Movies with theme songs in them part I

Thought I would have a little fun and post some theme songs from different movies, this was something that was done a lot during the 80s where practically every movie that came out had some kind of cheesy theme song to go along with it. Im a huge fan of some of them and so I thought some of you guys and gals out there might get a kick out of them. Hope you like em. Or at least laugh a little. Whenever possible, I posted the original music video. But since some of these videos are so old, some were not availabe. If it doesnt have the oginal video, then its probably some video somebody edited to the sound of the theme song which is still alright. But most of them are the original music video. So, enjoy! I will be posting another batch possibly tomorrow, so be on the look out for that!

The videos below come from the following movies:

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) as performed by the Coupe de Villes. That's John Carpenter on the base in case you are wondering!

J Geils Band performed the theme song for Fright Night (1985), pretty catchy song if you ask me!

Theme song for Monster Squad (1987). This one is a rap song performed by Michael Sembello.

The Addams Family (1991) Thats MC Hammer performing the 'Addams Groove'!

Vanilla Ice Sings 'Go Ninha Go Ninja Go!' on Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)!

Bill and Teds Bogus Journey's (1991) 'Shout It Out' by Slaughter

'On Our Own' from Ghostbusters 2 (1989) as performed by Bobby Brown!

Grizzly Man (2005)

Title: Grizzly Man (2005)

Director: Werner Herzog

Starring: Timothy Tredwell

Review:

In his films, German director Werner Herzog loves to exalt and focus on the natural beauty of the wild. He loves to impress us with the most wondrous locations and vistas in his films, as if saying “See? You don’t need to spend millions of dollars building sets! It’s all out there for us in nature! For free!” Many of his productions have been filmed in the wildest and most outlandish locations, from the dense rain forests of the Peruvian jungle, to Brazil, Colombia and Ghana. For this reason I find it fitting that it was Werner Herzog who ended up making Grizzly Man. This documentary takes place almost entirely in the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, amongst the grizzly bears and the foxes, and one Timothy Tredwell.

Director Werner Herzog

Most of this documentary was shot by Timothy Tredwell, a bear enthusiast. The rest of the documentary is Herzog interviewing people and friends who knew Tredwell personally. If you ask me, I think he was more then a bear enthusiast. He was also an extreme environmentalist, an “eco warrior” and by pure happenstance he also became a documentary filmmaker. He wanted to become an actor, but he failed at that. According to the documentary Tredwell’s parents mention that he did audition for a role in the popular 80’s sitcom Cheers, but he was beaten by Woody Harrelson for the part. That destroyed him, and he became a drug addict. He ended up almost dying from a heroin overdose. After that, he decided to do something positive with his life, so he decided to go live amongst the bears in the wild. Once he had his first encounter with a bear, he knew that that’s what he wanted to do with his life. He documented his travels to the wild for 13 years before a bear killed him and his girlfriend.

What Tredwell did is apparently not an isolated incident. This running off into the wild, escaping from society and modern life and disappearing into the wilderness is apparently a phenomenon that has occurred quite a few times. Often times, this decision to live in the wilderness ends with death. The movie Into the Wild (2007) directed by Sean Penn and starring Emil Hersh was based on a similar story of a young man called Christopher McCandless. He also chose to escape society to go and live in the wild. And he also ended up dying because of this decision; he ate poisonous weeds that ended up killing him. Lesson learned? If we are not careful, nature can bite us in the ass. We should never underestimate it, which in my opinion is what happened to Timothy Tredwell and the bears. In a way it feels like modern living has castrated us, detached us from nature so much that we can no longer just live amongst it. Nature is wild and fierce and it has no remorse, no compassion, and as we can see in both of these films, nature can be deadly.

But I get what Tredwell was doing. I get what McCandless did as well. These are just humans who want to disconnect entirely from society. They want to turn their backs on everything that is established because they are simply not happy with the way things are. Their solution is to simply turn their backs on everything and literally run to the hills. The problem is that you cannot just survive in the wild without making some preparations. And you cannot underestimate the hunger of a wild beast! I think the problem Timothy Tredwell had was that he thought he could make a connection with a killer animal, a meat eater; an animal who has no problems whatsoever with ripping your head off. If you ask me, Tredwell might as well have been trying to make friends with a wild lion or a shark. He had this idealistic mentality towards bears. He thought that simply by talking nicely to them, that he would connect with them. He knew he was close to death, he knew these animals were dangerous, but he decided to ignore this anyway.

