Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Allissa
.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
NateWatchesCoolMovies
Brotherhood Of The Wolf is the kind of film that has juuust a bit too much packed into its two plus hour running time to be an instant classic, but at the same time I can't help but say to me it's a personal favourite. It's tailored towards my love of grisly adventure, comic book style frames and wilderness set action mayhem. It's based on the allegedly real 'beast of gevaudan', a massive carnivorous monster that terrorized rural France during the 1700's. That historical event is built upon to create a mythic, larger than life cinematic whirlwind that resembles The Ghost & The Darkness, mixed with The Last Of The Mohicans with a touch of occult intrigue. Samuel Le Bohan plays a womanizing french debonair who takes it upon himself to hunt the creature, and the impressively athletic action star Marc Dacoscas plays his native companion Mani. Together they scour the misty french wildlands and shady, vaguely corrupt small town aristocracy, searching for clues as to the creatures origin. It's a curious film, one that transcends the genres a bit too much, but at the same time in a fun way that finds you never correctly guessing where the film might take you. It's part Sleepy Hollow, part B Movie and part decadent soft core porno in the vein of caligula, and is certainly never boring. It's great strength is in set design, and especially cinematography. There are a whole bunch of shots that are so lush, so gorgeous that they seem almost like an exquisite oil painting. The creature is kept wisely out of sight for most of the film but it's eventual appearance is shocking, and shows how much work went into the effects. It's almost a perfect film, with a bit of editing out the unnecessary bits (that DTV lookin melodramatic orgys gotta go, man), it could be truly something special. But nevertheless it's still a rip roaring, atmospheric action horror silver bullet of a film that deserves praise for its undeniable imagination and creativity.
Angelus2
In the French countryside a wolf stalks the people of the town and kills them, therefore Fronsac is called to investigate with his 'Native American' friend, Mani. However, it seems this so-called beast is extremely elusive and Fronsac finds the French elitists to be some what even more dangerous than the thing he hunts.I honestly was expecting a Fench masterpiece, I mean French films tend to be much more artistic and the lack of a better word, 'gentle'. But what I received was a two hour and half load of awful film-making, I should say the opening fight scene was quite intriguing, the 'myth' of the beast create great fascination, but this tension building goes on for far too long and when the audience finally sees the beast...well, its very disappointing. I understand that the filmmaker's intention to keep the beast in the background and create a drama...but it did not work in the slightest...Monica Belluci was beautiful as always, but even she failed to keep the audiences attention, however Vincent Cassell gave a fine performance as the creepy aristocrat..but even he couldn't keep the film alive.
oneguyrambling
To explain fully what goes on and why in Brotherhood of the Wolf I'd need 2,000 words, even then I'd just end up confusing things, suffice to say it's pretty intricate.The basics of the story though, are that a French "problem solver" and his Native American (ish) assistant venture to a region of France beset by an unknown but very vicious and hungry beastie who is killing the locals in gruesome fashion.The Frenchman is Mr Fronsac who is cool in quite a poncy way, and his Indian companion is Manny. Once they arrive and speak to the locals they find that this is far more than a wild beast with a tendency for human flesh, but something that may in fact be directed by an unknown organization hellbent on terrorizing the town.Even though it is set in the 17 or 18 hundreds here is a film that tries to defy genres, therefore we get hyped up fight scenes, horror elements and even a part animal part beast, all set with a sumptuous backdrop of French nobility and heaving cleavages. One of the more notable cleavages belongs to Monica Belucci, who in a genius moment of casting works in a local brothel and early on "shares her wares" with Fronsac.As mentioned the plot is labyrinthine as the filmmakers obviously want to continually throw the viewer off the trail, so we have many red herrings and characters brought in to confuse the issue and muddy the waters.Many characters are introduced during the first hour and a half, special mention must go to Vincent Cassell as the one armed Jean-Francios, who is ugly, creepy and compelling all at once for some reason.After some unsuccessful hunts with little success, Fronsac and co are told to step aside and let someone else handle it, he hangs around in any case determined to see the situation through, (and to keep plowing Belucci I'd wager).When the "beast" finally arrives it is reasonably impressive, though the quality of the CGI fluctuates at times, shortly afterwards the truth is exposed, and we learn the origins of the beats, who is behind it and why.The Brotherhood of the Wolf is heavily stylized and at times pretentious filmmaking, I daresay if the movie was made in English (and not French) with a similarly important tone it wouldn't be as well known.It is an interesting film, and amid the confusion and long-winded scenes there are some memorable moments, more than anything I give credit for at least attempting to make a period epic with so many influences and a blending of genres, even if they did ultimately overreach.Paring down some of the elements and cutting perhaps up to 40 minutes of running time would do a lot of favours for the film.Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. If subtitled, 2 ½ hour, genre-crossing French period pieces about half mechanical animals terrorizing a small town is your thing look no further! If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com
KentaroK
I first watched "Brotherhood of the Wolf" several years ago (it came out in 2001, after all)... back then, dramas with good action scenes were a dime a dozen. However, nowadays, action movies seem to lack directors who know what they are doing... which makes these older movies seem all the more better.The story of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is very compelling, being set in a French province in 1764 and the few years after-wards. I won't say any more of the story, since I don't want to spoil it at all (this should be my first non-spoilers review).This is mostly a drama, but the action scenes serve both to advance the plot, and to give depth to the characters... from the first one, within the first few minutes, which introduces some of the main characters.What makes this one of my faves, however, is all of the parts combine to produce both an entertaining experience, and a work of art. The pace, narration (which is sparse), characters, actors, directing, post-production editing, and soundtrack all combine so seamlessly that you hardly notice the time passing by.Well, anyhow, go watch it... 10/10, perfect score by me. In fact, I think I'll go watch it one more time.
