THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF
4 out of 5 stars

this week is all about french movies and the french revolution due to july 14th being bastille day or as many americans would call it "the frenchie's independence day"... thus, bastille week is born! :P


here's a movie that's all action/adventure, thriller, sci-fi rolled into one! i think i was asked to watch this back in HS by my french teacher but honestly... this is nothing BUT educational! here we have royal taxidermist gregoire de fronsac and his sidekick and mohawk indian tribesman mani head out to godknowswhere, france (gevudan to be exact) and figure out the mystery of the BEAST that is terrorizing the french countryside. at first, fronsac and mani think this is some sort of urban legend because they don't seem to believe there is a 500 lb animal out there... but when the killings start happening, they decide to hunt it down for REAL. MOHAWK INDIAN STYLE. on the royal political front, fronsac and mani also meet the royalty of gevudan aka the highly deceptive morangias family (vincent cassel playing the disgustingly creepy brother jean-francois) and cardinal sardis, the head of the st. albans church. (where most of the movie takes place...)

like i said, this is suppose to be a "period piece", but it's all faked out with tons of action and fight sequences between mani and the natives and the mystery/thriller component of this beast. there's more to the story, and that's one of the main reasons why i liked this one. for those who like monica bellucci, she's also in this, as well as her hubby, vincent cassel. (both terrific euro actors who have been in american movies) best scenes are: all mani vs. the natives fight sequences, fight sequence between fronsac and j-f (esp. with that chain-sword! WTF IS that?), THE hunt w/ mani & his war paint and a welcome fronsac dinner scene that's actually quite humorous...


BTW, does anyone watch iron chef america? doesn't mani look familar to you? ;)
 
p.s. believe it or not, there is some "truth" to this movie... ok, CREEPY...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0237534/trivia