They address this issue in the documentary as well, but I do agree he was having a religious experience with the bears. He saw them as his gods, his saviors. Tredwell was a drug addict who escaped his addiction by replacing it with his contact with nature. The bears were Tredwell’s own personal Jesus Christ. Only, he could actually see and touch his gods! This idealization of the beasts is what brought him to his death, he forgot these animals have a killer instinct within them. They are predators, and we humans, are the prey. No matter how nicely you talk to them when hunger strikes, your going to start looking mighty juicy to those bears. There is a scene that Tredwell caught on tape where two bears are beating the crap out of each other and it was at that moment that I said, this guy is crazy! I would never be there! So close! I mean, these two bears where ripping themselves apart! You can see in that footage how powerful these creatures truly are, and if they can do that to themselves, well, it kind of makes you wonder what they could do to you if they got hungry enough.

When ever anyone mentioned this documentary to me, I thought it would just be about a guy living amongst bears and his obsession with them. But its so much more then that. Through the more then 90 hours he shot of himself with the animals, we get to know who he was and what a sad, lonely and fractured soul he was. He was a very sensitive person, more then most people dare to show and he had no problems in expressing his emotions on his videos. Since he was so alone most of the time, his footage turned into confessional. He would talk to himself while looking at the camera and analyze his life. There are some truly touching and extremely truthful moments on this film. Tredwell’s footage is like life, a little crazy, a little tragic, and sometimes incredibly beautiful. It this documentary achieves one thing, its that. It lets us understand that life is made up of the ugly, the beautiful, the horrifying and the mystical all wrapped up in one.

There’s a moment, where Tredwell befriends a group of foxes that’s so touching, so magical. You see Tredwell running with these incredibly beautiful foxes through the grass, and the mountains in the background and the beautiful day, and for a moment I got Tredwell. I understood why he did what he did. He must have felt completely free in that wilderness, completely cut off from cars, and traffic jams, wars, toxic waste, famine, poverty, racism, classism, abusive governments, garbage, consumerism, commercials…and all those things that can sometimes make living in the mist of our society a little difficult. Tredwell was a humanist, looking for freedom and peace in this world. Can’t say I blame him for that. Its just that, had it been me, I would have been just a little more respectful of nature that’s all.

Still, it’s amazing how he caught everything on tape. And it’s a very sincere and truthful documentary. You kind of get the feeling sometimes that Tredwell wasn’t really grasping the reality of his situation. It feels like he had some fantasy idea of what a bear really is, and didn’t really grasp how deadly nature can be. You get the feeling that the guy had some sort of death wish. He was depressed, and loneliness was getting to him. In one of his confessional moments, he asks himself why girls didn’t stay too long with him. Was it because he was too sentimental and that this turned girls off? Why couldn’t they accept him for who he was? He even questions the existence of god in some scenes! There are some powerful moments on this documentary, highly recommended to anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Hardware (1990)

Title: Hardware (1990)

Director: Richard Stanley

Stars: Dylan McDermont, Stacey Travis, John Lynch, William Hootkins

Review:

Richard Stanley’s films are not conventional in any sense of the word. His films are of the bizarre and strange variety and as some of you might already know, that’s a good thing in my book. Stanley is the kind of filmmaker that Hollywood shy’s away from because they are too edgy, too different, and too risky. Fortunately, for those of us out there who like to watch something a little different, something that’s diametrically opposed to the crap that Hollywood makes every day of the week, well, for those of us, Richard Stanley is an auteur. An artist/filmmaker searching for a way to get his subconscious, his dark side, his dark possible futures on film. Sadly, his future in hollywood stopped dead on its tracks because of a  fiasco story known as The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). Lucky for us he did manage to leave two films on his resume. The supernatural slasher Dust Devil ( 1993) and the film I will be reviewing today Hardware.

