Shutter Island, an early contender for film of the year? You bet your ass.

It may still be early in the year, but Shutter Island is my early contender for film of the year. Everything about it was fantastic. The acting, the visuals, the brooding music and visuals…it’s hard to find a flaw in this film.

The acting in this movie was just amazing. Leonardo Dicaprio continues to show he’s more than just a pretty boy on top of the world…no pun intended, I love that movie. He plays Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels who is constantly having nightmares about his troubled past. He’s accompanied by Chuck Aule, a “newbie” to the marshals, played brilliantly by Mark Ruffalo. You can tell he cares greatly about Teddie’s well being while dealing with his own problems. The Dr./headmaster of the island, Dr. Cawley, is played by Ben Kingsley who’s always at the top of his game when he’s in the role of creepy/foreboding people. As good as they were though, I really have to give the best acting “award” to Jackie Earle Haley, who some might know better as Rorscharch, as the prisoner George Noyce. I won’t talk any further, because it would be an injustice to spoil this performance.

The visuals were top notch. I loved that they didn’t do overdo it with the blood and gore, yet still used it graphically to depict certain events. Whenever Teddy and Chuck were inside the actual asylum, you always had this sense of dread which was aided by an amazing music score. There hardly was any, and you never knew what to expect around each corner. Throughout the movie, Teddy has dreams of his past, and this is where the movie really shines. These dreams WILL stick with you.

The thing I love most about this movie was that it wasn’t “scary” when you watched it, but it leaves you with a chill in your spine. This is one movie that will stick with you due, in no small part, to its atmosphere and superior directing of Martin Scorsese.

There’s nothing left I can say without spoiling the movie, so go see it. You will not be disappointed.

The Wolfman lacks any real bite...no pun intended.

Ever since I heard about a Wolfman remake, I had my doubts. My first worry, which came true in the end, was an R rating with copious amounts of blood. You don’t need gratuitous gore to make an effective movie, but I digress. My other worry was the obscene amount of changes in the script/director throughout the years. Overall they went through about 3-5 directors before deciding on Joe Johnston.

My first big complaint is the music. Don’t get me wrong, I love Danny Elfman and think he's a friggin genius but his score was just way too loud and obnoxious in this movie. I could barely understand what was going on half the time because I was distracted by the music. The same can be said about the rest of the sound effects too. The Wolfman howl was also incredibly lackluster.

The acting was all over the damn place. Sir Anthony Hopkins was top notch as usual. His creepiness really fit the gothic nature of the film. The same cannot be said for the rest of the cast though. Benencio Del Toro was surprisingly bad in this movie and I had very high expectations for him. He just couldn’t get the feel of the original down. I never felt like he was a character fighting with his inner beast, but just an overall depressed guy who doesn’t give a damn about anything. Hugo Weaving, despite having almost no screen time, was decent but I felt the script brought his character down. I did love his character reference though, which I won’t spoil. The other “lead” Emily Blunt was just awful. For being the love interest, there was a huge lack of chemistry between her and Del Toro.

The one thing this movie did extremely was the visual style. It really felt like an 1800’s Victorian Gothic town. The night scenes were fantastic due to a nice fog effect. If this was a silent movie, it would be easy to feel the “presence” of a stalking werewolf. The look of the actual Wolfman was fantastic as well. I could actually tell there’s a bit of human in the beast, unlike that other shit that shall remain unnamed. The big selling point was that the Wolfman was not cgi at all, but traditional costume and makeup. The transformation process was cgi, which disappointed me a little bit. I’m still waiting for another cgi-less transformation like in an American Werewolf in London. Interestingly enough, the makeup was done by the same guy who did London.

Overall, this was a disappointing movie and it’s very hard to recommend. The positives just don’t outweigh the negatives.