The Wolf Man (2009)

[Mike Covell]

Official Trailer online,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KMh4Q3jgM

[Bailey]

As an aside, the trailer for the new Elm St remake is out there - looks pretty good, I must say, but it's weird for Freddy's voice to be any other than Englund's. I have a lot of faith in Jackie Earl Haley tho, especially Watchmen.

[Red Zeppelin]

I can't wait to see this film, being a huge fan of the Universal classics.

Hmmmm well even though it's officially a remake of the Universal Wolf Man from 1941, from the trailer it looks like it has actually as much in common with Hammer's great old horrors with the period setting and certain shots and use of lighting etc etc. It was even partly filmed in Black Park, Bucks where Hammer used to shoot many of their films, including Curse Of The Werewolf with Oliver Reed.

Curiously the trailer for the new Wolf Man also features the wolfman running over the buildings and rooftops..........exactly how the old Hammer film had it's climax.

[Reynard]

I'm waiting for this movie with great enthusiasm and I'm hoping it isn't some riducluous gore fest. I watched the original Wolfman when I was a kid and it was one of my favorite movies.

I thought about a Ripper connection too and I suppose it's possible for a slight connection. Hey...maybe this Abberline (did I spell that right?) is related to our Abberline. Imagine this:

Francis Abberline: Hello cousin, what have you been up to?

Frederick Abberline: I've got a madman mutilating prostitutes in the East End. What have you been working on?

Francis: Oh nothing, just a werewolf running amok in the West End.

Frederick: Why do we get the strange cases?

Francis: shrugs.

At least it seemed funny to me.

One of the interesting fetures of the movie is that while the transformation may be CG, the monster is not. That wolfman is not CG folks, that's an actor in make-up, possibly yak hair (those poor yaks).

[kensei]

I thought I'd revive this thread since I finally just saw "The Wolfman" last night (waited for it to come to the cheap theater that plays movies that are a few months old). Well, the questions are answered- Hugo Weaving does indeed play our familiar Inspector Abberline, though dropping one b and changing his first name for some reason to Francis. There is even one brief reference to the Ripper- while being interviewed as a suspect in the killings because he once spent time in an asylum, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) takes offense and says something like, "You obviously know my history. I know yours too. Weren't you in charge of the Ripper case a couple of years back?" It is an insult, as everyone knows the Ripper was never caught.

Weaving's Abberline is by far the most accurate in appearance ever portrayed, in facial hair, dress and just everything. Even in age he is a near perfect match- Abberline would have been 48 in 1891 when the movie takes place, and Weaving is 49 today. He has a quite direct and agressive manner in his pursuit of the truth, as I'd like to imagine our man was in real life. He adapts to realizing werewolves are real with a rather easy practicality- while shouting orders at his men to arm themselves, he quips to one of them, "I don't suppose we have any silver bullets?"

Great film. Very bloody, but that's how werewolf killings would be, with none of the simple strangling done by Lon Chaney Jr. There are familiar elements taken from the original movie but even more radical departures. Anthony Hopkins is excellent as usual as Lawrence's father, and there are BIG differences in his character from the original ('nuff said). Emily Blunt is Gwen, the heroine, a great performance, very emotionally expressive whereas Del Toro's is actually a little on the flat side. She wants to cure him. I was unfamiliar with her until I recently saw her in "The Young Victoria" and now this, and I think she's a fantastic actress.

As for CGI, the transformation scenes are fairly standard, nothing groundbreaking. The fully transformed Wolfman as someone else stated is a product of makeup and very well done. The most impressive computer animations I would say are a dancing bear owned by the gypsies (though he's not seen dancing) and a deer used as bait by some villagers trying to trap the werewolf. It's clear that they're not real but they're pretty well done.

Anyone else who's seen the movie care to post your opinions?

[Atrain]

i enjoyed the film, it can't hold a candle to the original but it was decent. CGI on the bear was awful though. and it looked like they weren't trying to take the production too seriously. universal is re doing all their old monster flicks next is creature from the black lagoon due out 2011. That might be cool. It looked like a sequel to the wolf man remake might happen.