Hardware was a film that was not easy to make. It had a miniscule budget (1.5 million ) and a crew made up of mostly first time filmmakers. Now, if first time filmmakers have any promise at all, a production like this one can prove to be a prime environment for great low budget b film to get made. Hardware had a couple of future bonafide filmmakers amongst its crew! First of all, the film was partially produced by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, back when Miramax was in its early stages. Two very young filmmakers Chris Cunningham and Stephen Norrington, worked on the special effects dealing with the robots. Both of them went on to have careers directing films and music videos. Chris Cunningham went on to direct music videos for the likes of Bjork and Maddonna amongst others. Stephen Norrington went on to direct various films. His first one entitled Death Machine (1994) was very similar to Hardware because it was also about a killer robot on the loose. So there was lots of talent involved in the making of Hardware. Richard Stanley himself was part of this new batch of filmmakers on the up and up. He’d produced various short films, some of which you can see on this new DVD release.

Director Richard Stanley

Unfortunately, the film has always suffered from distribution woes. It got a small theatrical release, and was also released on VHS, which is how I first saw it. But problems soon arouse because the killer robot aspects of the story in Hardware were plagiarizing story elements from a story which appeared in the magazine 2000 A.D. entitled Shok! Also, the rights to the film were being disputed amongst the films various producers. But ultimately, that’s all been cleared out and we finally have the film in our hands. It was released on DVD by the fine folks at Severin films. This DVD is jam packed with juicy extras! It includes a feature where they interview cast and crew and they reminisce about the whole production and what a grueling task it was. It includes some of Richard Stanley’s early short films, the ones he made when he was a kid. It even includes the short film on which Hardware is based on. A fan of this film and Stanley himself will be pleased. Also, its an interesting dvd that lets you get into the mind of this offbeat director.

Hardware takes place in a post apocalyptic future, where we the humans have messed up things beyond repair. The landscape is one of toxic wastage; everything is old, decrepit, dirty, rotting. There is garbage and scraps of metal everywhere. The sky looks like it has a permanent shade of toxic orange. Basically, the world is done for and you kind of get the feeling that humanity is on its last legs. Enter Moses Baxter, a space cadet on his way home who decides to get a Christmas present for his girlfriend who likes to make sculptures. So he stops at this scrap shop and buys a robotic skull for her. She loves the skull and decides to incorporate it into her latest work of art. Unfortunately for Moe and Jill, this robot head isn’t dead! The robotic skull used to belong to a government issued killer robot called M.A.R.K. 13. Once Jill incorporates the skull on to her sculpture, the M.A.R.K. 13 reactivates itself and begins killing everyone in sight! Will Jill and Moe get to stop the deadly killer robot?

Hardware has many elements in common with two films I love very much. James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1984). Hardware is like Blade Runner because the world in which this film takes place in is very much like the one we see in Ridley Scott’s film, dirty and decayed. Everyone is living off of other peoples garbage. Humanity and technology are connected, intertwined. Some humans even have biomechanics replacing parts of their bodies. For example Moe, the main character, has a robotic hand. Hardware is also like The Terminator because of the whole killer robot angle. Some shots in Hardware mimic certain shots in The Terminator, specifically a scene in which the robot is reaching out for Jill, trying to grab her with its robotic hand. But is Hardware just a Terminator wannabe? Or is there something that sets it apart? Just what is it that makes Hardware special? What makes Hardware unique? One of the things that is interesting about this movie is that because of its budgetary constraints, the whole film practically takes place inside of Jill’s apartment. Richard Stanley did the same thing that Sam Raimi did in Evil Dead. You keep the story small. Keep your characters in one place. To Stanley’s credit, he managed to keep things interesting in spite of this being a “one set” film.

Does Moe dream of Electric Sheep?

Come on Jill! Press that button and crush the evil robot from the future! Oh wait...

Richard Stanley has a music video background, so he knows how to play with editing and lighting. Stanley has been quoted as saying that he wanted the lighting scheme for this film to be like a Dario Argento or Mario Bava film, which is probably why there are so many sequences that have so much blue and red in them. The film also has some very interesting hallucinogenic sequences, where the characters go on these drug trips. You see, the M.A.R.K. 13 robot has these fang-like protrusions on its face with which it injects its victims with hallucinogenic drugs. When it does this, characters go on these nightmarish dream sequences which give the movie that surreal nightmarish touch. These hallucination sequences together with the killer robot angle are the two elements that give the film its horror vibe. The killings get pretty gory in nature, which is actually what originally got this film its x rating. It had to be toned down quite a bit before it could be released. But the gore and the killer robot are the two elements that keep us watching. Still, this is a bit more then just a horror film.

