Brotherhood of the Wolf

Brotherhood of the Wolf_360P

"Brotherhood of the Wolf" is so over the top, so manifestly ridiculous, that it simply defies criticism. Once you have seen 18th century French peasant women engaging in kung-fu, as you do in this film's first quarter hour, any qualms about lapses in plot or historical innacuracy become somewhat redundant. If that wasn't enough for you, it also contains an Iracois warrior done up in 21st century tatoos, who also, for some reason, is a kung-fu expert, a naturalist who can fire two guns at once, an evil, hatchet faced villain who can wield a wicked knife-chain, and one big armoured cyborg wolf. Did I mention all this takes place in pre-revolutionary France? So in addition the film manages to include a classic tale of the wiles and trials of aristocratic courtship. Got all that? No? well it doesn't really matter. A film already straining to contain a reference to virtually every kind of film ever made (action, martial-arts, werewolf, monster, period romance) was never going to be very credible, and it would die if it took itself seriously. Fortunately, "Brotherhood" does not; it just pushes ahead full throttle distracting our attention with some excellent fight scenes and, of course, this being France, naked women (A dissolve in which Monica Bellucci's breasts become mountain peaks tells you everything you need to know about this film's style). As long as it entertains, "Brotherhood"'s rather obvious flaws can be ignored, however, this film is a ludicrous 140 minutes long and after a while tedium does begin to set in. Still, all in all an enjoyable experience.

Since I'm a big fan of Vincent Cassel and horror movies I was looking forward to seeing "Le pacte des loups". Unfortunately the movie was a complete letdown. Started out interesting but then the story got more and more ridiculous. It seemed as if the makers didn't know what they wanted: action? horror? romance? drama? All and nothing. The martial arts were the coolest thing but didn't quite fit in. In the end I was glad when it was over.

Le Pacte des Loups is a fairly impressive movie. What other movie can spend two and a half hours on a ravaging monster fought by a scientist and his loyal Iroqois "brother" in 18th century France, and keep its audience enraptured? Its plot is a bit obscure in places, admittedly, leaving the audience not so much in suspense as confusion, but this is the unconventionality that comes with such a unique work. The acting was a bit above average, the actors and actresses combining well with the enchanting atmosphere and succeeding in making memorable characters. The score also contributes to the film's mysterious mood, and great cinematography (although occasionally overdone) helps it out too. While all this goes a long way to making a great film, it is the dazzling action sequences that make it a classic. The choreography is great, the sound effects make you feel as if you're standing a foot away, and the mystery of the movie is such that nearly every battle's outcome is uncertain. If the romance is trite, a few lines seem out of place, and the plot falters a bit, overall, this is still quite a movie to watch if you're looking for a lot of adventure and action. [8/10]

This movie is so, so stupid. The main characters are arrogant and not worth wathing. The violence is superflous and without meaning. The so-called love-story is a torture to wade through. The computeranimated monster is so so boring and wouldn´t scary anyone. Really the worst of France. I except the country itself to be far more interesting than this piece of trash.

This was on its way to becoming part of my DVD collection until the last 30-40 minutes when religious bigotry reared its ugly head once again. All the villains turn out to be Christians (Catholics). Every bad, every evil person is shown with a cross on them which is distinctly shown to make its point equating Belief with evil. All those villains mention God and prayers, of course. Atheists, whether they are French - as in the case of filmmakers here - or some other nationality, are never too subtle about their anti-God agenda. Meanwhile, the heroes - one in particular - had supernatural powers that heal and even resurrect! In other words, that voodoo magic works - that's something you can believe in - but the prayers of thoughts of Believers, well, what a waste of time. The photography was magnificent, too. The dubbing on the DVD version I had was decent. This was a fine, horror-type Last Of the Mohicans story but with all the religious people shown as the bad and ignorant ones. Too bad they had to have all that bias because the story was interesting and moved well, especially for a long film.

"Brotherhood of the Wolf" has all the ingredients of a mediocre Hollywood action film. Don't get me wrong, my favorite movies tend to be American, but Hollywood also produces many cliché action flicks lacking in originality, but champion in cheesiness. With this film, one can see the French have masterfully picked up on it. Let me list examples showing how "Brotherhood of the Wolf" looks like a typical Hollywood movie : -A narrator presents the movie to make it look more intellectual than it really is, -Fight scenes in the rain with slow motion moments, typically with one dude kicking many people's ass all at once using eastern martial arts (in 18th century France), -Cool American-Indian thrown in, whose medicine and knowledge is somehow better than that of a developed country, cause he's so close to nature and all.., -Very politically correct denunciation of racism and ignorance (but granted, typical French movies also do that a lot), -References to real historical facts in order to flatter the more cultured audience's intelligence, -Female characters who other than their hotness are absolutely useless, -Lack of character development (does anyone actually care for the main characters?), -Surreal dream-sequence added to make the movie seem mystical, -Uninteresting romance seemingly thrown in the movie for the Hell of it, -Scene where the main character takes his revenge in a hate-fueled bloodbath, -White guy goes all Rambo on the bad guys, dressing like an American-Indian in the process because he surely learned how to be a commando when he fought with Indians in North America, -Unrealistic conspiracy theory revealed like it's something awesome, -Final face-off fight during which the antagonist explains his actions, -Many anachronisms, -Cheesy ending which tries desperately to be tragic. I surely forgot some moments, but these are examples which made me smirk or sigh. "Brotherhood of the Wolf" stays a relatively entertaining movie, although sometimes I wished it could just cut to the chase, so I believe it at least deserves an average 5/10. But contrary to what many people have said, it most certainly does not look like a French movie. I believe many non-French people rated the movie highly because in truth it looks American, yet it's French so it felt "exotic" and they were perhaps pleasantly surprised. But if this movie were American, it wouldn't have been praised so much in my most humble opinion. If you want to see a typical French movie, don't watch this one. If you like Hollywood action movies which aren't particularly original, you might like "Brotherhood of the Wolf" and then feel good about yourself for having watched a foreign film.

