Hellboy
A few weeks ago, I was at SxSW for the Interactive festival.
Usually, I show up only for the film festival but this time I had very little time for the films which was rather unfortunate since there were a lot I wanted to see including Bush’s Brain, Supersize Me, Jersey Girl, Red vs Blue just to name a few.
I did have the opportunity to catch a few films though and one of them was Hellboy. I have Tom and my ex-coworker to thank for the last minute ticket they managed to nab. Fahad and Adam were right at the front of the “movie pass” line (keeping a place for me as well while I got piss drunk from celebrating). Unfortunately the line only starts moving after all the badge and ticket holders get in and that turned out to be a line that wrapper the block and went into the next block so they didn’t manage to get into the show in the end.
The movie was everything you’d expect from Guillermo Del Toro who, along with the star Ron “Hellboy” Perlman and creator Mike Mignola, were available for Q&A after the show. Like Blade 2, which he also directed, it shows that he’s a comic book fan and took a put of love and passion into the film.
I was really skeptical about the makeup they used for Perlman in the trailers. He just didn’t look that scary but my fears were unfounded. The role needed an actor, not a CG model. The expressions and one-liners added a lot even to (shockingly) character development.
I think I can say that the movie was best described as “fun”. It was a blast of a ride. I read a few issues of the Hellboy comic but am definitely not a hardcore fan of the series by any means. If anything, this movie has made me more of a fan. I’d say even if you don’t read comics but want a fun over the top action flick, this film is worth watching.
Some choice quotes from Del Toro:
“The thing that’s important is that I’ve almost lost enough weight to see my dick (laughter from audience) ok the thing that’s really important … not that that’s not important … ” – I don’t even remember what was the real real important thing.
Answering a question about whether he had any pressure from religious groups, “Not really. They were all too busy with Mel Gibson. Jesus Saves me again!”
