(Herald rating * *)
In the dying days of World War II, the Nazis open a portal to the dark side and summon the Seven Gods of Chaos, the second leg of the double after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Fortunately the good ol' boys from the US Army, with help from President Roosevelt's personal psychic, Dr Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt), manage to stop 'em.
Well, almost: a little red baby with horns and a tail slips through the portal. The kindly professor will raise him to be our planet's Secretary of Defence against the evil ones. And the Nazis' psychic, Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden), who we stupidly thought had been assassinated in Moscow in 1916, goes the other way.
Fast-forward to the present. A couple of Bruttenholm's old enemies, Ilsa (Bridget Hodson) and Kroenen (Ladislav Beran), have summoned Rasputin back to our side of the portal. With the assistance of a bizarre creature sprung from his prison inside an ancient statue, they will plot to take over the Earth.
Old, dying Bruttenholm, Hellboy (Ron Perlman as the basketballer-sized, red-suited, devil-tailed adoptee) and their best mate, the fishboy Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) are our only hopes.
As you've twigged by now, this big-screen adaptation of a Mexican comic book series is completely loopy and, almost unintentionally, sometimes almost funny.
But frankly, if you've got over two hours to spend watching this movie at this time of year, you should seriously consider getting a life.
The two-disc set bounces off quite a few walls, too. Apart from the expected, such as commentaries from director Guillermo Del Toro and the comic book creator, Mike Mignola, or the actors, there are screen cues that can take you to the comic book version, the movie set or storyboards, plus Hellboy's favourite viewing, Dr Seuss' 1950s Gerald McBoing Boing cartoons and James Mason's animated version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart.
The level of detail in the production features is frightening. Unless you want to exist in this parallel universe ...
DVD, rental video Out now
Hellboy
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