Sunday, March 22, 2015

WolfCop (2014)



Every year, there are a few movies that get released that people latch onto as b-movie gold.  These are the genre movies that don’t take themselves seriously.  People enjoy having a few drinks, hanging out with friends, and watching a fun movie that wouldn’t be your typical big summer blockbuster.  These movies are your Sharknados, your Big Ass Spider!s, and other movies of that ilk.  They make it easy for the viewer to turn off their brain for a while and just have a good time.  The movie I watched for this week’s Sunday “Bad” Movie post is another movie that could fit in right alongside these movies.  The movie I’m writing about is WolfCop.

WolfCop tells the story of Lou Garou (Leo Fafard), a bumbling police officer in a small town.  He is turned into a werewolf one night while on patrol in the woods.  Some sort of a ritual thing.  With the help of fellow townsman Willie Higgins (Jonathan Cherry) and co-worker Tina (Amy Matysio), Lou uses his newfound werewolf powers to stop crime and take down the people that made him this way.  He also soups up his car into a pretty awesome WolfCar or something like that.  I think that was the name.  Either way, it was a pretty great car.

I had heard about WolfCop through the grapevine for a couple months now.  There were whispers of it on Twitter.  People saying they enjoyed it.  People just talking about it in general.  I wasn’t sure what the movie was but I knew that I had to see it.  Between the name and… well the name, it was a movie that sounded like it was right in my wheelhouse.  The debate in my head was when I should see it.  Should I see it as soon as I possibly could, or would I be able to hold off and save it for the Sunday “Bad” Movies?  I decided to toss it into the next possible slot for a newer movie and that ended up being this week’s post.

About two minutes after I started WolfCop, I knew I was going to love the movie.  It recognized exactly what it wanted to be and played right into that.  In much the same way as Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (but with better acting and a bigger budget), the movie knows that it is b-movie schlock and just follows through on that look and feel.  It goes all out in terms of how shocking it can be, without the gore being overly gory.  Sure, there’s blood and lots of it.  There are werewolf transformations (which I want to highlight) as well.  Yet the move stays away from being about the guts and instead focuses on simply being over-the-top in a great, fun way.

Now I want to get into a few specifics about what made WolfCop as memorable and fun for me as it was, other than the fact that it understood its place in the world of film.  What better place to start than the werewolf transformation that I so wanted to highlight?  This movie is unique in terms of werewolf transformations.  I’m not talking about the look of the makeup, prosthetics, CGI, and costuming that helped to create the transformation.  That stuff was good and all, but there was one specific thing that happened that I don’t remember ever seeing in any other movie that I have happened to place my eyes upon.  So, the initial transformation that Lou had occurred in a bar bathroom.  He was taking a leak and realized that his urine was bloody.  Then you see a full shot of his wiener as it shoots a steady stream of blood from the tip.  This is immediately followed by the penis exploding into a wolf dick.  That’s right.  The transformation begins with a schlong.  I had never seen that before in any movie involving werewolves.  It shocked me, and I found it kind of amazing.

The other thing I mentioned earlier that I really want to write about in WolfCop is the man that is Jonathan Cherry.  This is a guy who has been in my life since my teenage years, though I never realized it.  As a teenager, I used to always watch certain movies again and again.  One of the franchises that I had seen many times during that period of my life was the Final Destination franchise.  The first, second, and third were the ones I would watch repeatedly.  Jonathan Cherry was in the second movie and had one of my favourite deaths in the entire film.  Little did I know the man that is Jonathan Cherry at that time.  I didn’t have much other experience with the guy until he popped up in the movie Goon a couple years ago, in a sort of career resurgence.  I say resurgence because he has been in What If (The F Word) and WolfCop since then.  In the two I have seen, he is actually quite a memorable presence.  It’s interesting considering his early 2000s movies where he was an all but forgotten figure.  They, Final Destination 2, and House of the Dead all failed to turn him into a star.  It’s sad because I like the presence that he has brought to films recently, though I guess it’s also a good thing because we wouldn’t have his newer roles otherwise.  You know, because one choice can change the outcome of everything.

This week’s movie was one hell of a ride.  WolfCop was entertaining from beginning to end.  I have no real gripes about it.  It was a perfect addition to the b-movie roster, and a great movie to watch as a part of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  The only thing left to do is promote the hell out of this movie that I have absolutely nothing to do with and hope that more people seek it out and watch it.  It deserves as many pairs of eyeballs as it can get.  If you have any interest in genre filmmaking, horror comedy, or the whole b-movie aesthetic, then this is a movie for you.  You’ll have a great time watching it.

One final thing I want to say that is important to mention about WolfCop is that when the credits began to roll, a card came up saying that 2015 would see the release of WolfCop II.  That gets me very excited because of how good of a time I had watching this movie.  I can assure you that if and when a WolfCop II is released, I will find a way to get it into the Sunday “Bad” Movies schedule.  I will be watching it for sure.
Like always, I’ve got some notes for you:

  • I mentioned three previous Sunday “Bad” Movies in this post.  They were Big Ass Spider!, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, and House of the Dead.
  • Jonathan Cherry was previously in a movie called House of the Dead.  I’ve already linked to that, though.
  • Aidan Devine was in WolfCop.  He was also in Iron Eagle IV.
  • Have you seen WolfCop?  Did you love it like I did?  Do you know who Jonathan Cherry is?  What are some of the crazy werewolf transformations you’ve seen?  Talk about this movie and this post in the comments below.
  • If you would like me to watch a movie for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can suggest it in the comments, to my Twitter account, or in my email account sundaybadmovies@gmail.com
  • Next week’s movie will be An Ant’s Life, from the same people who brought you A Car’s Life.  This is a movie that has been in and out of the schedule many times before.  It’s finally going to get covered.  So be ready.

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