The Lamest Wolfman

Plus: Scorcese’s white-knuckler, Shutter Island, delivers the creepy goods

(Feb. 25, 2010) Previews

Opening Friday, Feb. 26, is The Last Station, based on Rose Tremain’s novel about the last years of Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer). Tolstoy’s wife is played by Helen Mirren and his disciple by Paul Giamatti. Plummer and Mirren are both up for Oscars. Rated R for a scene of sexuality/nudity. 112m. At the Minor.

Shutter Island.

GALLERY >

From director Kevin Smith, whose flying troubles were recently in the news, comes the buddy comedy Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as police partners tracking down a valuable stolen baseball card. Adventures occur along the way. Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality. 108m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

A remake of the 1973 horror film, The Crazies takes place in a small town in Iowa where some toxin that causes insanity followed by death has gotten into the water supply. How will the few survivors avoid being killed by the military trying to contain the situation? Hint: don’t fake insanity. Rated R for bloody violence and language. 101m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek.

Oldies-but-Goodies at the Arcata Theater Lounge this week include the campy sci-fi of Mars Attacks! (1996) on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 11 p.m.; Bill Murray’s bad day in Groundhog Day (1993) on Sunday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m.; and a sci-fi night double feature of H.G. Wells’ Things to Come (1936) and Journey to the Center of Time (1967) on Wednesday, Mar. 3, at 6 p.m.

Reviews

THE WOLFMAN: I was only three when the 1941 film The Wolf Man was released, so I could not have seen it then. Nonetheless, one of my earliest film memories is of a man turning into a fearful wolf, usually in some moonlit woods.

Of course, the wolf man has had an enduring legacy in film history, including a number of sequels to the 1941 version. I have fond memories of An American Werewolf in London (1981), which injected some humor into the mix, and The Howling from the same year, where a couple having sex by a campfire turn into werewolves during the act. (Who needs a full moon?)

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