Rating: 
Summary: Sensual
Review: A sensual exploration of all possible human senses. Best viewed in French.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I thoroughly agree with the rave reviews of this movie. I purchased it from Amazon.com and have watched it twice. The second time around, it was even more enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed the director's comments about why a couple of scenes were not shown. I encourage everyone who is interested in an exceptional movie to purchase this then you can go back and watch it a week or two later.
Rating:
Summary: Quel surpris!
Review: "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is a fascinating and surprising film set in 18th century France. A beast is terrorizing Gevaudan province, and the king sends naturalist/taxidermist Gregoire de Fronsac to investigate. Fronsac (called "Chevalier" or knight throughout the film) and his Mohawk companion, Mani, go to Gevaudan and uncover the conspiracy behind the beast that brutally kills women and children. Mixed into the plot are sexuality (yet in very good taste), mystery, politics, occultism, religion, romance, and much more. The action sequences are excellent, and the fighting is well choreographed. What makes this movie exceptional is that while there is a lot of action, the plot is well-developed and it is not forgotten among the action. That is perhaps why this movie is longer than your average action flick. This is a film that has sadly been overlooked by many. Don't miss out... watch it!
Rating: 
Summary: Formulaic....
Review: Brotherhood of the wolf is the visually appealing story of scientist/taxidermist Gregoire de Fronsac ( Samuel Le Bihan) , and his ethnic Iroquois side-kick, Mani. When the two, happen to be traveling in a remote region of France, they encounter a brutal string of murders attributed to a 'wolf' beast. Intrigued, the two investigate, only to be sucked into a web of corruption, evil, and depravity. Brotherhood of the wolf follows strict horror movie formula for monster movies: Evil-creature killing innocent people for no apparent reason. Good guy stalks evil creature. Evil creature wins some. Good guys experience set back. Someone's life in jeopardy. Good guys, ultimately triumph. I guess I'm getting old, but this movie just failed to grip me. Perhaps it was just a lack of empathy for Gregoire, the main character. Perhaps it was merely the havey-cavey plot, and the ( gratuitous 'good-old-boys' visit to a brothel scenes. Feh. ) I just found nothing redeeming, or original about it, except for the choice to have the hero's partner be a Native American. But even then this character was hopelessly Hollywoodized. (I think fictional Indian's have more Anglo 'blood brother's than they have real ones, ), overall, an unoriginal plot, with some cardboard characters and evil people doing evil things... Next...
Rating: 
Summary: 3 Disk version is available in Canada
Review: The deluxe 3-disk version can be bought at Amazon.ca and it's a region 1 DVD. They ship to the US. Apparently the distributor only got the rights to the 3-disk version for Canada, that's why it is not currently offered in the US.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: My husband picked this movie up at Blockbuster. I thought I would be disappointed due to it being a foreign film. I really had no interest in seeing it. Well....I ended up falling in love with the film, which I found to be quite incredible. The filming was hauntingly beautiful. The characters were engaging and powerfully acted. It was one of the better movies I have seen in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: A little long in the tooth, but a pretty movie
Review: Brotherhood was a fair movie. It was like an action/sweeping saga movie, not too dissimilar from Crouching Tiger. (Although not nearly as good as CTHD) What saved it from a 3 star was the cinematography. It was splendid. The fight scenes are cut a little too close sometimes, but you will give a few "wows" while watching. The characters in the movie are adequate for the roles they are playing, I saw no break out acing though.
I say it was long in the tooth because on the DVD the movie was actually longer than in the theatres. I can understand why they cut some scenes. This movie begged for some good editing for pacing. It was long and drawn out in some scenes, and in others they beat you over the head with obviousness until it hurts. That may work for the French, but we americans are not used to it.
Rating:
Summary: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Frenchy?
Review: With the phrase 'French action film' most people break-down laughing. I was one of them. The idea of 18th century Frenchmen taking on a 500 pound animal seemed about as realistic as Carrot-Top being an actual celebrity. But from the first few minutes of the film, you can't deny that, laughable or not, this is a gorgeous film. The country that practically invented the art film has produced some of the most stylish and visually-creative directors and producers, even if the scripts stink. But when the classic mysterious stranger arrives and rescues the peasant girl and her father, there is no doubt that this is going to be an awesome film.
The premise is that a 'wolf'-creature is attacking people in a small French province a couple of decades before the French Revolution. The King sends a naturalist from his court named Gregoir de Fransac, who is accompanied by an Iriquoix indian named Mani. Fransac is the brain, Mani is the brawn. As the investigation wears on Fransac meets Sardis, the local priest, Marianne, the beautiful daughter of a local count, Jean-Francois, her brother whose time in the Navy cost him his arm, and Sylvia, the mysterious Italian prostitute. The almost two and half hour movie, seems like a 'Blair Witch' for a while as everyone argues about the nature of the beast, hunts normal wolves, and tries to piece it all together. But the monster does eventually appear, and it is worth the wait. And the truth about the creature, and the movie's title, rush you in the last forty-five minutes, creating a brilliant climax.
The visual magnitude of the film is completely unlike anything you see from the States. The scenes have a higher contrast than most movies from this side of the pond, and the director's use of slow-motion photography really makes the fight-scenes pop. The fight-scenes are frequent and unbearably cool. The first scene has Mani coming to the aide of a young woman and her father. Six-to-one, pouring rain, and we never see all of Mani's face. Mani is played by a Hawaiian Kung Fu master, FYI. Most of the fight-scenes revolve around Mani. From a group of hunters challenging the Iriquoix never-comer, to the impecably correographed fight with the creature. The deleted scenes feature has the director (speaking in French) talking about each scene that was cut and why. The first of these scenes is a longer version of the first fight which has Mani and Fransac tag-teaming.
The film is a little long for an action film, but the story is well-plotted with plenty of twists, turns, brothel scenes, hand-to-hand combat, and unlike a number of French films I've seen, the heroines are actually really hot. There's the standard French weirdness in the nightmare scene, a little history on Iriquoix mysticism after the hunt, and the kind of love story that could only happen in France. Better fight scenes than 'The Matrix', better plot than 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', and less pretious than 'Blue', 'White', or 'Red'.
Rating:
Summary: French costume horror martial arts film? Yup, and it works.
Review: I admit that the combination of the above mentioned genres sounds as though it would spawn a horrible movie failing in all of these areas. Instead by combining all of these things what you get is a wonderful fantasyish movie with a style of it's own. It is beautifully shot, and shows some of the best martial arts action outside of Yuen Woo Ping (action director on the Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). There are a lot of things about this movie that when you think about it seem out of place, for example a native American martial artist in the 1800's. When I was watching the movie though, those things just didn't seem out of place. Anyway, in the end it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie with a surreal atmosphere and wonderfully shot action.
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Best Films Of 2001
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect from "Brother Hood Of The Wolf". At first glance, it seems like a Werewolf story. But it's not. It's part thriller, part drama, part action, part romance and even part horror. The opening of the film is great. Two mysterious men intervene in what appears to be the ravaging of two innocent gypsies. The men quickly face down the attackers and send them packing. It's from here on out that Christophe Gans shows us that this movie has somewhat of a fantasy like quality to it. We quickly follow these two men, Gregoire (Samuel Le Bihan) and Mani (Mark Dacascos) deep into a mystery involving violent deaths at the hands of a "beast". Religion vs Science vs Enviornmentalism vs Myth all play an important roll in how each of the main characters view the impending situation. I really enjoyed the performances by Emilie Dequenne and Mark Decascos. The film is very easy to understand and follow even if you don't speak French. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes a good mystery or an epic adventure set in the history of France.
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