WOLF

All smirks: Jack Nicholson

WOLF (1994). Director: Mike Nichols. 

Embattled editor Will Randall (Jack Nicholson) is bitten by a wolf in Vermont, and finds that the canine influence is changing him into a new man. Instead of meekly accepting his being (essentially) fired by new boss Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer of Dracula 2000), Will comes up with a plan to get his job back and fire his former protege and now rival, Stewart Swinton (James Spader of Jack's Back). Stewart is stabbing Will in the back in other ways as well. After Will separates from his wife, Charlotte (Kate Nelligan), he begins a weird relationship with Alden's daughter, Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer of Cheri), but he confides in her that strange things have been happening to him. His vision and hearing have become incredibly acute, and he is afraid he is going out at night and committing violent acts. Then he learns that someone close to him has had her throat torn out ...

Michelle Pfeiffer

Director Nichols and star Nicholson collaborated on several movies, but one wishes they had skipped this one, as the two main problems with Wolf are its director and its star. By now Nicholson had almost become a glib caricature of himself, and his smirking performance in this really isn't very good -- other actors could have done so much more with this often very emotional material. (Oddly, Nicholson wanted to do this movie and signed on first, bringing in Nichols later -- why didn't he take it more seriously?) Pfeiffer is also miscast, as she doesn't get across whatever there is in her nature that would attract her to Will (aside from that canine energy raging inside him), and their romance -- if that's what you can call it -- is never for a moment believable. James Spader and Christopher Plummer give the best performances of the lead cast members.

James Spader

It's almost as if Nichols was afraid to make a "mere" horror movie, so he doesn't pull out all the stops and the film suffers because of it. He is generally not very adept at crafting action sequences. The term "werewolf" is never used, and you keep expecting someone to bring up The Wolfman, but no one ever does, even though everyone in the audience is thinking it. The sub-text, what there is of it, isn't strong enough to turn this into something that "transcends the genre," as they say. Rick Baker contributes some decent make ups, but there are no great transformation sequences as this is not -- heaven help us -- an "honest to goodness werewolf movie." If only it were. That being said, Wolf is still quite entertaining if instantly forgettable.

Verdict: Cry wolf! **3/4.                                                                                                         

GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES

Christopher Lambert and Andie MacDowell

GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (1984). Director: Hugh Hudson.

With his parents dead after a shipwreck off of the African coast, the young Lord Greystoke is taken in by a gorilla who has lost her baby and raises "Tarzan" (Christopher Lambert) as her own. As an adult, the "ape man" comes to the aid of Philippe D'Arnot (Ian Holm), sole survivor of an attack by hostile natives, who in turn takes him to England to claim an uneasy heritage. When Greystoke was released, it was heralded as the first "serious" Tarzan movie, but even the silliest Johnny Weissmuller epic is more entertaining than this tragic mess. The alleged "faithfulness" to Edgar Rise Burroughs has Jane (Andie MacDowell) turning out to be the ward of Tarzan's grandfather (Sir Ralph Richardson). -- Jane never sets foot in the jungle as she does in Burroughs' "Tarzan of the Apes." Worse, even after Tarzan -- who is actually never referred to as such -- comes to England, he keeps making monkey "coo coo" sounds even when he's making love to Jane! In truth, Greystoke comes off at times more like a parody than anything else, and poor Christopher Lambert is given an embarrassing introduction to American films (he had previously appeared in several French movies). This was also Andie MacDowell's [Crush] first movie, and probably because she couldn't come up with a convincing British accent (or couldn't really act) she was dubbed by no less than Glenn Close! Richardson (who was nominated for a posthumous supporting Oscar) comes off best as the half-senile grandfather -- it's a shame that this dreadful exercise in tedium was his penultimate picture. Director Hugh Hudson seems unable to take command of this formidable production as was the case with his Al Pacino film  Revolution, and Robert Towne's script would have been better used for bathroom tissue. There is no exciting climax whatsoever. On the plus side, there are some striking shots of both England and Africa and some of John Scott's [Berserk] score is nice. The best thing about the picture are Rick Baker's wonderful and convincing ape costumes. Even the more recent "serious" Tarzan flick, the mediocre Legend of Tarzan, is better than this.

Verdict: Even the actors don't seem to know what to make of it! *.