It has interesting themes as well. The film is drenched in cyberpunk mentality. Lots of nihilism, lots of hatred for humanity and the way things are. That whole theme about humanity messing up the planet beyond repair. Over population has gotten out of control and there are new laws for keeping population down. Nobody trusts nobody. People live in fear, locked up in their apartments. Art thrives in the midst of all the chaos, Jill, one of the main characters in the film is an artist, expressing her frustrations with society through art. Its no wonder that her sculpture ends up having an American flag spray painted on its head. Technology is winning the war against humans, so much so that humans are merging with machines. A theme that we can see through the other main character in the film, Moe, who has a robotic hand. Then theres the “evil government” theme going on here as well, since we later find out that the M.A.R.K. 13 is actually a government issued experiment, made for the sole purpose of destroying the excess population. So it’s a movie that has some great themes hovering amongst the sci-fi and the horror.

The movie has a couple of cool cameos going for it. Iggy Pop plays the voice of a radio dj who puts us up to date on just how messed up the world is in this film. Lemmy the lead singer from Motorhead makes an appearance as a water taxi driver. GWAR shows up on a TV screen at one point. This movie is interesting because its stylish, it achieved a heck of a lot with its limited budget and its dark and grimy. Its gory. Its subversive with its themes. It’s post apocalyptic. A small scale yet ambitious sci-fi horror film. Richard Stanley already wrote a script for the sequel called Hardware: Ground Zero, but it currently resides in pre production hell. Let’s hope it will actually get made one day! Here’s hoping!

Rating: 4 out of 5
 

The films original poster

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)

Title: Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) a.k.a. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue

Director: Jorge Grau

Starring: Ray Lovelock, Cristina Galbo, Arthur Kennedy

Review:

I’m on a life long quest to see every important zombie movie ever made, and so far, I thought I had pretty much seen all the “important ones”. Boy was I wrong! The film I will be reviewing today, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie should be considered amongst one of the most important and influential zombie movies ever made. It is so damn underrated! Let Sleeping Corpses Lie was made by Spanish filmmaker Jorge Grau. The film was released and distributed under many different titles. Here is a list of all its different titles just so you have an idea:

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie  

Don’t Open the Window
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue
No Profanar el Sueno de los Muertos
Do not Speak Ill of the Dead
Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue
The Living Dead
Zombie 3
Invasion of the Zombies
The Revenge of the Living Dead II
The Living Dead Massacre

One of this films many posters, this one is for Germany

  

When a film is released internationally, the titles often times change, this is a common practice. But I think this is one of the films with the most alternate titles! In reality, the films name is “No Profanar el Sueno de los Muertos” which literally translates to: Don’t Profane the Sleep of the Dead. I know this cause I’m fluent in Spanish. After all, it is my native tongue! So anyhows, I think the title that comes closest to that is definitely Let Sleeping Corpses Die.

  

  

The story is about this young English art collector who is going on a trip to sell these statues to an art dealer on another town. So he takes his motorcycle and off he goes. At one point he stops to gas up and while he goes to get something to drink, a young lady who is also stopping for gas runs over his motorcycle by mistake! So what does he do? He leaves his bike there and has her take him to his destination. Realizing she was responsible for destroying his only means for transportation, she agrees, but asks him to take her to her sisters house first. Unfortunately for them, she forgets the way to her sisters house and they end up in the middle of nowhere! The guy gets out to ask for directions. While walking around, he sees these farmer/scientists experimenting with these new machines that use sound waves to kill ants and insects that might be dangerous to their crops. Unfortunately, these machines not only kills insects, they also bring the dead back to life!

  

  

Seriously folks; this film is one of the most underrated zombie films ever! It should be hailed as one of the best zombie films ever made. Its true, director Jorge Grau was asked by the films producer to do a film along the lines of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (“This is like Night of the Living Dead, but in color!”) and for all intents and purposes Id say that he succeeded. But the film does go its own way and it has its own style. Its even gorier then the film that it’s trying to emulate. Night of the Living Dead (1968) is a zombie film, but it’s not all that graphic or gory except for some key sequences of solid flesh eating. But in contrast, once Let Sleeping Corpses Lie turns up its juice, it turns into one hell of a gory flick! The thing about this movie is that it slowly builds up to the zombies, it takes a while before we actually get to see some zombie mayhem, but once the film opens its gory doors, its an onslaught of gory zombie madness. So you need to be a bit patient before zombies show up, but to be honest, the film is so beautifully shot, I didn’t mind this at all.

