Thursday, February 11, 2010

Woof! The Wolfman Reviewed

Zombies ruled the movie monster jungles for a good long while in the Aughts until Twilight and True Blood boosted the vampire back up top as the king of all supernatural beasts. When will it be the lycanthropes turn? If The Wolfman is indication, they'll have to keep waiting.

The Wolfman, a reworking of the 1941 monster classic, begins with the recitation of a gloomy gypsy proverb. It amounts to this: prayers won't save you from curses. Something unholy and accursed is definitely roaming the forests near the Talbot estate. Bodies are discovered dead and mangled. Sir John Talbot's (Anthony Hopkins) son goes missing and his fiance Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) writes to the Talbot prodigal son Lawrence (Benicio Del Toro) to return home and help has father in the search. By the time he does, he's been traveling the world as a famous stage actor, his brother's mutilated body has already been discovered. Local gypsies are blamed and Lawrence seeks them out only to run into the growling monster itself.

You can guess what happens next.

Read the Rest @ Towleroad...
Wherein I ponder the movies multiple mysteries, Blunt's misfortune and (briefly) the best actress race.

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16 comments:

par3182 said...

benicio should have quit when he was ahead in canine roles; he'll never better his performance as duke the dog faced boy in big top pee-wee

Glenn Dunks said...

The Wolfman is a surefire contender for worst movie of the decade when that list gets compiled in 2020. For real. It's absolutely horrendous. You're so right about asking why the movie is so dark. Not just in a gothic way, but in cinematography way. You can't see the costumes (Milena Canonero!) or the sets or even the actors half the time.

Benicio is so miscast and Anthony Hopkins gives, by far, the worst performance I've ever seen from him. There's one bit where he sees a dead body and goes "oh no" (or somesuch) in the most uninterested and bored reading imaginable. And all those BOO! JUMP! scares get tired after the fifth or sixth within the first ten minutes.

So very very bad.

Walter L. Hollmann said...

I'd like to have an opinion on The Wolfman, but the theater I saw it in apparently hates its customers. I blogged about it, but it can never fill the void that is NOT SEEING THE FUCKING WOLFMAN.

Unknown said...

The only true wolfman is Wolverine!!

The worst film of the decade is Dragon ball...

NATHANIEL R said...

walter -- huh?

Steolicious said...

I'm looking forward to see Woolfy... I'd saw so many bad movies, I think I can handle it ;)

Walter L. Hollmann said...

They had the incorrect aspect ratio for almost forty minutes. They had the slate numbers for digital projection pop up on the top and bottom of the screen throughout the film. When they finally got the correct ratio, an employee who had heard the complaints came in AT THAT POINT and widened the curtains on either side of the screen...whatever, better that than nothing.

Except then half the screen was cut off, but in an aggravating fashion: I saw Benicio's feet on the top half and the digital slate numbers against black on the second half. I finally booked it when the screen was divided like so:
Top 1/4 - Benicio's feet
Middle 2/4 - black
Bottom 1/4 - Top of Benicio's head

Awful experience. When I went to complain, no one was answering at the office doors, or the projection booth ones. My entire theater mobbed the lobby, demanding respect, but there were no employees around. A mall security guard shows up, looks around, and realizes, much to his confusion, that the entire staff had booked it.

So, he placed a call, and we can go to the manager tomorrow with our ticket stubs to be reimbursed. I'd been looking forward to this movie for almost three years now. GAAAH!!!

ShoNuff Lives said...

i actually do want to see this, but it will definitely be a wait until dvd. i have no doubt its terrible, but i do love some victorian era styling & the cinematography (aside from the cgi) looks beautiful.

of course, this movie should have just debuted on syfy on a saturday night - where it belongs & you know what you're getting into.

Kyle said...

It could be worse, as it could be "Valentine's Day" I'm wasting my money on.

Jake Holmes said...

The consensus is definitely a "no". Were you as off-put by the violence as Liz was when she reviewed The Wolfman for us?

OtherRobert said...

So, how bout those effects they had to completely redo multiple times through a computer to make it more realistic? Are they as Windows 98 screensaver as they look in the trailer?

Dell said...

Damn, a D? I was really looking forward to this one. Oh well, I guess I can always see "Avatar" again.

oana babes said...

Not impressed by the story, but as I know how much effort there is in a film, do need to congratulate everyone in the crew for their hard work and spirit, in creating this movie. Don't know if this is the wright place and moment to add this comment,but can't help it because it seems that this is a mistake people seem to make more frequently and even if this just my opinion i guess a short research on the internet or history book, can clarify it in a few moments, fantasy or not this film, i don't understand why gypsies are associated with Romanian people, i feel offended to see that the great actress Geraldine Chaplin being Maleva is not just a gypsy leader but speaking Romanian (http://www.gypsyadvice.com/gypsy_lore.htm), we are different cultures, people, having a different history Gypsies or Romanes with Romanians leaving in Romania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Romania) FORMER DACIANS ....The Romans heavily colonized the province of Dacia...., and would love to make people understand that is not s discrimination against anyone, but i don't think is correct and fare to either party to continue to believe this is wright, even if is just a movie, but the same mistake was made so many other times (see Madonna's speech at the concert in Bucharest), it's a big offense to the Romanian people and to Romania. The Gypsies - live everywhere, are Nomades, move from country to country, many of them seem to stay in Romania, we've accepted them because none else takes them, but that doesn't mean that our history-nation-people is the same with theirs, we have an inertly different history, being two different nations-culture-people. Hope this is not an offense to anyone, but a big call for people to be more open-minded and pay more attention to this situations, and history!! Check reality before anything!!!

Kyle said...

Having just seen the Wolfman...I would definitely see it again over Avatar. :-P

Jacob Jackson said...

Thought it was a great movie. Looking forward to an updated edition of the book. In the meantime, I'm settling for this free online novel, said to be a prequel to The Wolfman, although I have my doubts. It's an interesting idea though. http://LegendOfWolfboy.com/

Dell said...

I caved in and watched it. Pretty to look at and had the gore and thrills I was looking for. It didn't demand much acting wise from Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Hopkins, who are all capable of far more and have done so in past roles. It kept my interest up at least, and I wanted to see how things played themselves out. Nothing I'd call extraordinary, and the script was clearly lacking in places, but it's nothing I'd call D-level either.