I was first alerted to this movie by a work colleague back in 2004. He had taken his young son to see it and had actually enjoyed it. I thought the entire concept of a movie with the name "Hellboy" was absurd. It might as well have been called "Batgirl". It seemed stupid and I couldn't imagine anything with such a dumb name being worth watching. Straight to video! However, I was intrigued by my colleague's description because he was a gentleman I admire greatly and I know him to be a serious guy who wouldn't be impressed by any nonsense. If it was crap, he would have said so. Skip forward to the DVD release a year later sees me in Central Asia. I am standing in a TV store whilst my wife gets a mobile phone card. The TV's in the store are playing the end of Hellboy over and over - in Russian. It was the first time I had seen any of it. I was more intrigued. A few weeks later, back at home it finally arrived on Cable. So I finally made myself watch this movie. What a revelation. What entertainment. I watched it again and again until I could stand it no more. My good wife buys me the DVD for Christmas to put me out of my misery. Even now it gets regular reruns on Cable and, if there is nothing else on, I will tune in. So what is so great about this film? Who knows? It works a kind of magic on the audience. It completely creates the universe of the FBI's Center for Paranormal Research and Defence in a very convincing fashion. You are drawn in by the characters of Myers (Rupert Evans) and Liz (Selma Blair). Then there is Ron Perlman who I last remember as the space captain in one of the many Aliens movies. This role was made for him. He has the stature to pull it off. To think the studio wanted Vin Diesel to play Hellboy! Even side characters just fit right in: Doug Jones (Men in Black II) plays a painfully thin Abe Sapien, Jeffrey Tamboor (There's Something About Mary) as Tom Manning and Corey Johnson (The Mummy, Saving Private Ryan) as Agent Clay. John Hurt is certainly the star we have come to expect and lends the movie all the gravitas in his repertoire. Maybe you should always watch any movie that has John Hurt and Ron Perlman in it. A winning combination. What keeps you coming back to this story again and again are all those very human moments that pass between characters who, probably, aren't quite human. There is a moment when Professor Broom appears before Hellboy at the Library. Hellboy whisks his cigar behind his back like a naughty schoolboy. Watch and be damned! | 
