of Hellboy and secret windows

A movie like Hellboy almost never gets made - theoretically, the core audience is incredibly limited. I've only read a few of the early books; Dark Horse is one of those publishers that ensnared me with their Aliens, Predator and Star Wars licenses, and I rarely drifted far from that comfortable triumvirate. The first time I saw Mike Mignola's Hellboy on the racks in my local comic shop, I reacted with the typical disdain shown towards trendy books, having seen Jae Lee's Hellshock released a short time before and every other comic's current storyline seemed to be based around Hell, demons or some form of the occult underworld. I blame Toddy McFarlane and Image comics for this trend.

Mignola's artwork was murky, gritty and blocky; luckily, Guillermo Del Toro manages to capture these sentiments and put them to film in one of the most accurate comic book universe adaptations in recent memory. You can tell that Del Toro is extremely fond of the source material - he is a confessed fan of Mignola's character - but this ends up being detrimental to the overall experience. Having only rudimentary background information, I still felt left out when trying to understand the relationship between Liz and Hellboy deeper than the clichéd on-screen romance.

I found that the film was very tongue-in-cheek throughout, and reminiscent of the comedic take on the occult of Ghostbusters. Ron Perlman's Hellboy was fantastic, and had some laugh-oud-loud one-liners in the true spirit of the character. I think a lot of the good reviews are really referring to this performance, and maybe because it was developed from a comic and really did suprise people as I originally suspected.

If you've seen Del Toro's Blade II, you can expect action scenes of a similar quality. I was thoroughly unimpressed by the fighting onscreen in Hellboy - Kroenen's blades and Hellboy's Samaritan were oozing with cool-factor, but they hardly had a chance to be shown off. Rick Baker's amazing makeup effects do well to compensate for this lack of visual stimulation. Still, I think H.P. Lovecraft called and wants his demons back. I also felt that Sammael was not very threatening - or was is that I felt safe knowing that I was protected by a 7-foot tall demon-man who files his horns? The story was well executed, and Del Toro has crafted an extremely enjoyable film that is worth seeing whether you're a fan of comic books or not.

As an aside, check out Drew Struzan's limited edition poster - it's terrific, but strangely familiar. This poster never saw release in theatres, though it can easily be purchased online.

Hellboy was one of three movies we saw this past weekend at the local drive-in. We also managed to sit through Secret Window and 50 First Dates despite the sub-zero temperatures in my unheated car (no headlights allowed, you see). I'll try to make this as painless as possible: Johnny Depp proves once again his skills as an actor, pulling a superb performance out of an extremely tired plot contrivance. David Koepp is not a very original director - he should stick to writing. You might recognize his name from the Spider-Man credits, as he handled scripting duties for both the original and the upcoming sequel. I've never read the short story it was based on in Stephen King's Four Past Midnight, but I hear the story is constructed a lot better without giving away the resolution too early, and leaves less of a vacuous feeling in your head when the credits roll.

As for Sandler's latest attempt at romantic comedy, I felt like I was watching every other Sandler character: the cute smugness was slathered onto every scene, with Rob Schneider providing the predictable comic relief. I consider myself a fan, though, since I honestly believe that Happy Gilmore is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Regardless, I still couldn't help feeling that I've watched this all before, as The Wedding Singer had the same on-screen coupling and campy 80s soundtrack (50 First Dates' being that of the modern, crappily remixed variety). For $24 admission though, I call it a bargain. Laying down $28 for one movie and kicks in the back while having to listen to the snide remarks of vapid trendsters is hardly worth the price these days.

the black ink fuels our notions