photo courtesy of COLUMBIA PICTURES Ron Perlman stars as Hellboy, one of the beloved comic book heroes that no one's really heard about. This is a straight up action-packed summer blockbuster, but it hits early this year.

I was absolutely convinced that Hellboy was played by Nick Nolte, and that there was some crazy conspiracy trying to cover up that fact. I couldn't understand why his name wasn't on the posters and why he wasn't on talk shows promoting it.

I recently found out (after seeing the movie) that it was actually some cat named Ron Perlman. But my thought is that maybe this Perlman guy is actually Nick Nolte's alter ego, like Chris Gaines was for Garth Brooks. I am absolutely convinced of it. See the movie and get back to me on that. We can start a revolution.

Having said that, the movie was pretty good. I don't really like comic book movies, unless they are about comic book geeks, i.e. Kevin Smith movies. "Hellboy" was an interesting little epic. Anything involving the end of the world is worth seeing, just to take note of the possibilities.

The story is that Hellboy made his way through some portal during the Nazi domination in the 1940s. That whole part was unclear to me.

And then the story fast-forwards to present day, where Hellboy is a smoking, weightlifting, horn-filing and enormous crime fighter. He has to fight against this terrible beast that is really loud and gooey, and is reborn twice whenever it is killed. This part's a bit unclear as well.

Because Hellboy was raised by a human, he is a good guy. He was actually supposed to be evil (hence his name). I guess Rasputin is somehow involved with a plot to start the apocalypse, and Hellboy and Liz (played by Selma Blair) are the missing links. And then this really chill guy with knives is also involved, as is this really annoying blond lady who has no real introduction. She just sort of lands in the story somewhere. Anyway, in order to start the apocalypse, Hellboy needs to re-open the portal. It's a bit unclear why. Will he or won't he? I know you're on the edge of your seat.

There are fun supporting characters in this movie. The first is Abe Sapien, who has the voice of David Hyde Pierce. He's the blue fish man from the previews. He's a sweet character and brought humor to enhance the action.

The other supporting character worth noting is agent John Meyers, who acts as Hellboy's personal assistant. The actor, Rupert Evans, brings a lot to the role, and is also pretty hot.

Well, I'm not going to give away the end. Mainly because I don't think I really understood it. What I did understand was that the knives guy and the loud gooey monsters were scary. And that's all I really needed to know to enjoy the movie.

So, all in all, Nick Nolte did a good job as Hellboy. He was able to show what big red men with horns go through in modern-day society. It was touching. But he also did the action and love scenes very well. He's such a diverse actor. I wish he would get the recognition that he deserves. It's a bit unclear why he didn't.