The Film

“Wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men.” No statement is truer than in Captain America: The First Avenger. The fifth comic book adaptation from Marvel Studios tells the story of Steve Rogers, an unlikely hero from Brooklyn who, after being selected for the “Super Soldier” program, becomes the iconic “Captain America” and leads the fight against the “Red Skull” and HYDRA, a Nazi Research & Development organization, during World War II.

The film stars Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, The Losers), who delivers a shockingly magnificent performance as Steve Rogers. His portrayal of the character who starts out a small, feeble man with a heart of gold and transforms into an symbol of strength, courage, and perseverance shows that Evans has done his homework on the character and understands on a personal level who he is, and more importantly, who he inspires to be. The film also stars Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) as the villainous Johann Schmidt aka Red Skull. And though he does a good job in portraying such a formidable antagonist, his performance left a little more to be desired from an actor of his caliber and reputation. The all-star supporting cast includes Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Philips, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes, & Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine. All of whom, especially Tucci, deliver standout performances of their roles.

The film directed by Joe Johnston (October Sky, The Wolfman) is an excellent presentation of visual story telling and special effects. Everything from the creation of “Skinny Steve” and the Red Skull’s makeup, to the costumes, shield, and CGI are executed with such precision. The writing and dialogue are done equally well, thanks to the work of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. And the music by Alan Silvestri is the “icing on the cake.”

The Blu-Ray

3D: The 3D looked fantastic on my 3D TV and is well worth the extra money if you’ve get a 3D TV at home.

Audio/Video: Both the audio and video quality are phenomenal.

Special Features include:

Commentary: By Joe Johnston, Shelly Johnson, & Jeff Ford, offers insight into the creative process of the film.

Featurettes: The making of the film, divided into several sections. Includes special first look at “The Avengers.”

Deleted Scenes: Or lack there of.

Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer: A HILARIOUS short film starring S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Coulson.

The Film Rating: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-Ray Rating: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Even though people down right hated that film, I dug the Director’s Cut (here). The film nabbed Rick Baker yet another Oscar. Could you howl for another franchise via DTV?

Donny:

10 - Splice

9 -Piranha 3D

8 -The Runaways

7 -Buried

6 – The Expendables

5 - I Spit on your Grave

4 -Kick-Ass

3 - Black Swan

2 – Monsters

1 - Let Me In

Jon:

10 – A Nightmare on Elm Street

9 – The Crazies

8 – Clash of the Titans

7 – Bitch Slap

6 – Best Worst Movie

5 – Kick-Ass

4 – The Human Centipede

3 – Machete

2 – The Last Exorcism

1 – The Wolfman

Agree? Disagree? Comment below with your favorites!

Now, we were a bit bushed from the past Memorial Day holiday, so let’s recap last week’s key new releases for June 1st, since we didn’t get to it, then on to today’s!

(6-1)

Alice in Wonderland

It very quietly became the 6th biggest film at the box office a mere 13 weeks ago. Still that doesn’t determine quality, and the Burton film is average at best. No 3D option either for this-yet. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

The Wolfman

Man oh man, were those trailers great. After much behind-the-scenes drama, the film finally got released to mixed results. there was just scenes that felt abbreviated, plot lines rushed, and stiff feeling to it all. Wonder if the new extended cut will change that? (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

Life

The sorta sequel to BBC’s Planet Earth series is equally as beautifully and memorizing. I did feel like the series felt rushed in each episode-I wanted to focus more on things that had little screen time. But it’s still great. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Buy

New to Blu

Bad Boys

Class of Nuke ‘em High

War of the Worlds (2005)

And now, new releases for June 8th!

Shutter Island

It’s Scorsese which means you should have your wallet out now. Overall, it’s a really good film, just not Scorsese’s best work, but so? Just see it, you won’t be disappointed. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Rent

From Paris with Love

The trailers really didn’t sell it, and it really didn’t make much money at the box office, but it should be worth a quick look. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Rent    Donny says: Rent

New to Blu

Caddyshack

The Illusionist

That does it for this week and keep it here for reviews of these discs and more, only on Killer Film!

Attack of the Horrible DVD Covers! will be a monthly article focusing on the month’s releases that feature some truly bad art. Let’s look at some of the bad ones in this month of June.