If a movie wants to look like its art, then it should actually mean something. At least make sense and wrap up subplots that were left hanging. But if the writers just wanted to play around by splicing together every B-movie/popcorn-flick gimmick- then they shouldn't take themselves too seriously. A good example of genre mixing would be Kill Bill. There is such a tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink, nudge-nudge feeling to the ultra violence, corny dialog and preposterous events (i.e. who needs physical therapy when you have will power?). Some completely unbelievable, messed-up stuff goes down in that flick. But hey, it's just a romp down grindhouse movie memory lane. I may be wrong, but I don't think that was the intent of the writers for Brotherhood of the Wolf. Basically, the tone and look was all wrong, wrong, wrong for such an ultimately low brow endeavor. ***Warning: contains spoilers*** First, it was way too long for such a cheesy mess of a film. Now I think Tarantino made the right move by splitting Kill Bill into two movies. BOTW didn't need to do that. Instead they should have cut the useless scenes, subplots that lead nowhere and the aristocratic romance. That's the second thing. Frosnac & Marianne's relationship was completely unbelievable. Sheltered, stand offish girl is the desire of every man in the province why? Because the characters said so, and the camera does close ups on her. Then this cocksure naturalist (with no aristocratic blood) waltzes in and wins her heart. So predictable -it gave me the dry heaves. But even worse was that he's like 35 and she looks like she's 16, 17 tops. Help, someone call CPS!! They should have done away with Marianne all together, and concentrated on the relationship between him and Sylvia. The intrigue and danger surrounding the witch/prostitute/undercover spy would make a much more interesting story than the banal affair with virginal Marrianne. At least it would be more believable- Frosnac looks like a dirty guy. Third- poor Mani. I had a feeling he was gonna die the second I saw him step onscreen. Following the formula, I knew someone had to be killed in order for the lead character to go ape sh!t and seek revenge- I was just hoping it would be Marrianne. (Sigh) I can't wait for Kill Bill Vol II to come out.

I am very much in awe of this movie. Brotherhood of the Wolf encompasses every genre of film; martial arts, action, romance, thriller, horror, drama, everything. Keeping with the spirit of all these genres, it invokes many emotions from the viewer. A beast is terrorizing the countryside of Gevaudan and the villagers believe no man or bullet can put it down. Enter the ultimate Jack of all Trades, Grégoire de Fronsac, and his brother-in-arms, Mani, who have come to town to stop/capture this menacing beast. The story starts here and has so many twists and turns it could make your head spin. The cast is incredible. I have no idea who this Samuel Le Bihan guy is, but he absolutely rocks it as Fronsac. This also has potential to be a breakout role for Mark Dacascos but we'll have to wait and see on that one. Even if he doesn't make it beyond the B action flick, Mani will always be an unforgettable character. And Vincent Cassel is incredibly suave and creepy at the same time. Brotherhood is an absolutely beautiful example of what film can look like. The cinematography combined with the editing makes for some truly fantastic scenes. Let's not forget the fight choreography. There are some tremendous fight sequences that rival those from Hong Kong cinema. Some movies become great because they have that one moment that will forever live on in your memory; Moments that are undoubtedly awesome. Brotherhood of the Wolf is simply just one big moment. Other than the films by Luc Besson, I've never really been a follower of French cinema. But with the coming of this movie and the equally dark and beautiful Crimson Rivers I could get into it.

"Brotherhood of the Wolf" is a slickly made film--with a large budget and lots of gorgeous costumes and camera-work. It discusses a strange and relatively unknown bit of mythology of the period--about a supposed monster that killed a lot of folks in Gévaudan, France. It seems that while some folks did die, what, exactly killed them is not 100% certain--though it was most likely the work of wolves. Here, a cryptozoological approach to the killings is entertained--that there is some fanciful creature (like a Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster) killing people. Now this sort of fantasy story is not a bad thing--but how it's all handled irritated me in so many ways. While superficially the film appeared to be from this era (circa 1764), so much of it is hogwash--anachronistic crap that teenagers might think is cool but which have absolutely no place in a period piece. Here are a few examples: Martial arts fights like you might see in Japan or China, crazy special effects, witches and lots of gratuitous nudity. It seems more like a video game's version of history than history! While I don't normally do this, I found the film so annoyingly self-aware and slick that I got tired of it very quickly and eventually turned the thing off--right after the cliché about the wisdom of native religions and the evilness of Christianity was introduced. Give me a break. Dumb and a bit offensive--just what I want in a movie! Not! By the way, this film reminded me in some ways of the recent film "Sleepy Hollow" which also was very anachronistic, slick and vacuous.