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The Company of Wolves

The Company of Wolves

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It Takes More Than One Viewing....
Review: ...to appreciate the film that is "The Company Of Wolves". I first saw this film in the 80's and was a little drawn back by the storytelling structure of the movie. However, I have come to appreciate this film as quite possibly one of the best Werewolf movies ever produced. Sarah Patterson (in one of her only roles) shines as the young girl with delusional fantasies. The story is about her, not about werewolves. It is about her own metamorphosis from a girl and into a young woman. This is not your bright and cheerful fairy-tale. This is a dark and sexualy motivated take on the classic tale of "Little Red Riding Hood". There is no other film quite like "The Company Of Wolves", with the exception of "Ginger Snaps" which is much more more contemporary than surreal. Neil Jordan has crafted a visually astonishing film that takes you on a metaphorical journey through a young girl's mind. What a trip! Angela Lansbury is perfect for the role of the Grandmother. It's a plus to have David Warner in it as well.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A snore...
Review: A dull, pretentious movie. When it originally screened in my city, the restless and irritated audience booed it.

Originally advertised as a horror-film, the movie now enjoys an undeserved art-house reputation after being majorly championed by one or two well-known film critics. Yet the conceits (e.g., forest as metaphor for dangerous world; awakening sexuality an uncontrollable beast within us) are tired, and the film is repetitious and way too long. The structure is marred by too many stories-within-stories and endless flashbacks, so by late in the film when someone once again says "Let me tell you a story about..." it is absolutely agonizing.

The film also suffers from having been made around the time of the highly successful "American Werewolf in London" and its then-groundbreaking special effects. So the movie's tone is jettisoned at times for extended goopy man-into-werewolf transformation scenes. Nevertheless, these jarring and dated special effects add interest to an otherwise dull movie.

PS: "The Company of Wolves" is not for kids -- don't let the presence of Angela Lansbury mislead you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Chilling Fairtytale
Review: An under-rated film that gets better with each viewing. This isn't your parent's version of Little Red Riding Hood.

Filled with dark imagery and sexual tension, director Neil Jordan takes you on a journey to a place where the real monsters walk on two legs and wear a human face.

Special note should be made of Angela Lansbury's performance as the Grandmother; a woman who is definitely more than she seems.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Neil Jordan's sleeper is a winner
Review: Beautiful cinematography and a haunting musical score highlight this early Neil Jordan reworking of "Little Red Riding Hood". Some people think it's too slow, but I never have. It's a rainy afternoon type of movie, the kind you watch on the couch when you don't feel well, with a blanket over you and a bowl of soup on the coffee table. It's not a horror movie so much as a series of eerie folk tales as told by Granny (Angela Lansbury) to her granddaughter. The running joke is that all the stories are indirect warnings about men and sex, meant to keep the little girl chaste and virginal! She of course discovers her own womanhood inspite of granny, and ends up in the arms of the big bad wolf! Don't expect horror, this isn't "The Howling" or "American Werewolf". It's a mood piece.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fine Company
Review: Company of Wolves is a beautiful, intriguing, quirky, mysterious film that'll have you coming back time and time again to wrestle with the rich symbolism and dripping atmosphere of dream-like fantasy. The cast all turn in sterling performances and are wonderfully believable in a strange, fairy-tale-like context. Sarah Patterson's bright and fearless 'Rosaleen' is especially excellent.

Can't talk about CoW without mentioning the fantastic George Fenton soundtrack which is worth the $s on its own.

The only reason I'm rating this is 4 instead of a 5 is the weak bonus material. A few stills from the movie and the original trailers. I'dve loved to have seen some discussion with Jordan.

Still, its been a long time coming (released 1984, DVD only since Oct 2002) but worth the wait to bathe again in the rich, mysterious depths of this cult classic!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Granny is wolfy, too!
Review: Elements of every fairy tale you've ever heard are woven into this quirky, masterful story of the wolves who are "hairy on the inside". Sexual themes (but not much violence) make this film unsuitable for children under 13, but you won't see too much nudity or explicit sex. It's highly symbolic.

Little Red Riding Hood learns that Granny is much more than a helpless old lady, and the wolf is not so powerful that they can't defeat him. In fact, the wolves that run through the forest in this fantasy are much better than some of the people who hunt them down. You never know what's going to happen next. Some of the sequences seem out of place and apropos of nothing, but the film as a whole tells a basic moral story that can benefit our ailing society.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent
Review: Excellent Werewolf story, set in a dark children's story type setting, If you Love werewolf films, or dark humored horror films then this one is for you!!!! If not, rent it anyway you might laugh..and have a Good time!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent film
Review: FINALLY this is on DVD, or will be soon. What a beautiful and mysterious film this is. Based on several of Angela Carter's short stories(she also did the screen play for this film) this film deals with maturity, sex and mythology in a truly facinating way.
One of the early films for Neil Jordon(Crying Game) and just brilliantly done. Full of magic the story has brief opening and closing sequences in the modern world while the majority takes place in the world of fairy tales. Using the the tale of Red Riding Hood as well as Werewolf mythos and the blooming maturity of a young girl the metaphors and mysterious landscape is truly marvelous.
With dark and haunting score by George Fenton(Ever After) this film has everything for the true fan of what fairy tales are supposed to be, a lesson for those too foolish to listen.
Angela Lansbury is Red's granny and plays a rolle not the norm for this icon of old and new Hollywood. It is truly an original film and not a story for young children.

"As your pretty, so be wise, wolves may lurk in any guise. Now, as then, tis simple truth; sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh, Snow White...where is your friend with the red hood?
Review: How could you go wrong with Angela Carter at the pen?

In "The Company of Wolves", Carter brings the tale of Little Red Riding Hood into new eyes.

Most of the movie is shaped by dreams of a girl, Rosaleen. Angela Lansbury plays Rosaleen's grandmother, weaver of the tales. The fairy tales are gruesome and raw, not the sort of stories you grew up with.

The movie is magical, the world is far above "perfect" with it's warmer than toast sunshine and it's moon shinier than a new silver coin.

Angela Carter blends the world together as if it were her very own soup, throwing in bits and pieces of imagination and heart. All in all, the movie is a fairy tale gone horridly wrong, but could not be more right.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A different and amazing look at werewolves!
Review: I am sad to see that this film is no longer being produced. This film is truly different and amazing. This film is no average werewolf flick. This movie takes elements of many werewolf legends and the story of Little Red Riding Hood and blends them together in something that is a truly disturbing mix. When I first watched this movie, I was pretty confused and then scared. I had a hard time as a young man trying to peice this all together, but as I've rewatched this over and over, I have really learned to appreciate this movie! This is the most artistic and perhaps most realistic look at werewolves that I've ever seen. The only werewolf film that I'd mention in the same breath with this is "An American Werewolf in London". ...and do not let the name Angela Lansbury on this movie fool you! I was almost as amazed by her appearance in this film as I was by the amazing and bizarre story! She is good in this (especially for people that didn't like, or hated, murder she wrote!)

I will end this review by saying that I really hope for a re-release of this film with a firm advertising campaign. I think that this movie would be considered a classic if it had the right type of exposure! At least let us have this movie on DVD! Please, movie re-releasing gods! Please!


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