If you saw this at the stores and assuming you don’t pay attention to Killer Film, would you even glance twice at it?

The main selling point isn’t those big heads of Bencio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. Heck, not even Emily Blunt could get me to pick it up (well, truth be told, a naked Blunt could sell anything, but that’s neither here or there). The main selling point of the film is the Wolfman and he’s get a super small image way down below. Lame! Universal should’ve looked at their theatrical marketing team for this inspired art, that should have been the DVD/Blu-ray cover:

That’s what I’m talking about! While the DVD/Blu-ray isn’t atrocious, it fails to sell and it is very generic looking. You have to sell your product, especially for this film since the film failed miserably at the box office.The film is out now on DVD/Blu-ray.

Next up, we got a film I really liked but what the heck is this?

Again, it’s not bad in a design way, but it doesn’t tell you anything about the film. All we get is Denzel’s big melon on the cover. While this one was of the one-sheets they used, quite frankly, the film never had the best art for it, they still chose the wrong one. I liked this:

Not the best, but it adds mystery to what is the Book of Eli, showcases Denzel still, and offers us a glimpse at the film’s setting. This art would entice people to at least pick it up because it piques their curiosity.The DVD/Blu-ray is out June 15th.

Finally, we get to this horrible cover. Like is this a direct-to-DVD crapfest? Or one of the year’s funniest films? I don’t know based on the art.

Gross. It follows the dTV rule: when your product stinks, show boobs on the cover, front and center, “that’ll get their attention!” Sure did, but not for the right reasons. The film never had interesting one-sheets, but I’m certain someone could have fashioned something better than what we got. At least the foreign one-sheet knew how to sell the concept.

Hot Tub Time Machine comes to DVD/Blu-ray on June 29th. Those are some of the lamer cover art in June and keep it here for next month’s Attack of the Horrible DVD Covers!

Attention Photoshop Artists: If one of our readers is awesome enough to make a cover art that’s better than something the studio used, send it as a JPEG file in an email to donny@killerfilm.com or jon@killerfilm.com and we will highlight it in the next article of Attack of the Horrible DVD Covers! This could possibly win you some free swag like stickers or DVDs from us, and maybe, just maybe, one awesome cover could get you the coveted Fan of the Month honor!

Thoughts?

Recently, Universal and Sony/Tri-Star have tried to either remake these as straight up period pieces or added some flavor to them by updating elements to various results. This past February, a remake of 1941′s The Wolf Man was released after a revolving door announcement of a release date, reshoots, and FX troubles, all to middling results. This comes at a time, when in 2009 the horror genre itself was at a high. So, are our old pals – Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man just Rusty Old Monsters?

Certainly with The Wolfman (now available on Blu-ray and DVD) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), similar styled films, the numbers don’t lie. The Wolfman, after the reshoots and constantly delays, had a budget of reportedly $150 million. It stumbled out of the gate on its opening weekend with $31.4 million, opening in second place after a chick flick (Valentine’s Day). Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had a budget of $44 million and in total domestically, just grossed a weak $22 million (although the film was a  rousing success internationally with $90 million).

So what was it? Both featured decent directors (Joe Johnston and Kenneth Branagh), solid actors (Bencio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins for The Wolfman and Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, and Helen Bonham Carter for Frankenstein), and featured great Victorian set designs. Could it be the Victorian setting? Are we too modern that period pieces fail to excite?

1999′s The Mummy was a period film, but featured modern sensibilities as a summer action film, over an atmospheric genre film like the classic Karloff film was, and it was a huge hit for Universal. On a $80 million budget, domestically it did $155 million and internationally, $260 million! That film spawned sequels, the others have not. So could this the answer? Making a period film in the style of an action film for the summer? Maybe. Look at Van Helsing, a supposedly loving homage to the Universal Monsters was panned by critics, but on its big budget of $160 million, doubled its budget when it was all said and done with $300 million!

What if we take these old characters and put them into a modern setting? Hmm. Wolf, a modern take at the werewolf legend in 1994, directed by Michael Nichols and starring Jack Nicholson, did pretty good actually with $131 million worldwide on a seemingly tinier budget at $60 million, plus it made another $30 million in rentals.

