Wolvesbayne

This was an extremely low budget film. I was very disappointed in this movie. I don't know how it received 4 stars. But it shouldn't never received that type of rating. This is a really poor movie: I only it gave it 2 stars because of the story line otherwise it should get a -10.

Jeremy London is a greedy real estate developer who falls victim to the curse of the werewolf. A lot of vampire backstory is discussed before the story gets off to an interesting start, but then plunges downhill in a bunch of vampire clichés that would embarrass Anne Rice.

The script is a muddled mess, full of full-blooded action scenes with predatory vampires guzzling on blood when they aren't trying to slay each other over the quest for some amulets. Everyone seems intent on overacting which only emphasizes the bad dialog.

In the course of learning how humans fight vampires on their own turf, our hero undergoes a reformation of sorts. He leaves us with the departing words: "There are more important things than making money. I'm off on a higher calling." Most outrageously hammy performance is delivered by YANCY BUTLER as Lilith. Most understated is RHETT GILES as Von Helsing.

As for Jeremy London, I couldn't help think what a strong resemblance he bears to Brendan Fraser. He's okay and even manages to get some humor from his role, but the characters are all cardboard and not really worth caring about.

Several hundred years ago the vampire Lilith (Yancy Butler) was banished into six amulets by her own kin, who were too disgusted by her vision of total dominance and human subservience. The council of vampires agreed to dispose of her threat, but a small following existed led by von Griem (Mark Dacascos) and this grouping is set to release her back onto humanity. Keeping watch over the peace is vampire-slayer extraordinaire Jacob van Helsing (Rhett Giles). Meanwhile hidden among humanity are werewolves like Alex Layton (Christy Carlson Romano), who are fully in control of their powers and transformations. Into the midst of all this comes mild mannered industrialist Russell Bayne (Jeremy London), who is trying to buy up Alex's small novelty shop for his new building project...

Really needn't waste to much time on pointing out the weak spots in this movie, as almost everything is quite pathetic. This especially goes for nonsensical plot point or characters as well as some very rushed soap-opera style build-up. Some scenes are OKish, but in general a hack-job is in progress trying to mimic and home in on the success of Underworld. To no avail. The characters are not as 'cool' and the action sequences are mostly disappointing. Even Dacascos is severely misused and although he shows his potential in one or two scenes most of his fights are an anticlimax, as he has to cope with ultrabad screen partners.

Any good points? Most actors manage to pull off a decent performance with Dacascos and Butler showing real promise (even though the really clichéd the role). The werewolf transformation was rather good and one vampiress is really sexy...

And that's it folks... Really - if you have any say in the matter pass on this movie.

Turned into a werewolf, a man teams up with a group of hunters tracking down a race of vampires looking to reincarnate a vicious vampire queen that will overthrow humanity and bring them back to prominence.

All-in-all, this one was pretty decent but could've been a lot better. One of the biggest strikes is the rather jumbled plot here, with a lot more going on than what really should be happening and hardly any of it makes any sense or really feels justified in it's inclusion. Even more troubling is the fact that there's not a whole lot of plot discussion given out as time goes on, rather it's all given at the end and never really does a good job blending it all together. That is somewhat made up for by the rather fun amount of confrontations here, since it appears to be a war going on with both sides and it definitely feels that way here, especially given the amount of bloodshed given on both sides as several of the extended encounters get quite bloody. While there is some fun to be had here with the resurrection scenes as well, it really can't overcome the jumbled mess of a story though.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

Which goes for the plot, but also for the fact, that guy like Marc Dacascos would sign up for something like this. Of course it might have sounded better on paper (script). Still, if this were your first movie to see with him, you'd be excused if you thought, he shouldn't ever act again. That he actually has something to say, and also is not that bad in fighting (in movies), would be a fact that you'd miss out on. Maybe you should rent "Drive" instead.

Apart from the thin characters and the very cliché story (no surprises here), there's also the weak FX and the poor production values. While everyone is of course trying to do there best, there is quite a few other films out there, that are worth to be noticed.