Blood and Chocolate - La caccia al licantropo è aperta

I haven't read the book so this is a commentary on the movie by itself as a movie. For some reason I was expecting this movie to be darker, edgier, perhaps even a horror movie. The PG-13 rating didn't phase me as so many horror movies are coming out now with PG-13 rating. But this one borders on PG on it good-heartedness and gentleness. It's not particularly entertaining since there's not much drama in the movie, not much to look forward to. The main character is too reserved and withdrawn to be particularly interesting. The main bad guy is hard to understand because of his thick accent. There's some ambivalence here on the good/bad dichotomy as the werewolves aren't really bad by nature, they're just trying to blend in and protect themselves, so you can't dislike them all that much. Plus it's hard to dislike wolves. My concern here that the wolves may have been harmed during filming. At the end of the movie there is no disclaimer that no animal was harmed, instead there's something to the effect that efforts were made avoid injury, which isn't quite the same. The love story didn't convince me all that much. Does it always have to be the American tourist? On the positive side, I like the fact that this was filmed in Bucharest, it sure looks like an interesting city so there are some great sights here. The mythology behind the story is good too. I like the special effects and the transformations. They look very unique. And something can be said for a movie that's not as malevolent as most movies. This is a good film for teens.

I enjoyed this film. It isn't life changing, deep or even particularly thought provoking, but it does draw you in and keep you 'entertained' throughout.

Many of the comments below extol the book and damn the film, you'd think they would know better to expect a fairly run of the mill film to outshine the fiction it was based on. I haven't read the book but I may now.

The story is compassionate and attempts to re-consider the wolf-person theme by treating them as an oppressed minority, I couldn't help but think that they were a metaphor for the Roma, a thought that bears scrutiny I think.

The cinematography was atmospheric and Bucharest became the star, lots of beautiful rococo buildings and a pleasantly eastern soundtrack. I kept wondering if the film wasn't a Hollywood offering because the characters all seem normal and manage to avoid behaving in the usual American manner (not an "oh my god" in earshot), but no, the ending isn't European.

I was really pleasantly surprised with the beautiful human to wolf transitions, the makers restrained themselves from fx to the benefit of the film, it reminded me of the early eastern European fairytale films (the singing ringing tree). Don't be concerned about gore or substance abuse as mentioned below, there is little more blood than a few cut fingers and bloodstained clothing, and the only substance that gets abused is absinthe (which may well be an illegal substance in your country as it is here), it gets drunk sparingly, injected once and burnt fairly often. See this film.

The Matrix has a lot to answer for. Post Matrix every vampire or werewolf movie (Van Helseign, Underworld, Blade) seems to involve copious amounts of special effects, Martial arts and the main character decisions being whether they kill the bad guy with a gun, sword, falling building, poison that makes people explode, or giant stake improvised from the radio antenna on top of the Empire State building.

Blood and Chocolate follows the traditions oh movies from the 1980s (The hunger, Wolf, Cat people and even The Lost Boys).

Characters are not fighting over whether to enslave the human race (if vampires planned to enslave the human race, wouldn't it be easier to let everyone know, and 1.3 Billion people versus a few thousand vampires or werewolves will be a very short battle indeed).

Blood and Chocolate tells the story of a teenage werewolf who wants to escape what she is being told she should be and a young American writer/artist who has already escaped from his domineering ex-ranger father).

In this story, werewolves are blessed, not cursed, they are the best of man and the best of beast. Though perhaps that is what they should be, and some of them are the worst of both.

This is a human story at the human level. Some of the characters merely tend to turn into wolves. The movie is more about mood and excitement and action. The action is realistic, not modern son of Honk-Kong martial arts over the top stuff. I loved it, even though I also love the modern effects driven movies. In fact the special effects are so bad, it is likely that was a conscious choice (I think the transformation is a homage to Cat People).

If you like this movie, check out the old stuff from the 80s.

What a fine accomplishment for German director Katja von Garnier. She has delved into the traditionally all-male world of directing a genre monster movie and turned it into a Romeo & Juliet with style. There's a distinct lack of gore, and the violence isn't overbearing, while the astounding art direction and overall moodiness of the movie is only heightened by filming on location in Romania, a perfect backdrop for the heavy gray feeling of Blood and Chocolate. Even when the couple in love is happy, there's a brooding nature that permeates the streets, even in daylight. Most amazing is the graceful and poetic transformation of the humans into their alter wolf egos. They run into a frenzied pitch and then leap into the air and become real wolves, rather than the usual cheesy werewolves accentuated by special effects. It's quite breathtaking.

Well, it was neither the worst nor the best movie I've ever seen. It was a testament to movies that you should watch as a last resort when browsing your rental place. Parts of it truly bugged me, like the unparalleled clarity to the viewer of what any rational human being would do, but, if you're fairly consistent about ignoring rationality, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm told that this movie didn't follow the book (the friend who accompanied me rather vehemently pointed out differences). It's hard to really point out what was wrong with this movie: the acting wasn't terrible, the characters were fine (albeit a little weak), and the story was sound. However, it just leaves you unsatisfied at the end, and you find yourself chuckling at some of the effects. It was nothing special, but it's not the worst movie either.