Despite all of that, the one film that bucked this trend, was a classic adaptation of Dracula, in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, that featured no CGI, no wild action scenes, and proved to be a hit, making it one of the most commercially successful versions of the story. But that was in 1992. The trend was slow and gradually lead us to the question if are these monsters old and rusty. Do modern audiences still care about these Old World creatures of the night?

What do the critics think?

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: [Ricard Corliss]: Coppola brings the old spook story alive … Everyone knows that Dracula has a heart; Coppola knows that it is more than an organ to drive a stake into. To the director, the count is a restless spirit who has been condemned for too many years to interment in cruddy movies. This luscious film restores the creature’s nobility and gives him peace.

Wolf: [Hal Hinson]: The movie isn’t wholly great; it starts to unravel just after the midway point.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: [Janet Masin]: Instead, this is a bland, no-fault Frankenstein for the 90′s, short on villainy but loaded with the tragically misunderstood.

The Mummy: [Steve Holden]: This version of The Mummy has no pretenses to be anything other than a gaudy comic video game splashed onto the screen. Think Raiders of the Lost Ark with cartoon characters.

Van Helsing: [Steve Crum]: If you were raised on action-packed computer games, this movie is from Sega heaven.

The Wolfman: [Jon Peters]: For every moment that The Wolfman works, it also fails.

Despite the top names involved with the films, the FX, the story is where it is all at, and maybe just maybe, these characters are just too old for a modern teenage audience to care. In a new horror movie world of Paranormal Activity, Saw, remakes, gritty and more violent films from Asia and France, these films have the new scares for kids. It’s interesting to see the wild indifference when The Wolfman was released. It dropped considerably in its second week, much like most horror films do, but it really stumbled out of the gate on week one. Maybe in the age of cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, and way more violent films, the old guys are well, just old.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comment below!

The Film:

(Note: This is a review on the theatrical cut of the film. A review for the Unrated Director’s Cut is further on below and noted.)

Terrible things Lawrence, you’ve done terrible things.

The werewolf genre has gotten pretty stale in recent years, mostly focusing on werewolves rather than wolfmen, and if there was any one entity that could put a much needed shot of vigor back into this genre, it is Universal Studios. Seemingly long absent from their bread-and-butter horror genre, the champions of Old World, creaky, atmospheric genre pictures from yesteryear (as in the 1930’s and 1940’s) gave the thumbs up for a remake of one of the better titles from their heyday, The Wolf Man – now oddly titled The Wolfman. Now, a lot has changed in the world and in film making technology since 1941, but the appearance of a Victorian setting with updated FX work by the wolf and ape master, Rick Baker pretty much justified this film credentials in our remake happy film world of today. But with constant delays, rumors of studio frustration, and endless re-shoots, could something glorious be howled at?

It’s tough to come up with a short answer for this film, as a quick and easy assessment is a hard realization to come too, because for every moment that The Wolfman works, it also fails. I don’t know if those production hardships are to blame, since in my opinion, this film is spectacular to look at. What works immediately is what we came for: the Rick Baker make-up FX. It has been long known that after his Oscar-winning and genre-defining work on 1981’s An American Werewolf in London, that Baker has longed for another chance at doing a werewolf picture, preferably The Wolf Man remake. His signing to do this film, gave this remake an instant blessing in our digital day and age, something our horror hearts could be excited for. I imagine he has been secretly working on this project well before it got the go-ahead from Universal, as Baker is a vet, a legend, but most importantly, a fan. He wanted to honor the Lon Chaney, Jr. and Jack Pierce legacy, and he has done just that.

His work is astounding. The full body FX on Benicio Del Toro (Che) is breath-taking and just is simply awesome. Subject of much fan debate was the transformation scenes, something Baker won an Oscar for in 1981 for An American Werewolf in London. So was he going old school prosthetic with it, or CGI? Well, it’s CGI and while he supervised over the digital FX, they’re pretty average in final rendering, neither bad nor superb, which is a little bit of a letdown due to his real FX work. Regardless, his FX work is second to none, and all that was really needed was a decent playground for the work to be showcased. Outside of the decent cast, the beautiful 1890’s costumes and set design, the script is the biggest flaw. Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self’s script is a hollow, lifeless form, unable to get us involved with the characters, who are all one-dimensional, as is the drama, for there is none.

