The Wolfman
** out of four
by David Vicari

My favorite Universal monster movie classic is 1941’s The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and Claude Rains. Now, I wasn’t too upset when I found out they were remaking it because the original does have some ridiculous plot holes. Besides, the remake promised awesome transformation effects by none other than make-up effects God Rick Baker, who is responsible for the still-amazing effects in An American Werewolf in London (1981). On top of that, both Baker and lead actor Benicio Del Toro have a great affinity for the old Universal horrors. But something went wrong. The Wolfman was a troubled production from the start when the original director quit a week before shooting. Then Baker’s hard work was pissed on when the decision was made to go heavy with the CGI effects. After pushing its release date several times, The Wolfman has finally been unleashed, and it’s fundamentally hollow. It seems the studio had the film edited down to its bare essentials, sacrificing character development and pacing. Set in 19^th century England, Del Toro plays Lawrence Talbot, a Shakespearean actor returning home to solve his brother’s murder. Before you can say “Blue Moon,” Talbot is bitten by a lycanthrope, thus becoming one himself on the next full moon. Del Toro’s performance is pretty vacant, and the same can be said of Talbot’s relationship with his late brother’s fiancée (the ravishing Emily Blunt). I’m sure it’s all on the cutting room floor. All that is left is CGI gore and mayhem, and that’s not much.

Shutter Island
* ½ out of four
by David Vicari

You know it’s going to happen, but you are never quite prepared for it. When one of your favorite directors makes a bad movie, it tends to hurt more. Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas) is one of the great filmmakers and one of my personal favorites. No one is infallible, and he has made some bad films. His first studio film, Boxcar Bertha (1972), was a rather dull exploitation vehicle, but his most notorious flop was the wife beating musical New York, New York (1977).

We are now in that same territory again with Shutter Island. It’s a really awful movie. I blame Scorsese’s choice of material most of all. This thrill-less thriller is based on a book by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), and the whole story and twist at the end is just so lame. Maybe this would have made a decent 20-minute Twilight Zone episode, but as a 138-minute movie that goes on and on and on, it is quite painful.

Even though you will figure out immediately what’s going on, I will try not to give anything away in my synopsis. Here’s what we know as the movie begins: It’s the early 1950s and U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio so brooding and intense he’s risking a hernia) and his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), are summoned to a spooky mental hospital located on a remote island off the cost of Massachusetts. They are investigating the strange disappearance of a patient (Emily Mortimer) confined there for murdering her three children. This is not an easy case for Daniels, for he is haunted by the suicide of his wife (Michelle Williams) as well as the Nazi death camps he saw fist hand in WWII. Hell, the guy is just plain haunted!

Shutter Island is a boring, repetitive picture, and a major disappointment. There aren’t even many of the familiar Scorsese flourishes. If I didn’t know any better I would say this was directed by a no-style hack like Martin Campbell or Gregory Hoblit and not the master craftsman who actually is behind the camera. Hell. Well, the undying euphoria of The Saints winning the Super Bowl is actually helping me stay strong during this tragedy.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
** stars (out of four)
Review by Fritz Esker

An adolescent boy is an outcast at school and unhappy at home. Suddenly, he finds he has magical powers and is shipped off to a special school where he can harness his abilities. No, it’s not Harry Potter, it’s the new film based on a series of young adult novels about Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman), the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman. Someone has stolen Zeus’ lightning bolt and suspicion falls on Percy as he finds himself being chased around present-day America by all sorts of supernatural forces, including Medusa (Uma Thurman) and Hades (Steve Coogan). The problem the film has is similar to the main problem of some of the Harry Potter adaptations – namely, a lot of exposition has to be awkwardly conveyed in order to condense a book into a feature-length film. And even the Harry Potter films still retained the charm of the central triangle of Harry/Hermione/Ron. The central relationship in this film (between Percy and his satyr protector and a daughter of Athena) does not register as well. Still, there are enough cool things lurking around the edges here to make one believe the books might be worth checking out. And if this film gets more kids to read or to learn more about Greek mythology, then that’s a good thing.