Starring:

Samuel le Bihan, Marc Dacascos, Vincent Cassel

Written by: Stephane Cabel, Christophe Gans    Directed by: Christophe Gans

The Story:

I have to be honest. I don't entirely understand what was supposed to be happening in this movie. I liked the flick though, if for nothing else, than the scenery. Its not really a werewolf movie, more of a monster movie, and there are a lot of characters to get used to. Well, there should be a lot of characters to get used to....trust me, you won't get used to them. Sadly enough none of them are really fleshed out well enough to connect with and if you've got a short attention span, you'd better watch this flick with a pen and paper so you can right down names. I just watched this movie again less than 6 hours ago and I still don't remember anyone's name except for the main characters....Fronsac and his Native American companion, Mani.

Fronsac is some kind of gardener/zoologist/ special agent guy for King Louis. He's been sent to this French province to find out about "the wolf" which has been killing peasants for like about 2 years. Almost immediately Fronsac deduces that its mot a wolf doing these misdeeds. He doesn't know what it is but it doesn't act like a wolf or leave wounds like a wolf would. Oh, Crap, I lied. I said almost immediately. Its not that quick....first we have to watch Fronsac and Mani whoop up on some raging peasants, hang out with the Marquis, go to a brothel, go to the hunt, etc. All of this would be cool if there was any substance to it. During one scene Fronsac has a conversation with a prostitute in a brothel which to be honest bored me to tears. Now, after having watched this movie several times it finally dawned on me that the prostitute has a small role to play in the end of the movie, so maybe the silly conversation about women poisoning their husbands was relevant, but as I said before....none of the characters seem to stay with you. I didn't even realize that this prostitute was the same woman as before right away.

Part of the problem is Fronsac. In some parts of the movie he's an enlightened and wise man of modern science (like when he shows the nobility how legendary beasts are faked with a furry fish) and in others he comes off as a bit of a rogue (like going to brothels and constantly trying to get into the Marquis' sister's pants) but neither sides of his personality seem to mesh. They seem forced, so by the end when he's in full action hero mode, it was a little unbelievable. It was easier to buy Marc Dacascos as Mani. Mani was cliché' enough as the Native American warrior/ shaman, but he had few speaking lines. He didn't really have a personality other than the butt-kickin' sidekick. The rest of the cast were just there.

At length, Fronsac does discover that the Wolf is indeed not a wolf but a huge CGI monster that does the bidding of a human master. Don't ask me what exactly for either. As I understood it, some guys are pissed off at the King's indulgences of Philosophers so they're using the beast to scare people back into the church. Or something like that. I'd like to be more specific but the movie loses me every time I get to the middle....by the time my mind stops wandering its the end again! I wish the flick was more forthcoming in the motives of the Beast's handlers.....it would have made the story more engaging. I mean, there's a real tale of intrigue and spooky monsters in there somewhere but it gets lost in silly dialogue and trying to make Fronsac look cool. At one point when Fronsac, Mani and the marquis are preparing to hunt down the monster, Fronsac does the old cross-my-arms-while-firing-pistols thing. Hey, it looks cool,  kind of...but with two flintlocks? And he doesn't miss the pumpkin he's aiming at even though if you look at the angle of his weapons there's no way he could have hit it! I'm surprised he didn't just hold the flintlock sideways. That seems to be the preferred way to hold a gun when one is trying to look Ultra-Cool.

The final fight scene is entertaining though, watching Fronsac doing flips and stuff like he's in a Jet Li movie. Too bad the rest of the movie doesn't help us realize what's going on. All in all, The Brotherhood of the Wolf isn't what I'd call a bad movie, but its not the kind of movie where you can doze off watching it. if you do you'll find yourself wondering just what the he;; is going on when you start paying full attention to it again. Which is a shame, because if nothing else, it does look good. Unfortunately, just like my old girlfriend, the looks are only hiding a big empty space with question marks between its ears.

Samuel le Bihan was Fronsac and Marc Dacascos was his friend Mani. The only other person I recognize in this movie was Vincent Cassel as Jean-Francois. Cassel starred opposite of the ever cool Jean Reno in Crimson Rivers.