Joe Johnston delivers a solid looking film, as he is a fine journeyman director, but with such a meandering and possibly boring script, the film really fails to generate any sort of excitement or scares. Most scenes come and go with no establishing motivations, set-ups, or life to them. They appear then cut to next scene. No rhythm or flow. Editing doesn’t help this either, as the collection of editors rush everything, except for the climax that finally finds some emotional connections with us and the film, if you’re still with it by then. The Wolfman largely feels like a greatest hits package of a better The Wolfman film we didn’t get to see. With an out-of-place homage o the pub scene in John Landis’ masterpiece An American Werewolf in London, the film honors the wrong film, as the ode to the Golden Age of Horror Cinema, is a flat comeback.

(Note: Here’s my assessment of the Unrated Director’s Cut of the film.)

After all of the fuss prior to finally seeing the film with the reshoot issues, here we get Joe Johnston’s Director’s Cut version of the film. Immediately one thing is clear: the added fifteen minutes allows for the film to develop characters and scenes more, eliminating the hiccups and stutter steps I noticed through the theatrical cut. Most of these are in the beginning 40 minutes, so it won’t change the actual plot any, but gives the film far more weight when the climax appears. The biggest and most interesting scene is the Max Von Sydow cameo. These scenes don’t offer us an entirely new film, but seeing it as a whole (plus the disc’s other deleted scenes), one can’t help but enjoy the film a little more. For me, this is the preferred cut I’ll continue to watch.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Universal continues their stellar HD work here. Deep level of details and clarity runs wild for most of the transfer, outside of a few darker scenes here and there, plus a good level of color detail gear us up for a solid HD picture. The DTS audio track is aggressive and loud, with deep bass and very active surround speaker usage.

U-Control: Universal offers us two modes here on the theatrical cut only that cover the film with various members of the film talking more in detail and a pop-up feature called “Legacy, Legend, and Lore” that covers werewolves inside and out of the Universal cannon. Pretty cool stuff here, if you have the time.

All extras are in HD.

Alternative Endings: We get two new endings here, starting when Emily Blunt is hiding from the Wolfman in the forest. Everything is the same until Blunt reaches for the gun and from her we get two different, slightly minor endings. They’re neat, although they don’t change the film in any type of way, they’re worth watching to see how the film could have ended.

Deleted Scenes: About 11 minutes here and actually, I would have liked them included into the Director’s Cut. Sure, these scenes would have pushed the film to about 2 hours and 10 minutes in length, but we get nice character moments with Singh, Talbot and Gwen, an entire new werewolf attack during a stage play (that is really cool), and a few minor extensions during the climatic fight. All in all, watch these.

Return of the Wolfman: It might seem on paper as just another EPK piece, but it’s a quick but interesting look at the Wolfman film and franchise from Universal featuring interviews with the writer self and the cast. It’s even nicer seeing the Universal classics in 1080i here!

The Beast Maker: This is all about Rick Baker and is totally worth the watch for fans of FX and horror.

Transformation Secrets: This explores the time-lapse wolf man transformation scenes from the various Lon Chaney, Jr. Universal films.

The Wolf Man Unleashed: This covers the bigger action scenes involving Talbot as the werewolf in some detail.

The Wolf Man (1941): Available on their BD-Live network is the ability to watch the original classic. Kind of a cool new way to view an older film, but with the awesome recent re-re-release of the classic (here), too bad Uni doesn’t pony up and give us a 1080p version.

We also get the Digital Copy on a separate disc, plus plenty of BD-Live features to enjoy.

Conclusion: Not the perfect monster flick we wanted, but even still, watching the Director’s Cut offers a lot of monster fun on a stellar Universal BD.

The Film (Theatrical): Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Hopkins will play Pharotu, an evil sorcerer who killed Sinbad’s love, a mermaid, and is looking to amass more magic for himself (Heat Vision Blog). Producing the feature is Bill Johnson under Inferno Entertainment with Mark Cidari and Gordon Gray under Mayhem Pictures. Principal photography could possibly take place at the end of this summer with no set release date announced at the moment.

The actor continually keeps himself busy, his latest on screen work being in Universal Pictures’ The Wolfman. He just recently wrapped up filming his role as Odin in the Marvel Studios picture Thor, set to be released in theaters on May 6th, 2011.