  

  

Jorge Graus direction and cinematography is one of the things that makes it special. Something that foreign films benefit from are these beautiful locations they can shoot in. Parts of this film were shot in Italy, Spain and England. As a result, we get these beautiful shots of mountain sides, city landscapes and nature that makes the film naturally beautiful without the need to resort to sets or special effects. They shot in a real cemetery in a historical English graveyard! The cemetery scenes were amazing, unfortunately Grau and his film crew where asked to leave the cemetery because some people thought they were treating the cemetery disrespectfully, which is really ironic when you see the films title! The opening sequence of the film is a beautiful montage of city scenes, where we get to see society indulging in pollution and over population. We see a decaying city, garbage on the streets, car exhaust, and a lady streaking through traffic for no reason whatsoever. I guess it’s a way of showing societies excesses, and the way we abuse the environment, because that’s really one of the films themes. But what I loved about that opening sequence is how beautifully shot it is. It shows beauty in ugliness. Then in contrast, the main character drives around his motorcycle through these amazing natural vistas that just made the film that much more beautiful.

  

Interesting then how all that beauty suddenly comes in clashing with the second half of the film which concerns itself with the living dead and so much gore! Once we get past all the set up and the getting to know the characters part of the film, we go to what we came here to see: some dead people coming back to life! The thing about this movie is that its not about hundreds and hundreds of zombies coming back to life. On this film, the machines only bring back to life about three zombies, and this in turn start to wake others up. This gives the movie its unique touch: zombies can bring other zombies back to life by smothering them with the blood of humans. So the blood can also bring the dead back to life. But the few zombies we do get to see are more then enough of a threat, cause they are vicious flesh eaters and represent a deadly threat to our protagonist who not only run from the living dead, but from the police as well. The police have not seen a zombie yet, so they think that all the murders are being committed by the two young protagonists. The police choose to believe that these kids are Satan worshippers and that this is why there are so many profaned graves and murders.

  

  

The film touches upon many themes, but not too deeply. The social commentary does not take over the film. The film puts these themes on the table for your consideration, but doesn’t overtly linger on them. For example, the main character is an art collector/seller who is carrying these statues with him to sell them to an art collector across town. When the police discover he has these statues with him, they ignorantly accuse him of being a Satanist. Another issue addressed here is how often times the government (in this case the police) wrongly accuses people for things they never did, and they have to pay for it. They get all the facts wrong and come to conclusions simply on assumptions. The movie also addresses the issue of generation gaps. Older characters in the film hate the young simply because they dress differently. In one scene the cop (who is made out to be a villain through out the whole film) sees the young protagonist and accuses him of dressing like a homosexual spewing lines like: “You’re all the same the lot of you, with your long hair and faggot clothes. Drugs, sex and every sort of filth!” Come on, the guy just likes to dress in style! In this way the film criticizes the one sided old fashioned mentality, that doesn’t want to allow new things to come and change the old. Add to that the films environmentalist message, and we got ourselves a zombie movie with some social criticism in its subtext.

  

One look at this film and you will immediately see just how many other films it has influenced. The zombies on this film all have blood shot red eyes, extremely similar to the red eyes seen in Danny Boyles 28 Days Later (2002). I’m sure Fulci’s Zombie (1979) was influenced by this one as well! And for all its gut munching glory Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) truly do owe a lot to this particular film which did it all waaaay before Romero ever did in Dawn and Day. You thought that zombie baby in Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (2004) was original? That’s because you had not seen this film! So my friends, what we got in our hands with Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a truly influential zombie film that is extremely underrated! I got sucked into this movie right away number one because of the beautiful way it was shot and number two because once things get going, the events turn really grizzly! A zombie film that needs more attention, so if you’re a zombie head like me; do yourself a favor and check this one out!

