THE WOLFMAN (Joe Johnston, 2010)

I remember way back at the 2008 Comic-Con when The Wolfman was getting hyped, and after months and months of delays it's finally arrived.

And it really is as bad as you thought it was gonna be. But not in the way you think. Oh, not in that way at all...

Y'see ova hee, Joe Johnston's re-imagining of 1941's The Wolfman is one of those good bad movies. It's just so incredibly overacted, the direction is so half-assed, and the action and violence is so insanely over-the-top and ridiculous it's just way too much fun.

Everyone in this movie is just taking the source material way too seriously, that it creates this funny little world where you honestly don't give a shit what happens to anybody in the film, just that they end up being annihilated by the Wolfman at some point. And, brother, let me tell ya... HOOOOO boy... when the Wolfman comes out and terrorizes the town... OH YEAH... it's a lot of fun.

The movie is very troubled with pacing, and the first half-hour or so is just people talking about curses and... y'know, I don't even know, it's really not all that important. But then when Benicio Del Toro transforms at the full moon, especially the scene when he's being shown in front of scientists in London and they all get trapped, it gets so shamelessly violent that it's hard not to like it. At some points it reminded me of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, but The Wolfman is no where near as good as that.

I also thought the cheap scares at the character's expenses were howlingly good (WHOOOOA LET'S START THE WOLFMAN PUN MACHINE AAAAAAND GO). The use of practical effects over CGI to create the Wolfman was a curse-free choice (BOOM) and something I enjoyed. Although the film did get hairy at some points (BAM), the madcap uberviolence turned out to be bloody good (BADA BING).

BOTTOM LINE: The only way to enjoy The Wolfman is to go in with an open mind, because if there's one thing it doesn't ask from you, it's an IQ. It's a B-movie made to look like something more.