Release Date:
Friday, January 11, 2002
Leave it to the French to make even their action films long, ponderous, and pretentious. The Brotherhood of the Wolf finally answers the question, “What would happen if a period film was gang-banged by Hammer studios and several Hong Kong action choreographers?”
Brotherhood (based, as we’re told, on a true story) is about a town in the French countryside terrorized by a mysterious monster. Hope arrives in the form of a dashing swordsman and his Native American kung fu sidekick (you read that right). It starts out as a moody and effective mystery, but quickly loses its way in the long and plodding plot—one minute it’s Merchant-Ivory, the next it’s the worst of the Highlander series. If the director didn’t have the common decency to include the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Monica Belluci completely naked, we’d have lost interest early on. Apparently, however, this movie was huge in France, just narrowly knocking The Geisha Boy out of the No. 1 spot.
Brotherhood (based, as we’re told, on a true story) is about a town in the French countryside terrorized by a mysterious monster. Hope arrives in the form of a dashing swordsman and his Native American kung fu sidekick (you read that right). It starts out as a moody and effective mystery, but quickly loses its way in the long and plodding plot—one minute it’s Merchant-Ivory, the next it’s the worst of the Highlander series. If the director didn’t have the common decency to include the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Monica Belluci completely naked, we’d have lost interest early on. Apparently, however, this movie was huge in France, just narrowly knocking The Geisha Boy out of the No. 1 spot.