Wolf |  | Director: Mike Nichols
Actors: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $6.99
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Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 182325
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Georgian (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 125 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0800129849
UPC: 043396711556
EAN: 9780800129842
ASIN: 0800129849
Theatrical Release Date: June 17, 1994
Release Date: November 26, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Sophisticated to a point, this well-executed wolf-man tale works due to its clever setting and enormous star power. We all know Jack Nicholson can go nuts, but the script makes his character aware of his changes, sometimes for the better, early on. The setting, a publishing house in the middle of a takeover, gives the characters dramatic life before the horror elements kicks in. A senior editor about to get the boot, Nicholson's character becomes a new man after being bitten by a wolf. He takes on challenges at work, lives a more robust life, and attracts a new love. But will his newfound energy consume him? Director Mike Nichols keeps the action alive in the first half, but the film peters out at the end with cheap theatrics and the overuse of slow motion. Michelle Pfeiffer has little to do as simply the love interest with a grittier than average personality. Better is James Spader as a smarmy colleague. Nicholson is in fine form, relying on his keen gift to spark interest (a twitch of the head, a look in the eyes), instead of heavy doses of movie makeup. Giuseppe Rotunno's sweeping camerawork sets the mood quite well. Easy to recommend, with the added feature it's hardly gratuitous. --Doug Thomas
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 65
 Wolf January 5, 2010
Arnita D. Brown (USA)
Contemporary werewolf tale about a successful Manhattan book editor who after being bitten by a wolf, tries to resist as he begins to be transformed into a beast. Wolf is an entertaining comedic horror piece with over-the-top special effects, that does please.
As much of a hoot as a howl - and all the better for it October 30, 2009
still searching (MK UK)
In no way a conventional horror movie, nonetheless, it is, alongside the Coppola `Dracula' and the `Branagh' Frankenstein, all brought out within a couple of years of one another in the early nineties, supposedly, part of a revisionist trilogy of that traditional staple horror fare.
Directed by Mike Nichols with a script by Wesley Strick and Jim Harrison (of Legends of the Fall fame), Nicholson is at his brilliant best as the jaded lead editor of a publishing house recently acquired by a billionaire asset stripper played in suitably predatory fashion by the excellent Christopher Plummer. He gets the `shot in the arm' needed to fight back against the twin evils of rampant capitalism and cuckolding protégé Spader, who has more than an eye on Nicholson's wife, Nelligan, and his mentor's job, from an 'obliging' wolf, when travelling back from a business trip through the frozen wilds of a New England winter. When asked to visit Plummer, ostensibly to be offered a `sideways' move but, in reality, a lower prestige job, he encounters Plummer's slightly wayward daughter, Pfeiffer, who plays her spoilt little rich girl part to perfection and who, initially at any rate, is only too willing to ally herself to Nicholson as a way of spiting her presumably negligent father.
There are, too, turns by stalwart Brit actors, Prunella Scales and Eileen Atkins and Frazier's David Hyde Pierce. The movie has wit, irony, elegance and a superb and, by turns, lushly romantic and jazzy Ennio Morricone score: all this and some wonderfully amusing moments make for a truly enjoyable experience even if the label `horror' normally turns you off.
A Classy Werewolf Story June 9, 2009
Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
Here's a werewolf movie done with some style and some class. This may be the only werewolf-business world story combination. It features effective villains played by James Spader and Christopher Plummer and the always unpredictable Jack Nicholson.
Nicholson has the lead role, naturally, and is refreshingly low-key, especially for him. I don't believe he ever raised his voice in this movie, acting very subdued throughout.
There isn't as much action as you see in most modern-day horror movies but yet this is such an intense story that you don't lose interest. It's pretty good in the visual department, too, and it doesn't hurt to have Michelle Pfeiffer to ogle.
This Wolf Blows The House Down April 12, 2009
B26354 (Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jack Nicholson makes the perfect gentle, mild-mannered protagonist as Will, who becomes slowly transformed after being bitten on a stretch of dark lonely road in the snow after hitting a wolf with his car and then climbing out to investigate in perhaps the creepiest scene in the movie ("A wolf in Vermont? Are you sure?" everyone keeps asking him). Great star power, atmosphere, and lush interiors in this film, with Pfeiffer as the blue-blood, sarcastic street-smart and estranged daughter of Will's ruthless boss (played beautifully by Christopher Plummer) who replaces Will as senior editor of the publishing house he takes over, with younger, upstart punk Stewart (played by the flawless James Spader who is seemingly BORN to play these kinds of roles) and who we could really refer to as a "wolf-in-sheep's clothing" because he has everyone fooled that he is really a nice guy instead of the ruthless backstabbing coward he really is. David Hyde Pierce is also perfectly cast as Will's coworker and buddy who stands by him and whose role could have been expanded so he would have had more screen time, but hey, I'll take what I can get. The story is a refreshing and original modernization of the werewolf tale that has been told a thousand different ways that we have all seen throughout the history of cinema, complete with humor and gore and plot twists that keep it fresh and exciting. They even retained the mystical element of the story as well, but keeping it relevant with this day and age (Will's transformation enables him to deal with these hard situations in a way he was not previously capable of, so it is a joy, in a way, to see him come into his own so the deserving people get what's coming to them) and the effects on the different interpersonal relationships of the characters. The strange, slow-mo ending sequences of the film fall short compared to the first part of the movie (would a climactic werewolf battle include using gardening tools as weapons and attempted rape? um, probably not, but hey, suspension of disbelief is important here), but are unique and interesting enough to keep you guessing as to how the action will end and who will survive. Sit down with a hot cup of tea on a stormy night and enjoy this great re-telling of a classic horror movie story complete with humor, horror, and some great star power, which also includes Prunella Scales (remember Fawlty Towers?), David Jenkins, Kate Nelligan, Eileen Atkins, Ron Rifkin (who has one of the funniest lines in the film), and Allison Janney and David Schwimmer in bit parts - no pun intended!
It's a Gift! April 12, 2009
Richard Drozd (Shoreline, WA USA)
There isn't much I can add to the many fine reviews of this underrated film, except this: when one looks at all the many werewolf movies produced, going back to Lon Cheny, Jr's THE WOLFMAN, the one constant is that lycanthropy is a curse, an unwarranted damnation. What struck me after watching this film recently is the possibility that the transformation of man (or woman) into wolf can be viewed as a blessing, a gift. It certainly is for Nicholson's character Will Randall. Notice he never maims or kills except in self defense (OK, he DID slaughter the innocent deer, but that is a normal event in the animal kingdom). What he gets out of it is an escape from the treacherous brutality and betrayal of homosapiens and the freedom to make his life what he wants it to become--we get a clue of this early on from his truthful, but tasteless (and funny) remark at the party about the decline of civilization and the triumph of pop and therapeutic culture. He has no use for the world humanity has unmade, and werewolfism becomes his ticket out of it. Added to this is the likely possibility that he'll wind up with his new love as an added bonus. Seems like the perfect happy ending to me!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 65
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