Best Lines:  “The Trees Speak! White man doesn't know how to listen!” -Mani displays his clichéd Native American dialogue.

 Are you kidding me?

1.) The first time we see Fronsac and Mani, Mani is kicking ass in the rain on a group of raging peasants. Its a great scene, watching Mani thump these guys, but I had no idea that Native Americans had some form of Martial arts! (They might....its not like I know a lot of native Americans.....to be honest I only know two...but they ain't ass kicking warriors like Mani). I can buy Mani's fighting skills, but later in the movie he fights a bunch of guys before the hunt....now I'm not buying 18th century French guys with experience in judo! Its hard to imagine present day French guys doing that stuff!

2.) Have you ever talked to someone and had them say something so monumentally stupid you just want to smack the living hell out of them? When Fronsac talks to the nobles about the beast not being a wolf he dismisses the idea that its a rabid wolf. The wolf has been killing for over a year and a rabid wolf would die in a fortnight. (What is a fortnight anyway? Two weeks?) First of all, these idiots need Fronsac to tell them that? But one of the nobles says perhaps this wolf is a different type. Like what? A super wolf from Krypton? Now considering  that the wolf is really a super wolf of some kind, that's not as stupid as it should sound....but in the context of the conversation I half expected Fronsac to just yell out "Shut up, [unwrite]head!".

3.) Some conspiracy. In order to quell stories of the wolf, the King has his men claim that they killed it and has Fronsac whip up a fake wolf carcass with his skills in taxidermy. wouldn't that be kind of silly? What happens when the wolf starts eating people again? Wouldn't the peasants then know that the wolf wasn't really killed anyway? Or worse they might deduce that there are more monster wolves out in the countryside.

4.) You know, the only thing I could think of when Fronsac and company go to the brothel was Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Eeeew.

5.) I'm not really sure how or why Jean-Francois had a gnarled up arm, but I do know that I would have just clipped my nails and wore some f***ing gloves before I walked around with my arm in some kind of truss all day. What was the point in making it look like he only had one arm anyway? Its probably explained in the movie but  again, the flick goes so far off of the track sometimes bug chunks of exposition will be missed unless you glue your eyeballs to the screen, (and read all of the subtitles)

Nudity and Sex: None.

Huh?:

The only movie I've seen that has ridiculous fight scenes like this one in recent memory was the abominable the Musketeer. I don't for a second believe that French guys in the 18th century were doing martial arts moves and flipping through the air like the Power Rangers, but at least they didn't push it too far. With the exception of the last fight scene I can buy it. (The final fight scene, Fronsac was jumping around like Spider-Man almost). At least I can deal with Mani doing it. After all, we all know Marc Dacascos is a martial artist. You didn't think they cast him in this movie because of his acting ability did you?

Speaking of martial Arts, when Mani has a tournament of sorts before the big wolf hunt, two female peasants challenge him. Right. these two chicks do somersaults and all that and guff. Now its stretching it a bit to have Mani busting heads like he does, but are you tellin' me that 18th century French female peasants fight like freakin' Cynthia Rothrock? Bullsh*t! I almost fell out of my damn chair watching that!

When the one dude at the dinner table reads his crappy poetry about the wolf I really wanted Mani to burst in, do a somersault and plant his foot up to the knee in that guys crotch. Really. Now that would have gotten this movie an award.

Fronsac and the Marquis make a bet that Fronsac's love interest would not show up at the hunt. Fronsac flips a coin to the Marquis to pay up, but Mani catches it in mid-air, pointing out that Fronsac did indeed win the bet. But then Mani keeps the coin. Fronsac didn't notice that his best buddy just ripped him off?

The Final Judgment: This flick is a good movie. Its hard to follow if you don't give it 100% of your attention, and I'll admit the French names make it hard to keep track of stuff....at least for me....but I still enjoyed watching it. the best part though I think, is that its not what you'll probably expect....a werewolf picture. And even though its not, BotW will make a nice little flick to watch for Halloween. The Inferno gives this movie 4 devil heads.