Diaz lends her voice once more to the DreamWorks Animation film Shrek Forever After, coming out in theaters on May 21rst. You can check out Benicio Del Toro howl it up as The Wolfman, expected to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 1rst. Read the synopsis below for An Ex to Grind from JaneHeller.Com.:

In An Ex to Grind, Manhattan financial planner Melanie Banks likes being on top. She’s addicted to the money, the power, and the success only hard work and long hours can bring. When she first meets and falls in love with pro football player Dan Swain, she admires his work ethic too. But then they get married and his career comes to a screeching halt, and suddenly she’s the one bringing home the bacon – and falling out of love with him. In the years – years! – since he last held a job, he’s become a paycheck-devouring, couch-sitting mooch, and he likes it that way. And Melanie decides it’s time to lose the loser.

Divorce, however, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For starters, Melanie’s forced to share custody of Buster, the couple’s adorable dog. And married or not, she still has to support the income-less Dan in the princely style to which he’s become so infuriatingly accustomed. Whether the overpaid lawyers term it “alimony” or “maintenance,” the bad news is that she has to pay it – and keep paying it until death do them part.

But there is one loophole.

If she can dump her ex onto some other unsuspecting female for ninety days and get him to violate their cohabitation clause, she’s off the hook – forever.

Sound tricky? Not for Melanie Banks. The first step is to secretly hire Desiree Klein, New York’s premier professional matchmaker. It’s not long before Desiree supplies Ms. Right (or at least Ms. Right-for-Ninety-Days) and Dan walks straight into the trap. Before Melanie knows it, her lazy ex has a new love, and by the end of the ninety days he’ll be out of her life – and her checkbook. Revenge is going to be so sweet…

Unless Melanie gets caught in a little loophole of her own creation.

Dan’s fresh start has revitalized him. His new sweetheart is miraculously transforming him into a responsible, caring, focused go-getter. In other words, he’s becoming precisely the man Melanie always dreamed he could be. And now she wants him back.

“When the moon is full, the legend comes to life. Academy Award^® winners Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro star in The Wolfman, a stunning re-imagining of the Universal Pictures thriller classic, coming to Blu-ray^TM, DVD and digital download on June 1, 2010 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Both the Blu-ray^TM and DVD releases of The Wolfman will contain two versions of the movie – the thrilling, never-before-seen unrated director’s cut, as well as the theatrical version of the film. The Wolfman will also be available day and date on video on demand.”

“As part of a groundbreaking offer, The Wolfman Blu-ray^TM will give purchasers an exclusive opportunity to stream the original 1941 The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr. three ways via BD-Live^TM, pocket BLU™ app and www.UniversalHiDef.com. The Blu-ray also features two exclusive alternate endings and, for a limited time only, a digital copy of the film that can be viewed on an array of electronic and portable devices. Both the Blu-ray^TM and DVD will include a never-before-seen unrated version of the movie, as well as the version seen in theaters.”

I, unfortunately, missed the film while in theaters, but Killer Film has a review for you all here.

Last but not least, the third release of the weekend with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, taking in $31.4 Million which is a bit impressive given the fact that the property is not as ridiculously known as previous adolescent novel adaptations.

Nine weeks in and Avatar is still luring in the audiences, bringing in about $23.5 Million which rounds out it’s total domestic gross now to $661 Million. It’s just a matter of, due to it’s monstrous box office, that the James Cameron picture will end up wooing over quite a few Oscars under it’s belt. Here’s the rest of the weekend estimates below from Box Office Mojo:

Weekend Box Office (February 12-14)

1. Valentine’s Day  ($56.4 M)
2. The Wolfman  ($31.7 M)
3. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief  ($31.4 M)
4. Avatar  ($23.5 M)
5. Dear John  ($15.3 M)
6. Tooth Fairy  ($6 M)
7. From Paris With Love  ($5.5 M)
8. Edge of Darkness  ($4.8 M)
9. Crazy Heart  ($4.2 M)
10. When in Rome  ($3.7 M)

We are finally out of the sappiest and romantic day of the year, and with that being said, bring on the Scorsese! This weekend the pushed back Shutter Island finally comes out in theaters. Within the realms of limited releases, there is Blood Done Sign My Name, The Ghost Writer and The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2010.

