It's easy to see how \Brotherhood of the Wolf"" (Le Pacte des Loups) succeeded in ""taking France by storm"" and why it has since moved here to play to American audiences.
There is plenty of swordplay and ultra-stylized fight scenes that are edited in a way that evokes comparisons to ""The Matrix."" And there is a beast that is hunting people and cannot be stopped, ?? la ""Jaws."" Throw in beautiful French countryside, and there is a movie.
And what a movie it would have made had it stuck to these basic premises and been around an hour and 45 minutes. As it stands, at two hours and 20 minutes, it is just too long to keep your attention.
The movie starts with breakneck pacing, but a little less than an hour into it, the audience is thrust with around 45 minutes of little or no action, where the audience doesn't see the wolf at all. Yes, there are a few entertaining spots, and some wry humor is splashed in to help keep one's interest. But nothing much seems to be accomplished and it begins to feel like a waste of time.
When it is on the money, though, the action and suspense is superior to much of the Schwarzenegger B.S. found in theatres today. Director Christophe Gans obviously loves to have real-time, fast motion and slo-mo all in the same continuous shot. This makes many of the action scenes more exciting, but also feels over-used after a while.
The acting of the two leads of Samuel Le Bihan and Mark Dacascos also helps save the movie a bit. They play two mysterious men enlisted to help find and kill the wolf.
However, there are a couple of unanswered questions that help seal the film's failure. One plot hole that is confusing deals with the bookends of the film, featuring the narrator. It starts with him surrounded in a castle by angry citizens who want to kill him, but in the end, when it picks back up where it started, it does not clearly tell why these townspeople want him dead. It may or may not have had something to do with French history. However, those who are ignorant to such certain facets of history are just going to feel confused and let down.
""Brotherhood of the Wolf"" feels very similar to the far superior ""Sleepy Hollow,"" Tim Burton's 1999 retelling of the story of the Headless Horseman.
In ""Hollow,"" Johnny Depp plays the role of the outsider brought in to track the beast and stop it, similar to the characters of Le Bihan and Dacascos. However, unlike ""Brotherhood,"" in the 1999 film Burton and Depp are able to produce thrills, laughs and action all in a solidly entertaining hour and 45 minute package.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest action flick, ""Collateral Damage,"" also happens to be one of the most talked about movies of the year'not for its amazing acting or direction, but because it was postponed four months as a result of Sept. 11. But as box-office receipts demonstrate the resilience of American moviegoers to tragedy, Warner Bros. tweaked the movie here and there and made it ready to present.
The Schwarz stars as Gordon ""Gordy"" Brewer, your average all-American oversized Austrian superhuman firefighter, who loses his wife and son in a terrorist attack in Los Angeles. A distraught Gordy sits at home and watches as Claudio ""The Wolf"" Perrini (Cliff Curtis), a Colombian terrorist leader, claims responsibility for the attacks. Told by CIA agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas) ""justice for your wife and son isn't a priority now,"" Arnold decides to take matters into his own hands and goes to Colombia to find The Wolf and exact revenge.
Along the way, he meets Canadian mechanic Sean Armstrong (John Turturro), who is imprisoned for acts of public lewdness, and cocaine-manufacturer Felix Ramirez (John Leguizamo). Both provide comic relief, but are only on screen long enough to qualify for cameos.
Once in Colombia, Gordy quickly finds The Wolf'something the seemingly inept CIA had been unable to do over the course of many years. With his smarts and perseverance, which he must have gleaned from MacGyver and Rambo, Gordy infiltrates Wolf's base to get his revenge.
While this movie does have some twists and turns at the end, it rarely elevates above simplistic, explosive-laden fluff. ""Collateral Damage"" is emotionally and intellectually unsatisfying. As Gordy plunges himself into ridiculously idiotic and dangerous situations, we don't sympathize with him the way we are supposed to. And the terrorists are only vilified, never humanized.
For example, The Wolf: ""It seems we're both willing to kill for a cause, so what's the difference between you and I?"" A tough question dealing with moral ambiguities. Arnold, not one to shy away from philosophical discussions, responds, ""The difference is I'm just going to kill you.""
The movie never explains the complexities of Colombia's political reality and the moral difficulties of American involvement there. In the end, the filmmakers want us to forget about Colombia and what fosters terrorism, and rest assured that swift action is the best solution. I just hope there are enough Arnolds out there to take care of us all.
