Thursday, February 11, 2010

Wolfman's Got Nards!


I had to screen The Wolfman at work tonight so it would be ready for the midnight show tomorrow. It was a fun updating of the classic myth with a good cast and a refreshing amount of gore (I was very relieved they didn't go the PG-13 route). It had a very Tim Burton feel, with the screenplay by Sleepy Hollow's Anrdew Kevin Walker, production design by frequent Burton collaborator Rick Heinrichs and an impressive score by Danny Elfman. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much of a sense of humour, at least until we get to the slightly ludicrous wolfman vs. pappa wolfman fight at the end (I'm not spoiling much by revealing Anthony Hopkins gives the curse to his son).
Emily Blunt is nice to look at, and Hugo Weaving playing Inspector Aberline as Agent Smith is entertaining. The makeup is good (though Rick Baker still hasn't topped his own An American Werewolf in London transformation) and it's nice to see a slower-paced more Gothic horror in this day and age. But there isn't much the film offers that we haven't seen countless times before.