Hellboy: Director's Cut UMD-Video For PSP Review

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Title: Hellboy: Director’s Cut: UMD Video For PSP

Region: One

Genre: Superhero Gothic Fantasy Adventure

Stars: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, and John Hurt

Writer: Guillermo Del Toro

Screen Story By: Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Briggs

Based Upon The Dark Horse Comic Created By: Mike Mignola

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

Feature length: 132 minutes

Extras: Previews

Languages: English and French Language Stereo Sound

Subtitles: English Captions and Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Arabic Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep case

Chapter Stops: 28

Sound: Stereo Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2004/UMD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

In the 1940s, Gregory Rasputin attempted to bring forth the end of the world by releasing the Ogdru Jahad, ancient beings banished from the Earth many millennia ago. Rasputin believes that out of the destruction a new Eden will grow on Earth and the Nazis are desperate to enlist the help of the supernatural in order to win the Second World War. Fortunately, the ceremony was interrupted and the Ogdru Jahad was unable to escape their imprisonment. However something did get through the gate in the form of little red boy with tiny horns and a red tail. Dubbed “Hellboy” (Ron Perlman), for the last sixty years, he has assisted the Bureau of Paranormal Research headed by his father figure, the benevolent Doctor Broom (John Hurt), with stopping occult threats. Along with various agents and weapons designed to defeat evil creatures that do not succumb to mortality easily, Hellboy travels with Abe Sapien, an aquatic humanoid of unknown origin with telepathic abilities. Though Hellboy is old by human calculations, he’s aged both mentally and physically into an enormous muscle-bound young man in his twenties. He is in love with the beautiful Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a woman who has the ability to create and manipulate fire spontaneously. When a new agent (Rupert Evans) is assigned to assist and watch over Hellboy, the big guy becomes jealous and resentful of him because he thinks Liz might fall for him. However things are even more complicated with Doctor Broom being secretly diagnosed as being terminally ill and the evil forces that tried destroying the world once before are about to try it again.

“Hellboy” is a nice mix of H.P. Lovecraft inspired dark fantasy and comic book hero adventure with excellent special effects and makeup by Rick Baker. I have never read the Dark Horse comic book created by Mike Mignola so I cannot note how faithful it is to the source materials, but coming into the film little to no knowledge of the series, I still found “Hellboy” to be an engaging experience that actually gets better with repeated viewing. The first time I saw it I was a little confused, but I still enjoyed the film. Del Toro’s screen direction seems to be very solid and the framing is particularly interesting. According to the filmmakers, the actual comic inspired much of the shots in the film. I hesitate to compare this film with other big screen comic book adaptations because it really is different in so many ways from the normal superhero action picture. Some elements here and there reminded me of certain films, but again I think “Hellboy” really stands well on it’s own merits for what it is and for the most part it doesn’t simply rely on eye candy to get the film going. The actors do pretty well with makeup and effects and there is a certain sympathy that comes through here and there that yields a more three-dimensional quality to both the characters and mythology of the film. It is also very clear that Del Toro was passionate about this project, which he developed for seven years. The UMD-Video version of the film contains the Director’s Cut, which is approximately ten minutes longer than the theatrical version.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment ‘s UMD-Video version of “Hellboy” is highly detailed with a beautiful anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio presentation. The colors are very lush and there is no hint of artifacts at all. While watching the film on the Sony Playstation Portable, my brother dropped by with a brand new portable DVD player he purchased in Manhattan. I did a direct comparison between the UMD and the DVD and found that the UMD was darker, but far more detailed than the DVD counterpart. The aspect ratio size given the compact size of the PSP was exactly the same because the portable DVD player has a 4 by 3 screen that letterboxed the image down to the exact dimensions of the 16 by 9 screen on the PSP. Even my brother agreed that the picture on the UMD-Video was better than the DVD and more solid too. A well-rounded and at times quite aggressive English Stereo Soundtrack is included along with a French Language Stereo Soundtrack and English Captions for the hearing impaired as well as Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Arabic Language Subtitles encoded as options.

Preview trailers for “xXx” and “Spider-Man 2” are also present on the UMD, but there are no bonus features related to the film at all. The interactive menus are fully animated with motion transitions and are easy to navigate. For a great movie to watch while on the road, “Hellboy: Director’s Cut” is a must-own UMD-Video for the Sony PSP that is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

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