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The Wolfman | 
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| Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt
Studio: Universal
List Price: $29.98
Buy Used: $4.96
You Save: $25.02 (83%)
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Rating:  197 reviews
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 025195038430
UPC: 025195038430
EAN: 0025195038430
Theatrical Release Date: February 12, 2010
Release Date: June 1, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Academy Award winners Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins tear up the screen in this action-packed thriller. Lawrence Talbot is lured back to his
Amazon.com
The mist rising over the moors feels right, and so does the slant of moonlight coming over a Victorian village-scape. And if the moon is full, this must be The Wolfman, Universal's 2010 attempt to revive one of the crown jewels in its deservedly legendary horror stable. Benicio Del Toro takes on the old Lon Chaney Jr. role of Lawrence Talbot, an American visitor to his ancestral home in England. Talbot's brother has recently been torn to bits by a beast in the forest, leaving behind a grieving fianc e (Emily Blunt) and a not-visibly-grieving father (Anthony Hopkins). This central situation seems drained of blood even before the full-moon transfigurations begin to bloom, and Del Toro's Talbot--an actor by trade, which raises interesting possibilities for a story of a man divided by different personalities--is mystifyingly blank. The intriguing casting of Del Toro (what an opportunity for a cool werewolf!) comes to naught as Talbot seems to languish on the periphery of his own story. Hugo Weaving tries to generate some interest as the police inspector on the case, but he too is defeated by the combination of mechanical storytelling and bland computer-generated werewolves. The script skips from one exposition scene to the next, but nothing registers long enough to create character, tension, or the slimmest desire to see what happens in the next scene. Every once in a while director Joe Johnston (Jumanji) finds a grand staircase or CGI fog that conjures up the atmosphere of the old Universal horror classics, but otherwise this is a clueless affair--not as bad as Van Helsing, but flat-out dull. The movie can't even find a way to get the old Gypsy lady (Geraldine Chaplin stepping into Maria Ouspenskaya's tiny shoes) to deliver a proper recitation of screenwriter Curt Siodmak's great "Even a man who is pure in heart" doggerel from the 1941 film. Instead, it's thrown away in a voice-over at the beginning--one hairy way to start the movie. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 192 more reviews...
 Wolfman - New September 6, 2010
Shirley A. Yant (Sherrodsville, OH USA)
Anything Anthony Hopkins is in is usually good. This really makes you
feel sorry for the werewolf. Well Done.
 Howling Great Film September 4, 2010
Jerry P. Danzig (New York, NY USA)
What a pleasant surprise!
This is an exceptionally handsome big budget remaking of "The Wolfman" with an A-list cast, set in the late nineteenth century.
The costumes and settings are spectacular, the effects are nifty, and the man/werewolf transformations are state-of-the-art.
Connoisseurs will appreciate the fact that Rick Baker apparently masterminded the makeup effects.
Bloody, scary, and exciting, this is a true horror film, in which a tragic protagonist is undone by his fate and ultimately delivered from damnation by the love of a good woman.
The only reason I give this DVD four stars instead of five is the appalling lack of extras, which apparently have been reserved for the Blu Ray version. This is NOT acceptable!!! Studios should NOT penalize DVD viewers with such sleazy and greedy marketing tactics.
Back to the film, this is a must-see for any fans of the classic Universal horror films. Maybe it's time for a superior remake of "Frankenstein" and "The Bride of Frankenstein"!
But is this DVD a must-own? NOT until they add the making-of extras that appear on the BR version. Humbug -- silver bullets are too good for the Universal marketers who have shortchanged DVD viewers here!
 Something of a Howler September 3, 2010
R. Schultz (Chicago)
This film is too heavy with atmospherics and with CGI special effects. The smoky oak atmosphere of the English village and the surrounding woods is interesting for a while. But then the unrelieved lowering of sky and woods and old mansion begins to get tedious.
The actors also have too limited a range to play across here. I'd looked forward to seeing Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins star together. Both men have great faces and generally a great on-screen presence. But their usual charisma gets smothered in the dour monochrome settings of "Wolfman." It's as if one of the dusty brocade tapestries on the walls of the Talbot mansion had fallen on them, pressing them into the misty purple scenes.
I had thought that modern F/X techniques might have made man's transformation into wolf even more thrilling than it was in the Lon Chaney Jr. original of this movie. But it isn't so. If anything, the modern simulations make the transformation look almost ludicrous in comparison to the more nuanced elision from man to beast that the Chaney version accomplished. The wolf versions of the man look more like artifacts than ever.
There are a few moments of genuine emotion here as the Benicio del Toro and Emily Blunt characters discover their love for each other. But this humanity gets covered by the matted fur coat of Larry Talbot's alter ego. On the whole, I'd advise that you spit up this hairball.