 
Rating: 5 out of 5
 

The Wolfman (2010)

Title: The Wolfman (2010)

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Geraldine Chaplin, Hugo Weaving, Emily Blunt

Review:

Every once in a while Universal Studios will want to update one of their classics and usually when they do, they make sure that their classics are handled in the proper fashion they deserve. After all, they are classics. This careful remaking of their classics has led to some truly great films in the hands of some great directors like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stokers Dracula (1992) and Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994). Two great “classy” remakes for two of Universal Studios most iconic monsters. Then came Stephen Sommers The Mummy (1999) which enjoyed huge box office success as well. But what of  The Wolfman? Why was it not remade during that wave of remakes that occurred during the 90’s? Truth is most movie studios are afraid of werewolf movies. With the rare exception (like An American Werewolf in London) werewolf movies aren’t that big at the box office. Still, somebody in Universal Studios decided the time was nigh for a remake of  The Wolfman, the classic horror film that was released in 1941 with Lon Chaney Jr. as the titular character. So, how did it turn out?

On this one, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro) is a renowned theater actor that returns home due to his brothers death at the hands of a wild animal. He wants to further investigate what happened to his brother, because as it stands, it’s not quite clear exactly how he died. So, Lawrence decides to visit the area where his brother’s body was found and starts asking questions. Too bad for him that a werewolf is on the prowl and savagely attacks him that night! Now he is infected with the curse and will soon turn into a werewolf himself! Will he be able to contain the beast within? Will the town’s people allow him to continue living?

So that’s the basic premise of the film. If you saw the original, then you should know how this one goes, but I will tell you this; this remake has some interesting twists and turns that I was not expecting. It’s a remake alright, but like any good remake, it goes in a different direction so as to not show us the same exact film we already saw before and that’s what I loved about this one! It complicates things even further. It’s not just a story about a guy who gets bitten by a werewolf and starts killing people. There’s drama here! There’s conflict that doesn’t just come from the battle between man and his animal side there is more to this film then that. I won’t go into it though because I don’t want to spoil the fun, but this movie is far more complex then its 1941 counterpart. What we have here is quite possibly one of the best werewolf movies ever made! I am not exxagerating when i say this, The Wolfman is at the top of the list as far as werewolf movies go in my book. It covers everything that a good werewolf movie should have, the story of a common man who is suddenly confronted with the prospect of turning into a savage killing machine when the full moon comes out. We see the mans struggle with his inner beast and we see him struggle with the consequences of his actions. It has the right ambiance and atmosphere, it has the perfect tone. As a werewolf movie, it left this horror fan extremely satasfied!

Since this is one of Universal Studio’s most important horror films (along with Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy) this film was obviously treated with extra special care. By that I mean that you can see the money on the screen. You can see those 85 million dollars they spent on art direction and special effects. This isn’t one of those movies where the film is said to have cost more then 100 million to make and you don’t see them on the screen. This film had lavish production values and sets. It makes the film that much more believable and that much more enjoyable to watch. The mansion in which Lawrence and his father live in is one spooky joint! Gigantic stairways, huge windows, dark lonely hallways, lots of taxidermy on the walls, animal horns, the place was extremely spooky looking. There are a couple of scenes that take place inside of an insane asylum, great set there as well! I really enjoyed the fact that this film is the quintessential classic horror film with all the elements required to make it classic. The atmosphere for example (much like its 1941 counterpart) is non stop! The fog doesn’t seem to stop rolling, the dead woods, the wolf howls, the full moons, the clouds, the spooky mansion, it’s all here! Then there is the muisc done by non other then the great Danny Elfman! I cant believe they actually had a problem with his score at one point. The guys music on this movie was pitch perfect. And its constant. In that way, this movie reminded me of horror films of old where music seems to dominate the whole film. They really made sure that this film felt like a horror film.

Aside from being influenced by Universal’s own 1941 version of  The Wolfman, I picked up influences from various other werewolf movies like for example John Landis’s An American Werewolf in London (1981). There’s this chaotic scene in which the werewolf is set loose on the city streets, which was similar in tone and pace to that same chaotic sequence in An American Werewolf in London in wich the werewolf goes on a killing spree on the streets of London. There was another scene in which Lawrence Talbot walks into a Tavern and all the towns people begin to talk about the werewolf, which was similar to the same scene in An American Werewolf in London when the two American kids walk into the “Slaughtered Lamb” and the locals fill them in on the whole werewolf myth. But then again, that same scene stems from older horror films, like the Hammer films. In a Hammer film, the good guys always walk into a tavern in which everyone is scared of the monster. Similar scenes on this new version of  The Wolfman reminded me of that.

The Werewolf transformations do not dissapoint!

