Arizona Reporter - Movie Reviews - 11/02
THE WOLFMAN (Universal Pictures)
When I was a kid we used to hear this song on the radio; By the light/ of the silvery moon, I love to spoon/ With my honey in June. We asked the big round object looking down on us to Shine on, Shine on Harvest Moon, Up in the Sky, I ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June or July.
The moon's cool, isn't it? But nature can be cruel as well. Cool summer breezes turn into hurricanes, water, without which we could not live for a week, morphs into tsunamis. In the case of the old legend known well by the gypsies, uh, the Romani people of England, a full moon can give birth to horrendous monsters who rip people apart not for food but just for the hell of it.. Such a creature is given life us by director Joe Johnson, whose previous looks into supernatural occurrences were no more scary than was Wayne Szalinski who in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is your average nutty scientist, working on a top secret machine which miniaturizes objects. He'd never use Rick Moranis for "The Wolfman," however.
Benicio Del Toro anchors the tale as Lawrence Talbot, in the remote hamlet of Blackmoor England with some scenes in London during the late Victorian year of 1891. When Talbot returns to his village at the request of Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) to search for his vanished brother, who is also Gwen's bf, he reunites with his father, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins). Hearing that a brute has been maiming and killing inhabitants during the full moon, he joins the search as does Scotland Yard's Inspector Francis Abberline (Hugo Weaving). Consulting with the people who know about these things, he learns that the huge, tormented creature lurks in the area-not surprising considering that Lawrence has been himself tormented since discovering the mauled body of his mother years back. Flashbacks via his nightmares reinforce the man's fragile psyche.
From early on, the story is predictable enough, though perhaps serving as something new for the young ‘uns in the audience who never viewed the seventeen other movies about wolfmen, uh, wolfpersons, including "Frankenstein Meets the Wofl Man (1943), "The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), "La furia del Hombre Lobo (1972), "Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972), even (shudder), "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman" (2000).
Nowadays the wolfmen stay in hiding, given that our military has silver bullets, I think, and helicopters that within the hour can launch at a sighting-with crack shot Sarah Palin at the helm.
THE WOLFMAN (Universal Pictures)
Rated R. 105 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
The moon's cool, isn't it? But nature can be cruel as well. Cool summer breezes turn into hurricanes, water, without which we could not live for a week, morphs into tsunamis. In the case of the old legend known well by the gypsies, uh, the Romani people of England, a full moon can give birth to horrendous monsters who rip people apart not for food but just for the hell of it.. Such a creature is given life us by director Joe Johnson, whose previous looks into supernatural occurrences were no more scary than was Wayne Szalinski who in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is your average nutty scientist, working on a top secret machine which miniaturizes objects. He'd never use Rick Moranis for "The Wolfman," however.
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THE WOLFMAN
Universal Pictures
Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten
Grade: C+
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Written By: Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self
Cast: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving
Screened at: Lincoln Square, NYC, 2/8/10
Opens: February 12, 2010
While the actors he does exploit in "The Wolfman"; Benicio del Toro who performs in the role of Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolfman, and Anthony Hopkins as his dad, Sir John Talbot-execute their craft with the acting skills for which they are well known, there's nothing particularly frightening about Johnston's excursion into horror. He does have the advantage of Walter Murch and Dennis Virkler's abilities as editor, which show up whenever the wolfman rips into yet another person quicker than the eye can see and of six-time Oscar winning fx artist Rick Baker, whose work allows us to see how a mere mortal transforms into a beast with the power of twenty and the ethics of Charles Manson.
Benicio Del Toro anchors the tale as Lawrence Talbot, in the remote hamlet of Blackmoor England with some scenes in London during the late Victorian year of 1891. When Talbot returns to his village at the request of Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) to search for his vanished brother, who is also Gwen's bf, he reunites with his father, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins). Hearing that a brute has been maiming and killing inhabitants during the full moon, he joins the search as does Scotland Yard's Inspector Francis Abberline (Hugo Weaving). Consulting with the people who know about these things, he learns that the huge, tormented creature lurks in the area-not surprising considering that Lawrence has been himself tormented since discovering the mauled body of his mother years back. Flashbacks via his nightmares reinforce the man's fragile psyche.
From early on, the story is predictable enough, though perhaps serving as something new for the young ‘uns in the audience who never viewed the seventeen other movies about wolfmen, uh, wolfpersons, including "Frankenstein Meets the Wofl Man (1943), "The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), "La furia del Hombre Lobo (1972), "Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972), even (shudder), "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman" (2000).
Nowadays the wolfmen stay in hiding, given that our military has silver bullets, I think, and helicopters that within the hour can launch at a sighting-with crack shot Sarah Palin at the helm.
THE WOLFMAN (Universal Pictures)
Rated R. 105 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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