The Company of Wolves
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Movie Reviews of The Company of Wolves
Movie Review: Very bad effects? Very Bad acting? Very good film!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen this movie at night, alone. Don't do that!!
Because this movie has a so much fascinate atmosphere, and every scene is unique.
More than that i can't say, but: buy it, hold it, love it.
Movie Review: Greatest Werewolf Movie Ever
Summary: 5 Stars
This is possibly the greatest werewolf movie ever made. I wouldn't call it horror, too cerebrel for that. Weaving many tales into the ultimate Little Red Riding Hood movie that is definately not for kiddies.Movie Review: CUT!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I own both the VHS & DVD versions of this film. I love this movie, but did anyone else notice the DVD version is edited!!! :(Movie Review: Gothic fantasy take on a classic story
Summary: 4 Stars
The screenplay of this film was a colloboration between director Neil Jordan (Interview With A Vampire, The Crying Game) and feminist author Angela Carter, and is based upon a short story by Carter from her collection of short stories 'The Bloody Chamber'. This story, in turn, is based upon the classic children's story 'Little Red Riding Hood', but is filled with dark, menacing, and sexual imagery, all of which are used in the screenplay to create this stunning piece of gothic 'horror'. That said, I always balk when I see this film placed in the 'Horror' section of any store, and cringe whenever I read a synopsis describing this film as a story about werewolves. Both descriptions are very wide of the mark. This is a story about the transition from childhood to adulthood of a teenage girl, and the symbolism throughout the film is subtle and powerful simultaneously. As such, it pretty much goes without saying that if you are looking for a scary movie, you're probably in the wrong place.
The highlights of this movie are:- Angela Lansbury as 'Granny', who turns in a wonderful performance and really adds a touch of class to the film. Also, the set design and lighting is brilliant, evoking a truly gothic feel to the scenes. For example, most of the movie is based 'outdoors' (like in the woods or in the village), and yet you always get the feeling of an enclosed and somewhat foreboding environment. This feels exactly right given that the story is centred around the character of a young girl, whose world consists solely of the small and familiar surroundings of home, where the outside world is only known to her through the fantastic stories of her Grandmother, where men, wolves and 'straying from the path' are to be feared.
Another, and major, highlight of this movie is the wonderful soundtrack by George Fenton, which is worth having on CD itself. Combining adaptations of traditional folk music with eerie, ominous synth sounds does as much to enhance the gothic atmosphere as the visual effects and set design.
Other than that, the rest of the performances are generally pretty good, especially Neil Jordan's staple actor, Stephen Rea, as well as a fine cameo from Brian Glover and debut from the beautiful and talented Sarah Patterson as the lead charcter 'Rosaleen', who sadly hasn't done much else since as far as I know. The film is also quite famous for it's man-to-wolf scenes and an early use of animatronics. The effects, sadly, do look pretty dated now, but the context of the scenes in which they are used is untainted, and remain powerful scenes both visually and emotionally. The fact that Rosaleen, after witnessing the pain and anquish that such a transition entails, openly weeps and says 'I'm sorry, I didn't know a wolf could cry', is brilliantly emotional and indicative of her almost complete transition from unknowing child, to compassionate and knowing young adult.
The DVD is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. First of all, it's not widescreen (although oddly the title sequence at the beginning is!) which is a real shame. Also, the menu navigation is pretty tacky and amatuerish. Indeed, even the inlay and cover leave something to be desired. The tagline, which goes something like, "In the dead of night, the beast is unleashed!" is as misleading as it is cringe-worthy, and sounds like it was probably written by someone who has only seen excerpts of the movie once, as opposed to someone like me who has seen this film over 50 times! A plus for the DVD is the 'Promotional Video' which is basically an extended trailer (around 20 minutes long), and is interesting as it contains many scenes that differ slightly from the film itself. In this video, Rosaleen reveals that she is twelve and three-quarter years old, a fact that is not mentioned in the short story or the finished movie!
All in all, this is a great movie, if not a great DVD, that is so full of rich imagery and subtlety, that it promises to provide great re-watch value, and should not be considered as a 'horror-flick'... unfortunately, most stores don't have a section entitled 'Enchanting fantasy gothic adult fairytale stories'...
Movie Review: Don't know why it's rated R
Summary: 4 Stars
This film has No "foul language" and No "graphic violence" and the blood/gore is no worse than the movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (thus, PG-13). I admittedly taped this on the IFC (Independent Film Channel) because it wasn't in production. In the showing of the movie, they show a woman wondering a street in the moonlight naked. The video that I taped from the IFC version shows no pubic hair, but a dark (extremely faded) figuration of this beautiful woman. It would be like Adam and Eve in the movie, "The Bible" where Eve is naked and they show alot of flesh just missing vital pubic hair parts. In this movie they show the whole body with the woman's long hair covering her breast (like in "The Bible" movie) and the camera & lighting being to dark to see strands of pubic hair (or any real hair at all, just a blotch that is faded to the extreme). This is the ONLY reason I can figure why this movie merited a R rating from the IFC version I viewed. www.kids-in-mind.com doesn't currently have a coverage of this movie, so I'd thought I would write what I know from the IFC presentation (which, to my knowledge, doesn't edit films).
I only bring this up because this movie shouldn't be rated R according to what the IFC channel showed - which is the movie as "orginally presented" to my knowledge. The movie addresses sexual advances of a teenage dude, but the story has a watchful eye within the community and families as they are involved on how the romance developes. The story should be rated PG-13 by its content unless the IFC version was edited.
The films is in 1:78:1 ratio which makes it more entriguing for me to get. I was upset it wasn't anomorphic (enchanced for widescreen TV's), but the ratio is easier to digest considering this movie was 'out of production' for such a long period even in VHS format.
Would I show this to someone under 10 years of age? No! Above that is a judgment call considering the child's development and any strict parental moral restrictions based off what I've described from my observations in this review. It is targeted for teenage and above IMHO. I fully enjoyed seeing it with my wife in my mid thirties and I personally refrain from purchasing most rated R films.
Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
I would have given this DVD 5 stars, but it is not anomorphic.
Sherwood