Brotherhood of the Wolf

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The picture shatters all genre conventions.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

It's easily the most disarming and inventive movie made for genre geeks in years.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The picture has a daring attention-span deficit and an epic silliness that can be awesomely entertaining.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's impossible not to admire what, apart from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," may be the most ambitious action film since "The Matrix."

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Provides glorious escapism without asking you to turn your brain off.

Film Threat Evan Erwin

The film has a wonderful style and a sense of movement that barely slows down for its two and a half hours.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

May be the most purely entertaining foreign-language crossover since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

An eye-pleasing French action-slasher film that is cheerfully unencumbered by the usual conventions of stuffy costume drama.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I would be lying if I did not admit that this is all, in its absurd and overheated way, entertaining.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A zestful genre outing, and then some, right up its final overkill.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Avoid it if you object to seeing people devoured by wolves, but see it if you want to howl at the moon.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Brotherhood has its goofy side -- it's a sleek, creepily atmospheric popcorn entertainment.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

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.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

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.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

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.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

This is one of those follies that go beyond pesky, bourgeois notions of ''good'' and ''bad.''

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

At 140 minutes, the film becomes a humorless, long-winded spectacle.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Lacks the one element that the filmmakers were most desperately aiming for: A genuine sense of fun.

Slate David Edelstein

You have to admire a movie that endeavors to moosh together every successful cross-cultural action picture ever made.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Much of the historical horrorfest is more frenetic than fascinating. Look out for bursts of over-the-top violence.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Must we import the rubbish we export?

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This new take on horror is more of the bloody same.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

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."

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

If only Brotherhood of the Wolf had the wit and grace to match its exceptional physical beauty.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

An exuberantly garish French movie.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Too ludicrous to be taken seriously, but not entertaining enough to rate as camp.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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.