Hellboy (2019) - Grisly reboot a mixed bag

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Near-pornographic red poster for Neil Marshall's Hellboy with a youth shorthand tagline, presumably attempting to engage the young male demographic

Hellboy is tasked with stopping giants in England, - and the blood queen Nimue.

 

Hellboy is written by Andrew Cosby (Haunted (2002, TV-series)) and directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers (2002)), based on the Dark Horse Comics character. It reboots the character on film after Guillermo del Toro's two Hellboy films (2004; 2008).

A shift in style from Del Toro's colorful universe, Marshall delivers a darker, dirtier and more adult - or more accurately; less child-friendly - vision in a film that will appeal to a smaller audience of mainly nerdy young males.

David Harbour (Black Widow (2021)) is good but hard to recognize in the title role under the heavy makeup and prosthetics, and Milla Jovovich (Zoolander 2 (2016)) and others are well cast in a strong ensemble that sees Stephen Graham (Help (2021, TV movie)) as a pig monster! 

Hellboy is weighed down by a so-so plot and an overload of CGI effects with especial attention given to very grim beasts and deaths. It is a wild gamble that doesn't fully pay off.

 

Related posts:
 

Hellboy character: Hellboy (2004) - Del Toro's super-antihero is a tiring blast

Neil Marshall: 2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

The Descent (2005) - Marshall's intensely claustrophobic cave horror  

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 55 mil. $

=  Big flop (returned 1.1 times its cost)

[Hellboy premiered 9 April (Israel; New York) and runs 121 minutes. Despite Del Toro being interested in making a 3rd film, the studio took the project in another direction. 11 companies and support bodies were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place from September - December 2017 in Bulgaria and the UK. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Shazam! and fellow new release Little, to a 12 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 21.9 mil. $ (39.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 10.4 mil. $ (18.9 %) and Russia with 3.8 mil. $ (6.9 %). Numerous stories of on-set conflicts, mostly between Marshall and the film's producers, has come to light, and Marshall later distanced himself from the film entirely, calling it "the worst professional experience of my light", the script "terrible" and further offered the eloquent insight, "You can't polish a turd." The film additionally made in excess of 11.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Marshall returned with The Reckoning (2020). Harbour returned in 4 TV and short credits prior to his feature return in Extraction (2020, VoD). Hellboy is rotten at 17 % with a 3.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hellboy? 

The Equalizer (2014) or, Mr. Swift Justice

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A simple, neat poster for Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer

  
Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen (2013)) made a great villain out of Denzel Washington (Flight (2012)) in his break-out movie, which also won Washington his Best Actor Oscar, tough crime drama masterpiece Training Day (2001). It escalated both of their careers and was also a landmark for African-Americans, as Washington was the first black man to take the Best Actor Oscar, although the fact that he got it for playing a despicable, violent, drug-taking, morally reprehensible character bothered some. This may be an indirect reasoning for the matching in this year's The Equalizer, in which Fuqua directs Washington again, but this time as a straight-as-an-arrow vigilante hero, making up or 'equalizing', if you will excuse the pun, their past misdemeanor in the African-American mirror of self-reckoning.

McCall is a tough, aging guy who is content with a job at the Home Depot, until his local acquaintance, a young woman who is a prostitute from an Eastern European country, gets in trouble with some nasty Russian hoodlums ...

The Equalizer isn't a societally relevant, troubling, groundbreaking film as Training Day was. Instead, it is a potent revenge thriller, based on a CBS TV-series (1985-89), where Washington hands it out to some really ugly Russians in Boston. For those of us who'll never tire of watching ugly Russian mobsters take beatings and some incidental bullets, Equalizer is a joy. - Most people who have experienced random violence will find it easy to revel in having a guy like Washington clean up the tables of rot which society can't manage by itself.
Richard Wenk (16 Blocks (2006)) has written the simple, solid script. Dissatisfied customers will claim that Equalizer is too much at times, - but I'll say they ordered the wrong dish. This dish is revenge, and that's gotta be cold, just as it is here.
The script's most satisfying turn in my opinion is its finale, SPOILER which is set inside the Home Depot where our hero works: As the militarized Russians enter the Home (Mart), they've sort of asked for what's coming, haven't they? Needless to say, such a location abounds with booby-trap materials...
The Equalizer first of all has bad-ass Washington going for it, and fans of the great will appreciate hit turn here, even if it isn't among his dramatically powerful films. The Equalizer is also a tad long at 131 minutes. - It doesn't have annoyingly superfluous passages but just takes its time telling its story. There's well-produced, fine, professional photography by Mauro Fiore (Avatar (2009)) and a good, tight, slightly Drive (2011)-reminiscent score by Harry Gregson-Williams (Deja Vu (2006)).

The nasty villain is played effectively by New Zealander Marton Csokas (Noah (2014)), who gave me goosebumps at least once. Happening young actress Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass (2010)) is alright as an imperiled prostitute; and David Harbour (Revolutionary Road (2008)) is great as a troubled corrupt cop.
The Equalizer is a vigilante movie with its heart in the right place. I liked the way that the film takes its time closing up shop as well, and finally I must say that I loved the last scene SPOILER of Washington in the American diner, answering some stranger's distress post on Craigslist, just because he can. The Equalizer is all about that guy. The good guy that we all hope is out there.

Watch the excellent trailer for the film here

Cost: 55 mil. $
Box office: 191.3 mil. $ and counting
= Big hit
[The Equalizer continued Washington's impressive box office sway in the US, where it opened first with a 35 mil. $ opening weekend and broke some records, including biggest R-rated September opening as well as becoming Fuqua's best weekend opening. The film has also made decent business abroad and Fuqua has announced interest in a sequel with writer Wenk, if Washington wants to...]

What do you think of The Equalizer?