And what about the werewolf transformations? The transformations were something that I’m sure a lot of horror fans are worried about. They are always a key sequence in any good werewolf film and should always blow the audience away. A lot of us keep thinking of how awful the marriage of CGI and werewolf transformations can be (scenes of Wes Craven’s Cursed (2005) come to mind) so with this new movie there was always that question of “will they get it right?” Well, I’m happy to inform you guys that yes, they did get it right. They successfully used the blend of CGI animation and actual make up effects work to convincingly bring the wolfman to life. Make up effects legend Rick Baker was the man involved in doing the make up effects work. As some of you may know, he handled the legendary werewolf transformations in An American Werewolf in London. Before this remake, there was no film that ever topped that transformation sequence. It’s always held the top spot as one of the best transformation sequences ever on any film. Well, I just saw The Wolfman, and I think that transformation sequence might just have found a contender! The transformation sequence are fantastic! The detail on these transformations is astounding, you can see the bones stretching, the skin stretching, the teeth emerging from the gums; astounding stuff! Beautiful marriage of computer effects and make up work. The film does not disappoint on this aspect, in fact, to be honest, this movie didn’t disappoint on any aspect as far as I’m concerned.

Joe Johnston is not one of those directors which has a distinctive style. His films are not instantly recognizable. Usually, Johnston’s films are fun, lighthearted and fall into the PG or PG-13 category; examples of this are Johnston’s Honey! I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and The Rocketeer (1991). To me Johnston is the go to guy for making a Hollywood film that plays by the rules, plays it safe. No artsy fartsy risky business here. He is the kind of director who will direct a film, tell the story, and follow the rules set by the studio. He is not what I would call a trouble maker of a director. This guy plays ball with the studio execs and makes the movie they want to see. And for The Wolfman, which is a film Universal Studios obviously cares much about, Joe Johnston was a good choice. At first I didn’t think it was a good choice at all, I thought someone edgier would have been more appropriate. But this movie proved me wrong! Plus, when we consider that Brett Ratner could have ended up directing this film, well, we should just start counting our blessing shouldnt we? Johnston’s visual effects background was perfect for this kind of fx heavy film. That, plus this wolfman movie has its werewolf balls firmly in place! Or nards as “Horace” from the Monster Squad would say.

This movie does not disappoint when it comes to graphic depictions of gore and violence! Thankfully, this film is a hard “R” which means it doesn’t pussy out on the gore. And it’s true, the film does not hold out on us in this aspect. When the wolfman appears, heads do role! And so do arms and limbs and anything else you can imagine. The wolfman on this movie is very violent, very much the murderous killing machine he is supposed to be. Thanks to the advancement on visual effects, we are able to follow the wolfman as he jumps from rooftop to rooftop, we follow him on his bloody killing spree. And it does get incredibly bloody! So be ready for that! Johnston does show some style in a choice nightmare sequence that I loved, be on the look out for that. So Johnston as a director handled his chores well, giving us a film that gives us the classic Universal horror film we and the studio were expecting but with just enough of an edge to keep things interesting.

As a final note, the cast was superb. As is expected of an important Universal production like this one, the cast is filled with 'class A' oscar nominated actors. Benicio del Toro has always been solid for me (21 Grams anyone?) and on this one he exceeds. He isn’t your typical good looking Hollywood model. His got this roughness to him, which of course was perfect for this role. Anthony Hopkins excels. He is the actor that studios go to when they want to give their films a bit of class, and this film is definitely a classy horror film. His character is one of the most interesting ones in the film playing the role of the guy who knows all about “the curse”. Kind of like the Van Helsing character in the Dracula movies, but with a twist. Hugo Weaving plays a smart and direct cop; his performance was one of the most enjoyable ones in the film as well. And finally, Emily Blunt has her moment to shine somewhere around the films last frames. Everyone did a commendable job, no complaints here.

In conclusion, this film does not disappoint in the least! In fact, the film excelled my expectations! The pacing is perfect, there is not a dull moment in sight, something exciting is happening all the time. The film has that classy horror film vibe to it, it’s got excellent make up effects, performances, and Joe Johnston did a great job directing it. It is a film that I’m sure will not disappoint horror fans in any sense of the word. It treats the classic film with respect, while taking things on a completely different route! Without a doubt in my mind, an excellent remake, and one of the best werewolf films I have seen.

Rating: 5 out of 5