After watching "Brotherhood of the Wolf," I was shocked to find out that it's actually based on a true story. Okay, well, it's LOOSELY based on a true story. In 1764, what was known as the Beast of Gevaudan terrorized a remote district of France. It slaughtered more than sixty women and children. The way the story goes, it was eventually revealed to be a big, bad wolf and that was it. Well, "Brotherhood of the Wolf" gives it an entirely new spin... but it's not what you think. In fact, nothing in this movie is what you might think it is. It's a truly unique film that only the French can deliver. I tellya, French people make some really good movies!
Visually, "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is amazing. It's got awesome camerawork, and it has a very cool look. Also, there's sex, violence, kung-fu, and even a cool monster. Speaking of the monster, it's awesome, but I can't describe it to you. Is it a wolf? Is it a werewolf? Is it a demon? I won't say. I'll only tell you that it was made in America! Well, I don't mean that the creature was an American creature, I mean that it was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. I was surprised when I found that out. While watching it, I thought it was computer animation designed to look like stop-motion, because it actually looked like Ray Harryhausen-type movement. I thought that because it looked like stop-motion, but I didn't think that anyone would wanna use that technique in this day and age. Could it be that they purposely utilized stop-motion, despite advances in animatronics and computer animation? I think that's the case. No matter, the odd movement seemed totally appropriate, and actually made the beast even scarier.
As cool as the movie is, it suffers from slow scenes and being a bit too long. There's some really great stuff to see, visually, it's incredible, but when things settle down and they get to exposition, it gets kinda dull. Also, when it comes to the fight scenes, the director does what a lotta directors do when it comes to martial arts scenes... the quick cuts and close-ups so you can't see what's going on. Maybe it's just me, but when it comes to kung-fu, I want the camera pulled back so I can see it in all it's glory. Kung-fu looks great on it's own, there's no need to do all that MTV stuff, ya know?
Fine, I have a few complaints about the movie, but the stuff I complain about isn't all that bad, while what's good is REALLY good. This is a movie that will be awesome when released on DVD. It's a DVD I'm sure to buy, trust me.
The star of the film is Samuel Le Bihan. I've never seen him before, but he's very good. He looks like a strange combination of Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke. Weird. There are two guys who are usually by his side in the movie, one being the character played by Jérémie Rénier, who I've also never seen before. As for the other guy, I'll get to him later. There are two hotties to feast your eyes on, but only one gets naked. The one who doesn't get naked, the good girl, is played by Emilie Dequenne. I've never seen her before either. The one who DOES get naked, the bad girl, is played by the beautiful Monica Bellucci. HER I've seen, but not in movies. I've seen pictures of her in Maxim magazine. Was it Maxim? Maybe it was Stuff. Whatever, one of those PG-13 magazines. And you'll all be happy to know that she'll be in either one or both of the sequels to "The Matrix." But sorry, fellas. Her heart belongs to a guy named Vincent Cassel, a guy who's also in this movie, actually. I've seen him before, he was the French guy in "Elizabeth," the one who had the unusual line (delivered in French), "Up yours." He was also the voice of "Robin Hood" in "Shrek." The acting by everyone was really good, but the one who stands out the most is the one who I said I'd get to later, and that's Mark Dacascos.
To be honest, Mark Dacascos used to be on my shit list. He played "Eric Draven" in the AWFUL TV series, "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven," which, obviously, was a spin-off of the movie, "The Crow," starring Brandon Lee (Mark Dacascos has a strong resemblance to him). I had nothing against Mark Dacascos personally, but his doing that blasphemous TV show didn't exactly make me like him. But that was the only thing I knew him from. He's been in lotsa cheesy B-movies like "Kickboxer 5" and "American Samurai," but I rarely watch that stuff. Anyway, he's awesome in this movie. I can't really tell you how his acting is, 'cause all he had to do was stand around, look intense, utter a few lines, and show off that kung-fu, but the kung-fu he showed off was very cool. He's a martial arts expert, so his moves weren't faked. He's got a very interesting presence, and he was definitely one of the best things about the movie.
"Brotherhood of the Wolf" was directed by Christophe Gans, who I've never heard of before. The only thing I know about him is that he directed and helped write "Crying Freeman," which is based on the Manga comic book (that movie starred Mark Dacascos, by the way). I've never seen it, but I hear it's pretty good. I definitely like his style of directing, he knows how to move the camera. The script was written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel, who I never heard of. It's an unusual script, but a very interesting one.
Fine, this movie is flawed, but it's so cool! Besides, it's nice to take a break from the usual Hollywood crap to try something truly different, right? Most Americans tend to be turned off by foreign films, and that's a shame. A lot of these movies are really good, and those closed-minded people are missing out.
Scale of 1-10: 8