No doubt I’m going to win the 2010 slowest review award for this one.. I have my reasons but I wont bore you with them. Another week another SMEx, This week against popular opinion we decided to go and see The Wolfman. Let me get this over with now, most people did not like this film; personally, I didn’t think it was all that bad.. but more on that later!

We met up at the now famous Champoo (which used to be called Balsam) to chat about the weeks events, there had been some big announcements at work and tensions were high. We were joined by two stragglers that announced they were off to see Moon, which is without a doubt a much better film. We had our usual chat and a beer and we ventured off to the cinema.

Wolfman is a film which could have been great; It had a lot of good ingredients, good actors, good writers and a good premise. But somewhere it falls short. Generally the dialog was terrible and the acting equally bad. The plot was predictable to the point that I’ve already forgotten most of it. Even the werewolf, traditionally an extremely cool creature, looked like an hairy guy who minced when he ran. Though they did try hard, every second scene had something popping out of the shadows or loud sudden noises, its not actually loose-sleep-scary, but it will make you jump a lot. The locations and shots were also taken directly from the ’scary 101′ rule book:

1. Find really old manor house.
2. Make it look abandoned / falling apart.
3. Only shoot scenes at night time.
4. Add so much mist that there is probably a new hole in the ozone layer.

Despite all of this, I still kind of enjoyed it. The violence was taken to humorous proportions, heads were rolling across the floor and guys falling out of windows onto spiked fences. At points it even made it to the laugh out loud level of violence and even though you knew exactly what was coming, I don’t think it detracted from the entertainment level.

Sure, this film is never going to win any prizes (except maybe some razzies) but then I never went in expecting it to. I cannot remember the last horror which even came close to being what I would describe as ‘a good film’ (don’t even think about suggesting Paranormal Activity) I would probably have to go back to the 80’s!

My advice to you, the humble cinema patron? Do not go into this movie expecting more than a Werewolf based blood-fest and maybe you will have a good time. Incidentally  upon researching for this review i fell across this article and I think the youth of today are far more scary than The Wolfman was.

So that me signing off, I’m in America for the next few SMEx events, but at least i will get jumbo sized popcorn portions!