Wolves (2014)

A lot of fun.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Cayden Richards (Lucas Till) is the high school star quarterback but he is struggling with some strange changes. After a couple of incidents including transformation, he decides to runaway. He finds out that he is adopted. He befriends Wild Joe who sends him to others at Lupine Ridge. Gail Timmins (Melanie Scrofano) is the drunken bartender. He is immediately attracted to her sister Angelina Timmins (Merritt Patterson). John Tollerman (Stephen McHattie) gives him a job at his farm. Connor (Jason Momoa) is the mysterious local gang leader.The first thing one notice is that the transformation is revealed early on and the movie doesn't enjoy showing it. It doesn't have fun with the usual werewolf transformation sequence. It's possible that they don't have the expertise or the budget to do it properly. There is a lot of werewolf makeup. Most of it is fair. This is a lower budget Canadian production and strictly a cable TV movie. Still, there are possible ways to make it work better. There is no imagination in the filmmaking and the story moves too slowly. There is nothing surprising and there isn't any tension. Instead of rushing through his origins story, they should have started Cayden on the road. His past can be shown in quick flashbacks. None of it is that compelling anyways. This is not any good.

It's a pretty decent effort with maybe a bit of a surprising turn at some point during the story. Only if you watch it, without thinking too much and are open to the B-movie vibe this has. The acting is OK, if you consider what this is (comparisons with Twilight are not far off, of course, though I have no idea if the original idea was there before or if they just came up with it because of the YA thing that is exploding right now).Not literally exploding of course, but people wanting to watch fantasy stuff like that. And trying to include both genders interest can be tricky at times, but it walks that line nicely too. Don't expect too much (though it does contain a bit of violence that is above Twilight level and also McHattie, an actor who adds a lot of gravitas) and you'll be entertained enough, if you're into Lycans

A young dude Cayden Richards (played by that geezer who plays Alex Summers/Havoc in "X-Men: First Class"; Lucas Till) with growing pains living with his adopted parents. Growing pains include sudden hair growth, insatiable appetite for blood, new pointy teeth, weird nightmares, and random howling at the moon. Things begin to go wrong for Cayden during a game of American football at his high school, nether the less his cheerleader girlfriend Lisa Stewart (Kaitlyn Leeb) tries to cheer him up with sex in a car but this also doesn't actually happen; Cayden's new wild side scares off Lisa. This is the catalyst for problems; Cayden's random growing pains see him blacking out and waking up to find he has slaughtered his step parents. Racked with guilt he goes on the run and soon encounters a stranger claiming to know his secret called "Wild Joe" (John Pyper-Ferguson) . Wild Joe advises if Cayden wants answers about his past and what has made him into a moon howling hairy troubled teenager then he should visit the random town of Lupine Ridge, and thus the merry journey begins.Upon arriving at Lupine ridge Cayden hits a bar and meets Angelina "Angel" Timmins (Merritt Patterson) and Gail Timmins (Melanie Scrofano) who run the place, in fact most of the local residents are in the bar too making the intro scene easier. Some of the residents instantly sniff him out as a descendant of the original werewolf clan that formed the town, others less nasally strong just mock him as the new kid in town, including Jason Momoa (Connor) the current alpha werewolf of the town. The night ends unsuccessfully for Cayden. The next day John Tollerman (Stephen McHattie) offers Cayden (using the name of Danny for cover), it turns out he's actually Cayden's uncle - coincidence or what! Cayden soon discovered that he is the child of rape, when trying to gain control of the town Connor (Momoa) who is a pure local werewolf rapes Cayden's mum who is also pure local werewolf. Knowing the rape child would be groomed to be the new evil all conquering alpha the pregnant mother is hidden by some of the good guy locals and gives birth in secret, after giving birth the child is put up for adoption and the mother kills herself. Connor is led to believe that she died before child birth so he is unaware of the alpha heir. Aaaanyway.... The alpha heir is back and he's curious about his own background and upon learning wants to help out, besides that he's already fallen in love with Angel (Merritt Patterson) and she is entwined in her own wolf dramas also involving alpha dog Connor. Angel has been promised to Connor to birth a pure werewolf as his original son (in this instance Cayden who is suspected dead) dies in prior to birth - it's either this deal or Connor and his pack of cronies go mental and kill all the locals so Connor remains the only pure blooded werewolf. Finding Angel is promised to Connor like some kind of cash cow is the last straw for Cayden - this is his fuel for a fight with Connor (his dad), all hell soon breaks loose. The big twist in this comes at the end (Despite the earlier spoilers this one is the biggest spoiler so be careful…) when Wild Joe returns to put the finishing blow on Connor, it turns out that Cayden hadn't been blacking out and killing people, Wild Joe had been grooming him as his assassin against Connor and had been killing people secretly and letting Cayden take the rap for it.When I started watching the film I thought the effects were tacky but that's because it's old school so I didn't mind (there is no CGI or animation - it's all classic make up and effects). The werewolves do look like the werewolves of 30's B-Movie cinema, they'd have looked fine next to a slightly camp Frankenstein or the creature from the black lagoon - but this is endearing rather than off putting - to this point thought there was a charm to the film which made me stick with it till the end. Don't expect deep and moving character development or startling narrative twists to the story. What you can do though is easily drift into and watch the mindless narrative unfold without having to interact your emotions.I've seen a lot of bad reviews on here but please don't be put of by them, I have seen worse, I have seen better, this one was harmless and I was able to watch it without the missus asking every couple of minutes what's going on.

I do not mean to come across as randomly against this film, or just cranky, I am very specifically critical of this film, and very cranky about this film, and I will tell you why.Because they blew it.As I have explained in my other reviews, you don't need big stars or even a big budget to make a good movie. Just talent, a vision, and lots of effort.The opening here -- a young man not only discovers he is a werewolf but at the same time seemingly kills (quote) "the only two people in the world I cared about" (unquote - referring to his parents); then discovers he is not only a werewolf, and and adopted, and an orphan, but now also Public Enemy #1.That was very clever and it hooked me. It was a great start.However, the problem with the film is that it lead with its best punch and everything that followed, while competent, did not not meet the promise of the opening.In fact, the weak dialog, and emphasis on strange, werewolfy, "martial arts" is exactly the sort of formula film that JCVD likes to make.Summary: great opening ends up as a so-so film. Shame.