Movie Review: The Wolfman

The Wolfman, Universal Pictures’ remake of the 1941 classic, is a taut backlot tram tour of a dour, sunless 1880s England, complete with cobweb-infested castles, fog-filled cemeteries and forests, and topped with blood-soaked werewolves that would make the phony Lycans in the Twilight Saga quiver in their own puppy piddle. Simply put, The Wolfman is a devilishly fun haunted house thrill ride, only with more severed limbs, decapitations, popped out eyes, disembowelments and torn flesh.

The movie opens, like the original, with the poem:

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright.

And then we happen upon Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) writing a letter to Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), asking him to return to his childhood home of Blackmoor to aide in the search for his brother, her fiancé. Lawrence, a stage actor who, since leaving home, has been living in New York City, leaves London immediately. When he arrives at Blackmoor he is greeted by his father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins), and is told his brother’s body was found. But we already know this because we saw his face slashed and his stomach torn open by a werewolf. Lawrence tells Gwen he won’t rest until he figures out what happened to his brother.

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Two Wolfman Posters Online – One Hairy, One Dumb

Saw these new posters for February 2010′s The Wolfman today and I thought I’d share the goodness with AATM readers. As we’ve chronicled in previous posts, The Wolfman is a remake of the 1941 classic and stars Benicio “My Wolf Hair is not Make-Up” Del Toro (Things We Lost in the Fire), Anthony Hopkins (Beowulf), Emily Blunt (Sunshine Cleaning) and Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta). And while the most recent trailer is pretty sweet, I’d say I’m 50/50 on these posters. The hairy face one with Del Toro as the title character isn’t too bad, but the second is pretty lame. Sure the title gives it away, but if I didn’t know better, I’d assume Emily Blunt was hiding in the woods fearing a fierce anal probing from The Fourth Kind aliens.

Click The Wolfman pictures below to ginormasize them.

New Wolfman Trailer is All Sorts of Awesome

I’ve been tepid thus far on my anticipation of and my desire to see The Wolfman, but this new, edgier, darker trailer has piqued my interest enough that I have circled February 12, 2010 on my calendar. Not literally, of course. I’m not that nerdy, but you get my point.

Delays in the release of The Wolfman have fueled my skepticism, and I’m also not a big fan of Joe Johnston (although I did like October Sky), but a cast of Benicio Del Toro (Things We Lost in the Fire), Anthony Hopkins (Fracture), Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) and Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta) is definitely a bonus for this remake of the 1941 classic.

I have a feeling this is going to be rated PG-13, but in my heart of hearts, I hope for an R rating. I’m not pining for an R so I can see limbs torn off and intestines gobbled up, but a PG-13 usually means CGI that borders on silly and bloodless violence propped up by a weak story and plot. That might be stereotyping somewhat because there are PG-13 movies that have meshed those elements – The Lord of The Rings is the shining example – but I can’t help fear the worst.

Check out the trailer below and give us your opinion. Is this going to rock or is this going to suck?

He’s A Wolf. He’s A Man. He’s The Wolf Man.

Not too long ago, Andy gave you the sad news that The Wolf Man, the tender coming of age story about a man, his wolf bite and the people he subsequently gnaws to death, would be pushed back from a fall release to the depressing and bitter-cold wasteland of winter 2010.

You yawned.

But that’s OK! Despite it’s setback, the trailer for the period-set Wolf Man revival has arrived, begging the question: Why did werewolf transformations look so much better in the 80s before CGI? I know, but I’m not telling. However, we’d love to hear you tell us what you think of the project now that you’ve seen the trailer. Still yawning? Intrigued? Prompted to introduce the Wolf Man’s back to the miracles of Gillette’s Fusion razor technology? Do tell.

The Wolfman Release Date Change…Again

This is Benicio del Toro WITHOUT makeup.

In 2006, Universal Pictures announced they were remaking the 1941 horror classic “The Wolf Man” (that starred Lon Cheney, Jr – no relation to Dick, and Béla Lugosi) and had the hariest man in Mexico, Benicio del Toro, cast as the lead lycan, Lawrence Talbot. “The Wolfman” was given a release date of November 2008 and subsequently things went down the pooper. Original director, Mark Romenak, left the movie because of “creative” differences and Joe Johnston (“Jumanji,” “Jurassic Park III”) was brought in to finish the job. The release date was changed to November 6, 2009.

Now we have news the date has changed yet again to February 12, 2010. So this begs the question, is this film, with a seemingly stellar cast (del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving) simply being cared for with delicate hands – meaning the studio wants to put out the best product possible, or is this a project that has been doomed from the start of it’s first “creative” differences? I tend to gravitate to the latter scenario, especially with the release in February, which traditionally is reserved for movies that time forgot and studios wish to wash their hands of. That’s my take, but I don’t claim to have a spycam into Universal’s marketing boardroom, either.

What’s your take? Any interest in seeing a remake of “The Wolf Man?”