The Wolfman (Two-Disc Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

The Wolfman (Two-Disc Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

The Wolfman (Two-Disc Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]
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Blu-ray details

Actor: Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt
Brand: UNI
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
Published: 2010-06-01
Blu-ray Release Date: 2010-06-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Universal Studios
Product features:
  • Condition: New
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • AC-3; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen

Blu-ray Reviews of The Wolfman (Two-Disc Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

Blu-ray Review: The Wolfman Review
Summary: 4 Stars

THE WOLFMAN

STARRING: Benicio Del Torro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, Cristina Contes, David Sterne, Art Malik, Nicholas Day and Michael Cronin

WRITTEN BY: Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self; based on the screenplay by Curt Siodmak

DIRECTED BY: Joe Johnston

Rated: R
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 12 February 2010
Review Date: 26 March 2010



To this day I believe the most impressive werewolves in any film, are those in An American Werewolf in Paris. However, those were computer generated. After having seen Universal's The Wolfman, I found the version of it's creatures to be the best make-up effects of any werewolf I have ever seen. The film uses both CGI and make-up effects and did stellar jobs at both. I have my fingers crossed for an Oscar nom or two.

If you want a cool looking werewolf in your movie, there's really only one man to call: Rick Baker. This is no wonder as he has won a whopping six Oscars out of the 11 for which he was nominated. He's done make-up for Eddie Murphy movies on several occasions and his list of Oscars includes The Grinch, Men in Black, The Nutty Professor, Ed Wood, Harry and the Hendersons and of course An American Werewolf in London. He's also done make-up for some of the best werewolf films to include The Howling, Wolf, Cursed and now The Wolfman.

2010's The Wolfman will not disappoint werewolf junkies, like me. Whether you prefer upbeat horror flicks that are filled with blood and gore, or if you're prone to the old-school story driven style of the 30s, 40s and 50s horror classics; this film will satisfy your needs. It's essentially a beautiful collaboration of both tastes.

It pains me to report that I missed the first few opening seconds of the film, as I walked in just in time to see the film's magnificent title page. I'm told however, that it opens with the killing of a man by a savage beast. Big shocker, I know, but this sets up the entire film. We begin in London in 1891, which is a terrific setting for this film if you ask me.

Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, the brother of the film's first of many victims. Lawrence's dead brother's fiancée Gwen is played wonderfully by Emily Blunt. Gwen begins writing to Lawrence who has been living in America, in hopes that he will return home to assist her in finding his brother who has gone missing. Honoring her request, Lawrence returns home only to discover that his brother has become lunch to something unbearable.

In addition to starting up a subtle romance with his dead brother's girl, Lawrence also makes an effort to rekindle the relationship with his bizarre father, Sir John Talbot. The legendary Anthony Hopkins (who was also in Bram Stoker's Dracula) plays Sir John and is terrifyingly convincing. He harvests a dreadful secret and creeps around his dark and lonely mansion by candlelight.

Lawrence begins seeking answers in regards to his brother's death and eventually finds some. By "finds some", I mean he's bitten by a werewolf and slowly but surely begins to put two and two together, umkay. Lawrence begins having disturbing visions and develops a heightened group of senses. I don't think it's any huge secret, that he turns into a freakin' werewolf and starts slaughtering people, arousing suspicions; so let's just jump ahead and discuss what was done well and what wasn't, shall we?

The new film offers several entertaining moments between Lawrence and his father, that weren't found in the original. It also adds some suspense and originality with Hugo Weaving playing a detective hell bent on stopping the creature, after his decorated failure of tracking down Jack the Ripper. These were all pluses, but they may be what caused the relationship between Gwen and Lawrence to fall short of what we saw in the original version. There just isn't enough build-up for their feelings to be warranted; especially considering that they have the mutilated body of a loved one, as a token of what brought them together in the first place.

I kind of have mixed feelings about Del Toro's performance. I think he's a good actor and has the perfect look for the character of Lawrence. I liked that he played Lawrence differently than Lon Chaney Jr. did in the original. In that film, Lawrence was a bit of a comedian, and a happy chap, so it was a nice twist when his fate was sealed. Here, Del Toro plays him as a man with an already tortured past, having witnessed the death of his mother. I just didn't feel like Del Toro conveyed the emotion of the character to the extent that I know he could have, based on his previous work. The scenes between him and Gwen were the most notable of this.

