One dark and snowy night Will Randall collides with a wolf on a mountain road. The injured animal runs off into the night, but not before giving Bill a deep bite on the wrist. From then on his life begins to change as he is drawn into the mystical spirit of the wolf. The werewolf is re-born... Read more
| Starring | Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan |
|---|---|
| Director | Mike Nichols |
| Genres | Horror |
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One dark and snowy night Will Randall collides with a wolf on a mountain road. The injured animal runs off into the night, but not before giving Bill a deep bite on the wrist. From then on his life begins to change as he is drawn into the mystical spirit of the wolf. The werewolf is re-born...
| Starring | Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Plummer |
|---|---|
| Director | Mike Nichols |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs Blu-ray: 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Horror |
| Language | DVD: English Blu-ray: English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Czech, English, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish Blu-ray: Dutch, Hindi, Norwegian, Finnish, French, German, English, Danish, Swedish, Arabic |
| Released | DVD: 14 Sep 1998 Blu-ray: not available Production year: 1994 |
| Format | DVD |
Everything is right about this film apart from the direction. Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer are suitably stellar — he as the middle-aged book editor, she as his boss's daughter whose burgeoning romance is cursed by the fangs of a werewolf. Giuseppe Rotunno's glossy photography lends a sinister sophistication, Ennio Morricone's eerie score plays on our unease and make-up maestro Rick Baker's transformations combine ingenuity with a real sense of agony. But director Mike Nichols is so interested in the romantic entanglements that he forgets to make the horror horrific. While this is more a study in pain than a shocker, it could still do with a tad more menace and a lot less refinement.
A werewolf movie for people who don't like werewolf movies: sometimes witty and clever, particularly in its scenes of office politics, but finally relying on some dated narrative devices and succumbing to all the usual clichés of the genre.
A werewolf movie starring Jack Nicholson? Sounds great! But what's that? Set in a publishing company? How is that going to work?
Well, the truth is it works surprisingly well. Nicholson plays an editor who is being replaced by a younger, more ruthless man at his company. At first he's ready to simply accept it with quiet dignity, but as he's been bitten by a wolf the night before, he begins to undergo some radical changes and suddenly finds himself having the energy to fight for his position at the company and for the love of his boss' daughter. However, he also finds that he has the urge to hunt and kill at nighttime, and becomes terrified of the monster he carries inside. It's really an intelligent little story about a kind of mid-life crisis which was appreciated by the likes of Roger Ebert and various other respected film buffs.
However ... critics aside, this isn't exactly a very popular movie. Most people just find it dull and uninteresting, with elements of several genres thrown together in a big mess. I can kind of see where they're coming from ... it's a little dull in places, and probably could have been cut down by at least fifteen minutes or so, but to be honest I was never that bored watching it. Wolf is much more intelligent than most werewolf movies, and does have a few interesting ideas and metaphors that haven't really been done before in werewolf movies. The ending is a little peculiar, and in a completely different tone to the rest of the movie, but it's made up for by a pretty cool twist.
The reason Mike Nichols is such a hit-and-miss director is because he seems to make films that he cares about, which aren't necessarily aimed at a particular audience. Generally they do seem to find one somewhere, though, and I expect there are plenty of people out there who will enjoy this film as much as I did, or even more. Jack Nicholson is great as always. There are moments of that old hilarious, energetic Jack that we saw a lot of through the seventies and eighties, but mostly it's the sombre, ageing character that he often gets cast as these days. He does both of them very well, and I don't think anyone else would have been more suited for the part. James Spader is good is the slimy villain of the story, and Michelle Pfeiffer is her usual confident femme fatale character.
Though it may not be everyone's cup of tea, Wolf is a smart, fairly enjoyable twist on the werewolf genre.
I really dont no if I liked this film or not.Good concept but very mellowed pace all through out.Not enough gore,but the performances were good.