Review – The Wolfman (2010)

If Universal hoped to do with The Wolf Man what it succeeded in doing with The Mummy (i.e. turn it into a popular, profitable, reasonably entertaining franchise), then wow did it ever miss the mark with this picture. I loved the original when I was a kid and still enjoy it today, but this remake is inferior to it in almost every way. Rick Baker’s special effects are nearly as clunky as Jack Pierce’s without being anywhere near as innovative. Somehow Benecio del Toro manages to be even more charmless than Lon Chaney Jr., which must have taken a considerable amount of charmlessness practice. And don’t even get me started comparing Anthony Hopkins to Claude Rains, a shortfall that proved especially galling because the senior Mr. Talbot has a much larger role in this go-around. Even Danny Elfman’s score comes across as a bad Danny Elfman impression. The picture seems to be trying to imitate the look and feel of Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, but instead it just turns into a drab, directionless mess. See if desperate