Terrible things Lawrence, you’ve done terrible things.

The werewolf genre has gotten pretty stale in recent years, mostly focusing on werewolves rather than wolfmen, and if there was any one entity that could put a much needed shot of vigor back into this genre, it is Universal Studios. Seemingly long absent from their bread-and-butter horror genre, the champions of Old World, creaky, atmospheric genre pictures from yesteryear (as in the 1930′s and 1940′s) gave the thumbs up for a remake of one of the better titles from their heyday, The Wolf Man - now oddly titled The Wolfman. Now, a lot has changed in the world and in film making technology since 1941, but the appearance of a Victorian setting with updated FX work by the wolf and ape master, Rick Baker pretty much justified this film credentials in our remake happy film world of today. But with constant delays, rumors of studio frustration, and endless re-shoots, could something glorious be howled at?

It’s tough to come up with a short answer for this film, as a quick and easy assessment is a hard realization to come too, because for every moment that The Wolfman works, it also fails. I don’t know if those production hardships are to blame, since in my opinion, this film is spectacular to look at. What works immediately is what we came for: the Rick Baker make-up FX. It has been long known that after his Oscar-winning and genre-defining work on 1981′s An American Werewolf in London, that Baker has longed for another chance at doing a werewolf picture, preferably The Wolf Man remake. His signing to do this film, gave this remake an instant blessing in our digital day and age, something our horror hearts could be excited for. I imagine he has been secretly working on this project well before it got the go-ahead from Universal, as Baker is a vet, a legend, but most importantly, a fan. He wanted to honor the Lon Chaney, Jr. and Jack Pierce legacy, and he has done just that.

His work is astounding. The full body FX on Benicio Del Toro (Che) is breath-taking and just is simply awesome. Subject of much fan debate was the transformation scenes, something Baker won an Oscar for in 1981 for An American Werewolf in London. So was he going old school prosthetic with it, or CGI? Well, it’s CGI and while he supervised over the digital FX, they’re pretty average in final rendering, neither bad nor superb, which is a little bit of a letdown due to his real FX work. Regardless, his FX work is second to none, and all that was really needed was a decent playground for the work to be showcased. Outside of the decent cast, the beautiful 1890′s costumes and set design, the script is the biggest flaw. Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self’s script is a hollow, lifeless form, unable to get us involved with the characters, who are all one-dimensional, as is the drama, for there is none.

Joe Johnston delivers a solid looking film, as he is a fine journeyman director, but with such a meandering and possibly boring script, the film really fails to generate any sort of excitement or scares. Most scenes come and go with no establishing motivations, set-ups, or life to them. They appear then cut to next scene. No rhythm or flow. Editing doesn’t help this either, as the collection of editors rush everything, except for the climax that finally finds some emotional connections with us and the film, if you’re still with it by then. The Wolfman largely feels like a greatest hits package of a better The Wolfman film we didn’t get to see. With an out-of-place homage o the pub scene in John Landis’ masterpiece An American Werewolf in London, the film honors the wrong film, as the ode to the Golden Age of Horror Cinema, is a flat comeback.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two weeks, this weekend Universal Pictures revitalizes their monster movie franchise with the Joe Johnston directed feature The Wolfman. Also coming out under their seemingly endless slate of films is Green Zone and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood.

The Film Journal was able to talk to The Wolfman and Captain America director Joe Johnston to get the dish on the latest happenings on the upcoming movie.:

“We’re in prep,” Johnston says. “Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we’re set up down in Manhattan Beach [California]. It’s the part of the process that I love the most,” he enthuses. “We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this?’ It’s that phase of the production where money doesn’t matter: ‘Let’s put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.’” The film, he says at this early stage, will begin “in 1942, 1943″ during World War II. “The stuff in the ’60s and ’70s [comic books] we’re sort of avoiding. We’re going back to the ’40s, and then forward to what they’re doing with Captain America now.”

With the way that Marvel Enterprises and their directors have been treating their latest adapted properties with tender loving care, this is one of those that could be interesting to see form together in the months to come. Marvel currently has a couple of other properties getting themselves put together, one of them being the principal photography that’s taking place for Kenneth Branagh’s Thor and the May 7th release of the highly anticipated summer tent pole sequel of Iron Man 2.