Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 33
  2. Negative: 5 out of 33
  1. The picture shatters all genre conventions.
  2. Reviewed by: Evan Erwin
    80
    The film has a wonderful style and a sense of movement that barely slows down for its two and a half hours.
  3. 80
    It's impossible not to admire what, apart from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," may be the most ambitious action film since "The Matrix."
  4. It's easily the most disarming and inventive movie made for genre geeks in years.
  5. One of the five most popular films of the year in France, "Wolf" is a cross-cultural hoot that no one should take too seriously.
  6. 80
    The picture has a daring attention-span deficit and an epic silliness that can be awesomely entertaining.
  7. 80
    Provides glorious escapism without asking you to turn your brain off.
  8. 75
    I would be lying if I did not admit that this is all, in its absurd and overheated way, entertaining.
  9. Avoid it if you object to seeing people devoured by wolves, but see it if you want to howl at the moon.
  10. An eye-pleasing French action-slasher film that is cheerfully unencumbered by the usual conventions of stuffy costume drama.
  11. 75
    May be the most purely entertaining foreign-language crossover since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
  12. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    A zestful genre outing, and then some, right up its final overkill.
  13. 75
    Never pretends to be something that it isn't. Oh, there are costumes, to be sure, but that's just to facilitate the setting of the 18th century. Anyone who mistakes this for a costume drama is not aware of what kind of film they have ventured into.
  14. Utterly preposterous but so full of enthusiasm and flashy style that it's entertaining anyway, The Brotherhood of the Wolf is like the platypus of genre films.
  15. 70
    Brotherhood has its goofy side -- it's a sleek, creepily atmospheric popcorn entertainment.
  16. Reviewed by: Lisa Nesselson
    70
    A little Sergio Leone here, a little "Sleepy Hollow" there, a grand helping of late royal-era Gaul with its wigs and finery, and, uh, martial arts-style confrontations galore are all deftly melded in Brotherhood of the Wolf.
  17. All manner of superstitions, religious conspiracies and insurrections are aired, resulting less in awe than bewilderment. However, taken as an exciting and expansive cultural bridge, the film is a roaring success.
  18. 67
    Despite an overlong running time and a punishing amount of violence and gore, it's a deeply ambitious picture, one of the most expensive and original to come out of France in many years.
  19. 67
    This is one of those follies that go beyond pesky, bourgeois notions of ''good'' and ''bad.''
  20. The perfect film for anyone who likes their headbutting and kickboxing dressed up in gold brocade, frilly collars, and tri-cornered caps. And isn't that all of us?
  21. At 140 minutes, the film becomes a humorless, long-winded spectacle.
  22. Much of the historical horrorfest is more frenetic than fascinating. Look out for bursts of over-the-top violence.
  23. 50
    Lacks the one element that the filmmakers were most desperately aiming for: A genuine sense of fun.
  24. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    Must we import the rubbish we export?
  25. It's mindless, which is rarely true of French cinema, dull, which is rarely true of Hong Kong films, and portentous, which shouldn't be true of any film about a man-eating dog.
  26. Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    50
    You have to admire a movie that endeavors to moosh together every successful cross-cultural action picture ever made.
  27. 40
    Whatever it is, it's simultaneously on speed and Quaaludes; I don't know if any movie this profoundly insane has been seen in general release since Antonia Bird's Gold Rush cannibal comedy "Ravenous."
  28. 40
    This new take on horror is more of the bloody same.
  29. An exuberantly garish French movie.
  30. If only Brotherhood of the Wolf had the wit and grace to match its exceptional physical beauty.
  31. Has its moments. In fact, it has too many of them. At 2 hours and 20 minutes and with enough characters to take up a few floors at a big hotel, it feels about an act too long.
  32. Too ludicrous to be taken seriously, but not entertaining enough to rate as camp.
  33. This one's a turkey as big as the Eiffel Tower but it's bad in a particularly American way: It's wildly overdone, it throws in everything in an attempt to appeal to everyone, it's gargantuan and anti-logical, pointlessly ornate and pointlessly violent.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 32 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 22
  2. Negative: 5 out of 22
  1. 0
    This is movie is a disgrace. No idea what is going on, which made it incredibly boring. This movie wasted my time like no other. Stay away and i mean stay away. Full Review »
  2. good film but way too long, they could have definitely edited it down and it would have been just as good. the fight scenes were excellent, the acting alright. it had an interesting story, and you don't need to know that much about France at that time. All in all it's a good movie, watch it on a rainy weekend. 94% Full Review »
  3. 9
    Sorry, the movie was excellent. I liked the cast with Vincent Cassel convincing and the movie was fresh, uptodate covering an interesting historical topic. OK sometime very much Hollywood- like exagerating, but I love historical movies as there r not enough anyway. Good movie, worth watching Full Review »