Teen Wolf Tres? August 30, 2010
Inept Editor (New York, NY)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Anthony Hopkins; Benicio Del Toro; Hugo Weaving; decades of improvement for transformational effects. What could possibly go wrong for the 2010 adaptation of Wolfman?
I almost didn't find out, since I almost fell asleep half-way through the film, but I'll give it a shot.
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I am not a remake snubber. I think of movie remakes as like stage performances. There's always the same basic script premise, but the directors and producers make the story fit their vision. Whether or not that vision is any good remains to be seen. You don't see an outcry every time there's a new version of Hamlet on Broadway. Why should movies always have to prove themselves in comparison to an original?
However, Wolfman will be yet another failure to keep the fires against movie remakes going.
If you can't guess what happens, let me summarize:
(Spoiler Alert! Not really. This movie is surprise free. You can get the plot from the trailer. I guessed correctly from the trailer about who the original werewolf was.)
A young Shakesperean actor, Benicio Del Toro, returns to Blackmoor to learn what happened to his murdered brother. He gets bitten by a giant dog, and every full moon he turns into a smaller, hairier version of the Incredible Hulk. In doing so, he becomes the greatest Shakesperean actor ever, causing jealousy from Aberline, a detective from Scotland Yard. Everyone thinks he's just a madman, so they send him to London, where he goes on a short killing spree in a mental asylum, probably because they kept dosing him in ice water. When he becomes human again, he goes back to Blackmoor to confront the original werewolf, his father Anthony Hopkins, who rips his shirt off as they go at each other in wolf-fisticuffs. After killing his father, he tries to sex up his dead brother's girlfriend, played by Emily Blunt, who shoots him.
So, what works? Well, the acting seems as realistic as possible. Unfortunately, the story is so boring, that the only time you really wake up is three-quarters through when you hear Benicio Del Toro raise his voice, yelling "I will kill all of you!"
But after that, you can go back to sleep.
The transformation effects were very good. Using CGI for the transformation gives a lot of leeway in what you can accomplish, and it shows how torturous such a transformation can be. The problem is that at the end of the transformation, there is Lon Chaney's wolfman, in all of its understated glory.
The story suffered above everything else, mostly because it left few surprises. You knew what was going to happen from the preview, so there really wasn't much to look forward to. Even the intense gore from wolfman attacks were yawnable. It's amazing that this script was rewritten during shooting. I'd hate to see what it looked like before.
I'm sorry, but I am falling asleep as I write this, as I have to dredge up how boring this movie was again, and it is putting me into a napping mindset.
I give this movie 1.5 full moons. Do yourself a favor, and watch An American Werewolf in London again instead of this waste of time.
 A Workable Reworking August 28, 2010
Celia Hayes (San Antonio, SA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Oh, here I go with my standard WTTW (word to the wise) when faced with posting a review for a certain style of book or movie: this book/movie/production has or is imbued with a certain old-fashioned sensibility. Whether you like that sort of thing (or not) depends on how much you will like the resulting book/movie/production. If you like it, you'll be blown away. If not, then you'll be yawning your head off and looking to see how much time has passed.
This re-imagining - or rather, re-working - of the iconic 1941 Lon Chaney version of the Wolfman story seemed to me to be a classic 1930s horror flick, updated with top-of-the-line acting talent, extensive location shooting at the most stately of English stately homes, elaborate costuming - and oh, my the special effects; miles above what was available at that time. The horrific transformation of the protagonist from man to wolf in "An American Werewolf in London" set a high bar for painful realism, or so I deduced, (I had my eyes closed during the most awful parts of that particular movie) and the director, Joe Johnston took full advantage of that - and other familiar elements and conventions of the classic horror genre such as dark forests, foggy nights, full moons, strange gypsy fortunetellers, mysterious family tragedies and decrepit mansions.
Benicio Del Toro stars as the younger son of an English lord, returning to his ancestral home, after the mysterious death of his older brother - his American accent and looks neatly explained by his having been an actor in America for years, and by his mother having been Spanish. There's something foul afoot in the woods by the ruinous stately manor, ruled over by his reclusive father, Anthony Hopkins, who chews the scenery remorselessly, as well as taking over just about every scene he is in. Another classic tell - a great actor appearing in what at first seems a small role - that means there is Something Strange & Significant Afoot, for there will be a denouement of Horrific Revelation, in which great acting chops will be required. Emily Blunt appears, somewhat peripherally as the dead brother's fianc e and understated love interest - and doom. Hugo Weaving wanders in at first for no apparent reason as the investigating police officer, and wanders away again, howling. And there you have it - if you like classic horror movies updated, you'll love it.
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