Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

“Hellboy” Distributed by Summit Entertainment, 120 Minutes, Rated R, Released April 12, 2019: In the third live-action picture in the film franchise based on the character appearing in Dark Horse Comics, the medieval Blood Queen Nimue is resurrected from her grave to wreak havoc on the earth with her plague-like powers. Naturally, it’s up to Hellboy to save the day. Inspired by the moderate success of the original “Hellboy” in 2004 and its 2008 sequel, preparations for the third chapter began in 2014. But when most of the creative staff declined to return, the script by Andrew Cosby was tweaked a little and the project instead became a reboot, with the sledge-like countenance of character actor David Harbour replacing Ron Perlman as the title character. The film’s production reportedly quickly descended into chaos, with a continuing battle between director Neil Marshall and producer Lawrence Gordon regarding creative control of the Hellboy character and the picture’s artistic direction. Along the way, cinematographer Sam McCurdy and others in the picture’s creative staff were fired and replaced, and the script was continually re-written mid-filming, with some of the actors reportedly contributing their own revisions. The result is an ultra-violent and foul-mouthed disaster, a gamy mess from start to finish, of peripheral interest only to hard-core fans of the comics. The audience knows it’s in trouble when a picture’s producers announce before a frame of film is shot that they’re aiming for an R-rating. In assigning an approval rating of just 15%, Rotten Tomatoes reports, “This soulless reboot suggests Dante may have left a tenth circle out of his Inferno.” “Hellboy” is rated R for objectionable language and strong, bloody violence and gore throughout. Skip it.