The Wolfman

All Bark, Little Bite

[Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving]

"Valentine Day" took the top spot this weekend. The mood in the air and the star power on the screen seemed to be a good combination. I went to a movie with bleeding hearts, but this one actually showed them.

SYNOPSIS:  After the savage attack on his brother, Lawrence Talbot returns to his family estate to hunt down the lunatic or wild animal responsible.

Joe Johnston, director of "Jurassic Park III" and "Hildalgo", brings a classic Universal monster back to the big screen. The Wolfman, made famous by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941, is reinvented for a modern audience. With experience with 20th century period pieces, Johnston shoots 1890s Blackmoor England with just the right fog and shades of gray. The moon is used both as ominous set dressing and as the mechanism for the passage of time. The scant use of flickering candle light offered just a hint of warmth, but not enough to keep the chill from the bones.

The story itself is adequate, made better by the snarling of Hugo Weaving's Scotland Yard inspector, not Benicio Del Toro's performance. Although Benicio's look and physique lends itself to the Wolfman character as both man and beast, Weaving's role as Del Toro's foil is the full moon of this film. Anthony Hopkins takes a turn as the Talbot patriarch, his role both dreary and sinister. The target of all of the Talbot men's affections, Emily Blunt feels at home in period England garb and demeanor. 

 

There are some good parts in the film, from the leaf littered halls of the Talbot estate to the medical theatre at the London asylum, from the local Blackmoor pub to the depth of its neighboring forests. The movie is both monster movie and suspense thriller. But does it live up to the legacy of one of the Universal's famous monsters? Its hard to say. Even with all the CGI magic Hollywood has to offer, Del Toro's werewolf transformation does not hold up to "An American Werewolf in London" or "The Howling" or even Lon Chaney Jr. in the original "The Wolfman". Johnston tries to be true to the original, and succeeds on many levels, but sometimes a copy is simply that - a copy.

Worth: Matinee or Netflix

Daybreakers

Vampires as Big Business

[Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill]

As if the country and the world didn't know, "Avatar" is a phenomenon! I went to see it for the third time with a couple buddies from work, this time without 3D. It was still brilliant, but I would definitely recommend the digital 3D experience to bring out every detail.

SYNOPSIS:  In a world where an epidemic turned the majority of the population into vampires, the supply of human blood has become scarce. If a blood substitute is not found, then the vampires will continue their mutation into mindless, bat-like creatures.

The Spierig Brothers, writers and directors of 2003's "Undead", bring a clever twist to an all-but-overused vampire mythology. I was afraid that "Daybreakers" would rip-off parts of "Blade 2". But I was pleasantly surprised with the storyline. We all know that the vampire nations control governments and corporations... "Twilight", "Blade" and a myriad of other genre movies and books have taught us that. In "Daybreakers", we see a world that needs to cater to vampires because they are the vast majority. Car manufacturers provide auto-blackening windows for daytime driving, coffee shops add blood to their lattes, and the cityscape has been restructured for easier vampiric underground commuting between buildings and between work and home. And, of course, major corporations hunt down the remaining humans in order to herd them like cattle to harvest their blood.

Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a hemotologist, charged with the responsibility to find a human blood substitute before the supply runs out at month's end. Unwilling to drink human blood and unhappy with how humans are treated, he is desperate to end the dependency on humans. 

Sam Neill epitomizes the corporate head who sees vampirism as a blessing, both personally and professionally. Willem Dafoe plays the other side of the coin as a former blood-sucker who reverts to a mere human through a unlikely series of events that the human resistance is trying to replicate.

The film looks cool, literally. The vampire world is shrouded in blues and grays. Only their eyes glow a menacing amber. The wardrobe is blood reds and blacks. Most of the populace smokes, probably to capture any semblance of taste is their lives, adding a misty haze around them. Where the amber in the vampires eyes is predatory, the bright sepia daytime for the humans is warm and, relatively, safe.

What happens when something becomes the majority? It become the standard.  Since vampires are the ruling class, humans have become sub-human. Who cares what a sub-class needs or wants, as long as the needs of the many comes first. But when the vampires are threatened to become a class of creatures themselves, it is not about the needs of the many, but the needs of the few.  

