War Wolves

Rating: 2 out of 5

Genre: Horror, Werewolves

Director: Michael Worth

Stars: Michael Worth, John Saxon, Tim Thomerson, Natasha Alam, Alex Ballar, Siri Baruc, Kristi Clainos, Adrienne Barbeau, Jon Bradford, Margot Farley

Synopsis: Ford (Saxon) leads a unit on the hunt for an escaped, infected team member who was infected by a werewolf virus. But others have been infected and a group of she-wolves may be more dangerous then they can possible imagine.

Thoughts: Well you know you are in trouble as a filmmaker (not to mention the viewer) when your celluloid effort gets picked up by the SciFi Channel. There's a 90% chance that they'll regret it and we'll regret it even more. Unfortunately "War Wolves" doesn't break the cycle. This bad boy must have a seriously low budget. For nearly the entire length of the film we get growling effects, dime-store fangs, contacts and the occasional eye shadow to signify someone is in wolf mode. Toward the end when we see our war wolves in their ahem full glory well let's just say that Barf's makeup in "Spaceballs" has a better shot at scaring the crap out of you. The script will make you wince in pain with dialogue so hideous you'd like to stuff your remote in your ears.

In Conclusion: This one should rate a zero. The only reason I give it two stars is that genre greats Saxon, Thomerson and Barbeau were in it. They did what they could with what little they were given and Thomerson actually managed a couple good comebacks. So be warned.

but War Wolves wasn't necessarily a good movie in my opinion. Although I was dubious about seeing the film, I was intrigued and watched it with an open mind BEFORE reading any reviews of any kind. War Wolves did have some good points, namely the idea, which was interesting and had a lot of potential, and the performances of Adrienne Barbeau, Tim Thomerson and John Saxon were good with great chemistry. I also admired the fact that War Wolves did try to focus on action rather than dull filler. The action was nothing outstanding, it was enthusiastically performed if rather basic and hindered further by clumsy editing, but I have seen duller action sequences before. However, War Wolves also contains some of the worst-looking werewolves I've seen, the story is very all over the place and sluggish and the script is aimless, contrived and doesn't leave the actors much to work with. I have seen far more annoying and stereotypical characters, but I didn't find many of the characters very interesting, and this was disappointing considering that film had a concept this good. The ending felt very rushed and if given more time to breathe would've been less senseless. It was nice to hear Ave Maria, as it is a lovely song, but the way it was used here made it feel cheesy and thrown in. All in all, not a good movie, but I can think of worse ways to waste my time. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This is probably due to poor editing. There are too many jumps in the story, like key elements are left on the cutting room floor. How did they get out of the war zone alive? Very little character development, other than John Saxon's character. A few familiar faces, Art Lefluer, John Saxon and his Sargeant, and the briefest cameo of Martin Kove, which made no sense at all. The story kept jumping, and we kept asking "Wait, what happened? Now they are together?" Decent make-up, but not very werewolf looking. Of all the werewolf movies we've watched lately, this is not one I would recommend, unless you are a compelled to watch all things werewolf.

If you can get through the dull first thirty minutes or so, the film picks up a bit. The opening sequence offers nothing to draw you in. It's a set-up for later stuff but it's so poorly done most viewers will shut it off. Some GI's have a boring pick-up football game, then some shooting starts. Then some tribal guy with warpaint and fangs jumps around making weird faces and noises. Then you're suddenly looking at a nerdy grocery store clerk with a geek customer. Hunh? Did they abruptly burst into a commercial? Where's Mrs. Olsen and her Yuban can? No, it's part of the movie, believe it or not. And then more puzzling stuff happens.

Dark shadows everywhere, and a loud soundtrack with music that doesn't fit and isn't balanced for tonal quality at all--and this happens several times. There's some ex-Baywatch girl extras creeping around and making trouble at a hick bar. Then some mumbling guy pays cash at a desert motel. So what? What is this for?

But about 30 minutes in, something strange happens. The director decides to tell a story. John Saxon, Adrienne Barbeau, and Tim Matheson suddenly show up and save this thing. Adrienne is some kind of prophetess or something. The others are vigilante monster hunters. Pretty cool old school stuff, and the fun begins. The Baywatch girls still can't act, but since they're the baddies--well, you know.

The creature effects are weak; were they inspired by the Twilight movies? Egads. But the fights are choreographed and shot well, to compensate for it. The ending isn't bad, and leaves the usual loose ends for a sequel. And they put on one last over-volume record. They might be trying to market the soundtrack CD, but I'm guessing nobody buys a copy.

Not great by any standard. But the last 2/3 of it are at least passable.

I usually watch SyFy movies on weekends while editing video. More often than not they are easy to walk away from when I need to concentrate on my work or turn off the audio. Plots are template driven, characters are stock, effects are cheesy and you don't need a big screen plasma to laugh at them.

WAR WOLVES departs from the formula in several ways and I liked it a lot more than I expected to. Seeing John, Tim and Adrienne was a treat. Somebody cared enough to set up some nice atmosphere in several scenes such as the bar confrontation early on and understood the visual power of "magic hour" lighting. Some key characters had mysterious backgrounds, although this may not have been intentional. The formula and template was there but the stock characters were a little less "stock" than many shows where everyone is snack food for the big CGI or puppet monster.

This thing was shot in Inverness, California according to IMDb and I think they drew from LA for a decent crew and attempted a decent production design on a shoestring budget. They apparently spent more on cast and less on fake blood and needless explosions or maybe the director called in some favors.

Nobody turns on SyFy expecting OTHELLO, but WAR WOLVES was striving to be TERMINATOR or SWAMP THING and deserves credit. I would love to see them try it again with a 10x budget and I betcha the continuity, plot holes and bad makeup and cheesy fight scenes could be patched right up!