up. Del Toro, the former art-house creep-meister turned megaplex fantasist, knows just how long to hold a shot of blood oozing through an ornate stone maze or ghouls flying through a ghostly museum so that we feel as if the sets and effects are serving the story rather than the other way around. He shows far more narrative finesse than was evident in such recent comic-book duds as Daredevil or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Perlman, acting under all that make-up, gives a performance of gruff sympathy that, at moments, comes close to wit. I've seen Hellboy three times so far and I enjoyed myself on every occasion, yet the film, a highly derivative compendium of geek dreams, is little more than a well-executed contraption. But you just can't help feeling all fuzzy and thrilled when you stumble across a flick this amusing and well-spirited.

    The Hellboy mythology is sprinkled with references to the Nazis, Rasputin, and other sinister forces of old. The film's most colourful bad guy is a former occult leader of the Third Reich who wears a metal plate on top of his disfigured face and whirls twin blades around with a zesty slash of finesse. He's supposed to be a spirit of malevolence ricocheting through the ages, but I just looked at him and thought, It's Darth Vader meets Wolverine (with less personality than either). That basic contradiction aside (that our hero is fighting ''metaphysical'' evil with pure, meaty brawn), Hellboy remains both an engaging and extremely fun film, and one of the best comic-book films since the trend became popular.

    Abe Sapien: "Remind me why I do this again.
    Hellboy: Rotten eggs and the safety of mankind.
    Abe Sapien: Ah!"
  • November 5, 2009
    its actually a decent movie
  • November 3, 2009
    Equis.. pero entretenida. Me gusta la chava.
  • November 2, 2009
    Great movie, it is good to see that good ole action star Rob Perlman is getting good roles.
  • October 31, 2009
    i thought this would be boring to watch..but i changed my mind after testing it to watch for a few minutes until i was done watching it. haha! nice movie!
  • October 30, 2009
    This movie was wonderfully made and superbly shit but unfortunately the script let down this film. It was action heavy and the story was unfocused. The character were not as developed as they could have been and the acting was pretty mediocre too.

Critic Reviews


May 4, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Del Toro's energized adventure has humor, excitement, and soul to burn. full review

April 3, 2004
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

This is the kind of movie you watch for its aura, for its appealing characters, for its marvelously sustained seriocomic romantic mood. full review

April 2, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Hellboy is one of those rare movies that's not only based on a comic book, but also feels like a comic book. It's vibrating with energy, and you can sense the zeal and joy in its making. full review

April 1, 2004
Claudia Puig, USA Today

A fiery action picture destined to please fans of other comics-turned-adventure flicks such as X-Men. The rest of us will find ourselves left out in the cold. full review

April 1, 2004
David Edelstein, Slate

It might be hell on earth, but in del Toro's hands it's schlock heaven. full review

April 1, 2004
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Hellboy is on fire with scares and laughs and del Toro's visionary dazzle. full review

April 1, 2004
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Faithful to its pulp roots and lacking the cumbersome self-seriousness of many a comic-book adaptation, Hellboy is, well, hellacious good fun. full review

April 1, 2004
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

A welcome change of pace from the senseless sensibilities of most Hollywood comic-book spectacles. full review

View more Hellboy reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • MurderCapital
    June 1, 2007
    Hellboy is not a Marvel Comic and the blue dude is Abe Sapian.
  • 21orangecreamsicles
    March 21, 2007
    OK first thing I have to say is, THIS MOVIE WAS F*CKING AMAZING!!! Seriously though. Yes, it's a Marvel Comic but the graphics of the movie are so amazing. Doug Jones is the best. I don't know his name in this film but i'll just call him the blue dude! Haha. Well this movie was amazing. :)
  • asiantribe
    December 16, 2006
    From the Dark Side to Our Side...
  • jbpelican
    August 9, 2006
    I liked this, one of those movies youve been meaning to hire for ages but never got around to it. That was me anyway. A good background movie for a 21'st party piss up.

    Justins Best Bit: The pyrokenisis of Hellboys girlfriend.

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Hellboy Trivia


  • In what movie does the lead actor saw his "horns" off?  Answer »
  • Which actress played Hellboy's love interest in Hellboy?  Answer »
  • Who is the actor who Played the lead in Hellboy?  Answer »
  • In Hellboy which one of Hellboys arms is bigger than the other?  Answer »

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