Worth: Matinee and DVD

Sherlock Holmes

Holmes Is Where The Heart Is

[Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Mark Strong]

Its a great weekend for movie going. Everyone's holiday shopping and cooking is done, leaving them more time to sit back in a darkened theatre to witness the spectacle that is cinema. "Avatar" still had long lines and the movie has brought in $600 million worldwide, which is proof that Cameron knows what he's doing.

SYNOPSIS:  Sherlock Holmes and Watson single-handedly bring Lord Blackwood to justice and to the end of the hangman's noose. Soon, though, they are embroiled in another mystery as it appears that Blackwood has returned from the dead to continue his reign of terror.

Director Guy Ritchie brings us his interpretation of the Victorian Era sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, as rarely seen in previous incarnations. Throughout the history of television and film, there have been many versions of Sherlock Holmes, most notable in my book being the detective portrayed by Basil Rathbone in the 1940s and Jeremy Brett in the 1980s. Both of those portrayals showed Sherlock as a prim and proper gentleman, albeit with many faults and traits that lead us to dislike him. Downey's Holmes does not bother to dress the character up in fine robes or demeanor as a means to coat the character's faults. Instead, Ritchie makes Holmes as gritty on the outside as he is on the inside. 

This Sherlock Holmes is also as much physical as he is cerebral, which is quite a departure from previous incarnations. His physicality makes the film more kinetic and balances the slower pace of the mystery plot itself. Even Watson, played by Jude Law, strays from common convention of the overweight character by being as able as his partner. 

Both characters are well-rounded, both in their prowess and in their failings. And Law and Downey continue in the tradition of the strong relationship between the lead characters. But Holmes and Watson are only as strong and effective as the villain placed before them. Mark Strong plays the treacherous Lord Blackwood back from the grave daring Holmes to stop him and his machinations. But is Blackwood the darkest that Holmes must bring back to justice? 

The film is gritty and dark, just as the characters are. Is this version better than those that came before it? Maybe, maybe not. Every Sherlock Holmes fan will have their own preference. But at least this attempt is anything but elementary.

Worth: Matinee and DVD

2012

Is It Summer Already?

[John Cusack, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiorfor]

The theatre was packed! And it was an early Sunday afternoon matinee!  You would have thought that it was a Friday night opening. I ended up sitting in the single seat section reserved for companions of wheel-chaired patrons. Sorry guys, that section is the next best section after the first row behind the rail above the cross-aisle. 

Synopsis: The end of the world is coming and it corresponds to the end of the Mayan calendar. Select few are aware of coming planet-wide disaster and the governments of the world band together in secret to devise a way to escape destruction. 

Roland Emmerich brings us "The Day After Tomorrow" on steroids. Where "The Day After Tomorrow" puts the destruction of humanity squarely on our shoulders with our misuse of the planet and its resources, "2012" allows us to only be the victims of events that are beyond the controls of mortal man. In this case, the increased activity of our Sun leads to worldwide events of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and land mass displacement. 

Dr Adrian Helmsley, played with equal parts intelligence and compassion by Chiwetel Ejiorfor, discovers in 2009 that our planet is on the verge of destruction and sets in motion a timetable for our governments to react and save that will expire in 2012. Jackson Curtis (played by John Cusack), a divorced family man with two kids, stumbles onto the US government's plans at the same time that the natural disasters begin. Cusack is an unlikely hero and I prefer it that way. You all expect that Tom Cruise is going to save us from alien invasions, but you are willing to write off Cusack with every near-miss. Even Woody Harrelson is having a good year with his turn as a crazy hippie, conspiracy theorist radio host.

Playing out like a Tom Clancy novel, it takes much of the first act to set up the different characters around the world. But once the carnage starts, the rest of the movie is a roller coaster ride. I would not have believed that so many airplane escapes would keep me white knuckled. Equal parts adrenaline rush with summer blockbuster CGI and more quiet human moments, this movie runs along at a good clip throughout. 

Is this just like the other Ocsar contenders purposefully released in November for maximum chance at the statue in the coming January or February? Of course not! This film is more summer popcorn fare than anything else, and I enjoyed it with my popcorn bucket in hand in the November cold as much as I would have in the height of Summer!

Worth: Matinee and a Blu-Ray