The transformation scenes were awesome; a great combination of special effects and make-up effects. Nothing looked phony and we see a few things we've never seen in any werewolf transformation before. I loved seeing the wolfman terrorize the streets of London. I could have done without the close-up superhero shots of him galloping though, and Roger Ebert had an interesting point: the creature moves around like he is weightless. He should not have bounced around the screen like an out of control pin ball.

It's not that the gore was offensive or in bad taste; it's just that it seemed to be there for the sake of being there. It could have been spread out a little more or toned down. It was too hyped up is I guess is what I'm trying to say. The suspense of not knowing where the creature was and then seeing his claws rip someone to shreds from the darkness, was more satisfying. Or hearing him howl from off in the distance, or even seeing a flicker of him in the moonlight, running between the trees.

The sets were phenomenal. It reminded me of the exquisite detail that went into those of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We were never on a fake movie set; we simply drank some magic Kool-Aid and traveled back to an 1891 London.

While I wasn't satisfied with the end of the ending (as in literally the last thing that takes place before the credits), with either version of the film, the climax in the middle of act three of this installment was one of my favorite moments. What takes place has been and will continue to be criticized by many. I found it very entertaining and I think it could have easily been cheesy but never was.

The screenplay was no-doubt a good one. It was co-written by one of most talented screenwriters in Hollywood, Andrew Kevin Walker, who has hand-crafted for us, some of the best horror thrillers ever made: Se7en, Sleepy Hollow, Brainscan and 8mm.

Director Joe Johnston has helped directors everywhere in regards to not being type-cast to one particular genre of filmmaking. Going from directing Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, to Jurassic Park III to The Wolfman, it's clear he can do it all.

The film could have been a little better, yeah; but it certainly could have been a lot worse. It's a ton of fun, and will give you some chills. Nobody does horror films like Universal Studios and it's good to see them re-planting seeds to successful crops of their glorified past. Universal is by far my favorite studio, and werewolves are my absolute favorite movie-monster, so, there is really probably no way I wasn't gonna like this film.
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Description of The Wolfman (Two-Disc Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

Academy Award® winners Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) tear up the screen in this action-packed thriller. Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) is lured back to his family estate to investigate the savage murder of his brother by a bloodthirsty beast. There, Talbot must confront his childhood demons, his estranged father (Hopkins), his brother?s grieving fiancée (Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada) and a suspicious Scotland Yard Inspector (Hugo Weaving, The Matrix Trilogy). When Talbot is bitten by the creature, he becomes eternally cursed and soon discovers a fate far worse than death. Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins.
The mist rising over the moors feels right, and so does the slant of moonlight coming over a Victorian village-scape. And if the moon is full, this must be The Wolfman, Universal's 2010 attempt to revive one of the crown jewels in its deservedly legendary horror stable. Benicio Del Toro takes on the old Lon Chaney Jr. role of Lawrence Talbot, an American visitor to his ancestral home in England. Talbot's brother has recently been torn to bits by a beast in the forest, leaving behind a grieving fiancée (Emily Blunt) and a not-visibly-grieving father (Anthony Hopkins). This central situation seems drained of blood even before the full-moon transfigurations begin to bloom, and Del Toro's Talbot--an actor by trade, which raises interesting possibilities for a story of a man divided by different personalities--is mystifyingly blank. The intriguing casting of Del Toro (what an opportunity for a cool werewolf!) comes to naught as Talbot seems to languish on the periphery of his own story. Hugo Weaving tries to generate some interest as the police inspector on the case, but he too is defeated by the combination of mechanical storytelling and bland computer-generated werewolves. The script skips from one exposition scene to the next, but nothing registers long enough to create character, tension, or the slimmest desire to see what happens in the next scene. Every once in a while director Joe Johnston (Jumanji) finds a grand staircase or CGI fog that conjures up the atmosphere of the old Universal horror classics, but otherwise this is a clueless affair--not as bad as Van Helsing, but flat-out dull. The movie can't even find a way to get the old Gypsy lady (Geraldine Chaplin stepping into Maria Ouspenskaya's tiny shoes) to deliver a proper recitation of screenwriter Curt Siodmak's great "Even a man who is pure in heart" doggerel from the 1941 film. Instead, it's thrown away in a voice-over at the beginning--one hairy way to start the movie. --Robert Horton
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