Late in World War II the Nazis, in a desperate attempt to change the course of the war, conduct a ritual to bring forth a demon from hell that will bring about the end of the world and a new Eden. U.S. soldiers interrupt the ceremony and the demon is instead brought up by a professor of the paranormal as a monster fighter (along with others of unique backgrounds and gifts). Sixty years later, those who birthed Hellboy are back for him and the end of the world. I loved this movie! Loved it! For anyone who is interested in history and cultural mythology and believes that movies, to some extent, are the telling of old tales in new ways (and some will become tomorrow's myths), "Hellboy" will definitely keep that belief alive. Not to mention it's simply just one exciting damn fine fun kick ass movie! There is not a weak performance (onscreen by actors or offscreen by crew) in this film. You do not have to be a fan of the comic to enjoy this movie. It's fantastic storytelling mix of family devotion, burgeoning love, acceptance of personal power, overcoming prejudice, sacrifice, with action, comedy, horror, comic book stylized evil and one of the eeriest bad guys ever to weld a knife, as well as one of the most intense (and well dressed) villains to ever threaten the earth. Ron Perlman has the lead and, as in the past, gives the excellent magic of make up artist Rick Baker life. He takes what would be for most actors stifling full make up and a weighty cumbersome costume and gives the audience a being with the flesh of a demon, the voice of a dark angel, the attitude of a blue collar worker, the humor of a college student, the mind of a professor, the heart of a young man in love, and the soul of a human being. Favorite line: "There are things that go bump in the night Agent Myers, make no mistake about that, and we are the ones who bump back." Favorite line spoken by Ron Perlman (a lot): "Awe, crap." Availability: VHS, DVD (2 disc special edition), DVD (3 disc director's cut), suggest: Amazon http://www.amazon.com, I have been purchasing from them for years, both new and used, and have had no problems. Please remember to check that the VHS/DVD is compatible with your country/region. I highly recommend getting both the 2 DVD special edition and the 3 DVD director's cut if only for the different commentaries that director Guillermo Del Toro does for each version (he'll get Best Director/Picture Oscars one day, right along with Best Screenplay, and there should also be a new category created due to his inspiration: Best Commentary). By Tressa Lee Breen Select
Moments from the Audio Commentaries of both DVD's This is what director Guillermo Del Toro and Hellboy comic creator Mike Mignola had to say on the Region 1 DVD 2 disc set audio commentary about working with Ron Perlman: GDT: This I love. That's a gesture that Ron came up with. (the "shoulder hitch" Hellboy does just after he has "fried Stinky"/killed Sammael in the subway). MM: That was great. GDT: He just used it along through the movie. I didn't tell him to do it. I didn't instruct him for months, nothing. He, he... let me take this moment to talk about Ron Perlman. He is absolutely the only actor who could've made this movie work. I think that other actors could've made it kind of work. In this case, I really, and Mike, Mike and I were so sure about this, and thankfully we found the support we needed with...Revolution Studios to go ahead with the actor we needed as opposed to having to cast a name. MM: Yeah, when Guillermo and I first met we literally both said 'I know who should play Hellboy' and we said 'Ron Perlman' at the same time, so it was a very good start to our first meeting. GDT: I think Ron has the, you know, the physique to do the character, that's for sure, but he also has the funniest and most perfectly timed comedy delivery. GDT: This is one of the most perfect deliveries Ron does in the movie. 'I'm on a mission.' You know, that's his choice, to look away from the kid. It was written that he looks at the kid and lies and says 'I'm on a mission' but the way he does it, and Ron constantly surprised me throughout the movie. His choices were so perfect... MM: We always knew Ron was perfect and I remember sitting up at Rick Baker's shop before Ron was in makeup, he was just getting a life cast or something done, and he was just telling telling stories, and you and I looking at each other and laughing because he was already Hellboy. Just sitting around being himself he was Hellboy, and yet, as much as I knew he was perfect I was still caught by surprise by his performance in the film, because there is so much subtle stuff that I never... I mean there are things in the script that made me nervous. I thought 'Is this going to be too..' well, the romance stuff always makes me nervous because I can't write that kind of stuff but the performance he did with that stuff is so so beautiful. * * * * This is what director Guillermo Del Toro had to say on the Region 1 DVD 3 disc Director's Cut audio commentary about working with Ron Perlman: "We migrated studios for many years because most of the studios didn't like the title page much less the screenplay. There were other reasons including the fact that both Mike and I and Rick Baker and his team, we all felt that Hellboy was Ron Perlman, and the fact that for us, Ron Perlman has always been a star and was a star in this movie, and I want to talk about him for a little bit, just for a touch. I met Ron eleven years ago when I was making 'Cronos' and preparing 'Cronos', and even back then I was already in awe of the guy. I wrote him a letter asking him to be in my movie, a movie that I had a very small budget for, to pay an actor like him. I think we paid him about five percent of the budget, to him, and it was a big effort to get him, and I wrote him a letter telling him that anyone who could do 'Quest For Fire' and the hunchback in 'The Name Of The Rose' and then do Vincent in the TV series 'Beauty And The Beast' was an actor with the range and the capacity for compassion in deformity and weirdness that I wanted to work with him. We met and like my grand great friendships, the friendship was sealed over food. I have gotten this fat because I have many friends and there are many meals shared with them. Ron and I went to an Indian Restaurant. I knew he was the actor to work for me because I said 'Would you mind if I start with dessert?' and he joined me in to having two desserts before we ordered the meal. Now, also to his credit, he asked me some questions about the character in 'Cronos' that were really intriguing and I loved him thinking about, and they were not postering questions, they were not questions trying to make him look intelligent. They were just absolutely the smart thing to ask about the character. One of them was, he asked me if the character worked in that factory, if you saw 'Cronos', what do they make in that factory, and I said to him that it's been so long that no one remembers. The factory has been going for so many decades they just make things but no one remembers what they make, and he accepted such a surreal Mexican explanation and a bond and a friendship was born. Also, Ron has something that most people don't value. To me, Ron Perlman is the Lon Chaney of the twenty-first century, and is an actor that not only knows how to wear make up and how to make the make up become alive. He is an actor that can be subtle in make up. He can do nuance in make up. Some great actors never get used to makeup. Some great actors are really good with it. Lawrence Olivier being one. Peter Sellers being another one, but, it is a gift. It's not something you train for. It's not something you can explain to somebody else as a performer. It's simply a gift and Ron has that gift in spades. Also, he has one of the most beautiful voices but he is capable of using it in a very colloquial way. He gave Hellboy that 'been there done that' sort of every day man quality and, you know, I wrote every piece of dialogue for Hellboy thinking of Ron. I knew his strengths, I knew what he was good at. One of those things being a very dry, extremely dry, almost sandpaper dry humor and I gave him a lot of that type of humor and sort of one liners that came out of the situation."
DVD
Many of the
HELLBOY comic books, plus "The Art of the Movie" by Guillermo
del Toro and for the UK & Europe Play.com is a good, reliable source with free delivery.
|
