Movie Review Monday

Howdy friends! This weekend I had the chance to catch a late showing of "The Wolfman" directed by Joe Johnston who is also listed as directing "The First Avenger: Captain America" movie coming next year. He directed one of my favorite overlooked movies back in 1991, "The Rocketeer". He seems to be really good at capturing "mood" in film & he did an excellent job in this film. There were many very dark, as in lighting, scenes that I think many directors would have tried to light up more, but shouldn't. The whole film felt older than it is. The sets/locations were perfect.

Andrew Kevin Walker & David Self(screenplay) obviously studied & loved the original Wolfman screenplay by Curt Siodmak & only made it better. As a huge fan of Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolfman that's quite a statement for me. They kept the heart & soul of the tale even paying homage to Maria Ouspenskaya with a couple of seconds of action with a little gypsy girl named Maria. Very nice. They also added something, that as a fan of Siodmak's script, I always wanted to see & suspected. Sir John Talbot's history. These guys simply took what was already there, fleshed it out more, made a few minor changes & ended it perfectly. I gotta say, I was very satisfied with the story. Now, that being said, keep in mind, it is "The Wolfman" & not some super brainy movie.

I do want to address something that made me very happy. There is a traveling scene. Many people who know me, know this is my movie pet peeve. No one ever does traveling scenes correctly. They are slow, boring, & take forever. They stop the rhythm of a film dead many times. Not this time. Whoever was responsible for the traveling scene in "The Wolfman" nailed it. Excellent job. Peter Jackson could really learn something here.

Now, on to the acting. Benicio Del Toro was perfectly cast for this film. There were times that I would swear I was looking at Lon Chaney, Jr. instead of Mr. Del Toro. He did wonderful job with the character & I feel he could really have opened some doors for himself with this film, perhaps reviving some other Lon Chaney or Lon Chaney, Jr. roles. The whole cast was great.

The antiques shop from the original made an appearance in the film, & if I didn't know better I would think it was exactly the same shop. The attention to detail was superb in many instances. Many people will probably complain about the use of make-up vs. CGI, but for the Wolfman, I am very happy that they went with Rick Baker (Gorillas in the Mist, American Werewolf in London, Beauty & the Beast TV series) & the old school feel of applied make-up plus CGI. I thought the make-up was perfect & the use of the CGI for the transformation scenes used as it should be. There was one little scene of the Wolfman running on all fours that wasn't quite up to specs. In other words, it was bad. As bad as that Luke vs. Rancor scene in Jedi. It was just a two second scene though. Still, I wish the editor had cut it.

There was a little gore, but overall it was quite tame compared to most films today. Even compared to most films in the 70's & 80's. I don't think there were any utterances of profanity, but I might be wrong there. If there were they were very few & were hells or damns. No sex scenes, no nudity, just a good old fashioned monster flick.

So overall, I really liked it. It's a solid B+ or A- movie. Probably B+ for the bad CGI scene & I think perhaps we needed just a bit more in the climactic scene at the end. There was a bit of bad CGI there as well, and maybe just a little tiny bit too much cheese. I won't mention what, but if you go see it, you'll understand. I recommend trying to catch it before it's gone. I figure it has maybe a week left before the theaters switch it out with something else.

...and that's your Movie Review Monday! Thanks for stopping by!