The unbridled enthusiasm of Cry_Wolfs director is the main reason to pick up the unrated cut of the film on DVD. The film itself is watchable but the special features show us director Jeff Wadlow as an energetic driven fan boy who loves what he is doing and that makes the film so much more fun, at least it did for this viewer.
The convoluted bit of story involves 8 students at a very high price boarding school who pass the time playing a game of lies that spirals completely out of control when the made up murder and mayhem starts becoming all to real. Lead by the beautiful Lindy Booth this cast of relative unknowns does a commendable job of holding this film up. The only real names in the film are Jon Bon Jovi as a professor that is teaching a little Sex Ed on the side and Gary Cole as the influential father of Owen played by talented young actor Julian Morris. We are ushered into the film as Owen heads in for his first day of classes and promptly meets up with Dodger, Tom, Mercedes and a half dozen or so other bored, sexed up teenagers who gather after lights out to play a game called Wolf. At some point they decide to up the stakes of the game a bit by posting their little game of lies on the internet. This is when things start to get a little interesting. Their made up boogeyman, The Wolf, seems to suddenly actually exist, or is it just one of the gang pulling out all the stops to win the game? Who can be trusted? Who is the killer? Well, youre going to have to pick up the DVD to answer all those questions. You have to pay attention to avoid getting lost in the plots twists and turns and Wadlow relies heavily on you caring enough about these characters to sit through the set ups that lead to a pretty good conclusion. I found the film a little dark, not in content but in lighting. There were parts of the film that really seemed to be nothing more than a few shadows moving around a darkened room and I found myself wondering just exactly what the hell was going on.
The special features are good and I enjoyed the making of docu and the short film that led to director Wadlow winning the film competition that financed this project. As I mentioned at the top of this article though, the enthusiasm that Wadlow shows in his commentary and on the special features kind of took the film to a different level for me. When I originally viewed the film I found it a bit predictable but enjoyable but when I watched it again after the special features I found myself enjoying it much more as Wadlows love of the genre and of this project is a bit infectious.
So, should you plunk down your hard earned greenage and add this one to your collection, yeah I would. Just make sure to watch it twice, once normal and then again with the commentary and special features. I think youll find you appreciate it much more after you let Wadlow take you by the hand and lead you into his world for a while.
Here are the DVD specs:
Actors: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi, Sandra McCoy, See more
Directors: Jeff Wadlow
Format: Ac- , Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc, Widescreen Anamorphic
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated:
Studio: Mca Home Video
DVD Release Date: December 20, 2005
Run Time: 91 minutes
Average Customer Review: Based on 7 Reviews
DVD Features:
Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Commentary by: Director / Co-Writer Jeff Wadlow, Producer / Co-Writer Beau Bauman and Editor / Associate Producer Seth Gordon (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Deleted / Extended Scenes
Alternate Scene
Wolves, Sheep and Shepherds: Casting the Roles
Winning the Game: Inside the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival
Before They Cried Wolf: The Filmmakers' Short Films
Feature Commentary with Director / Co-Writer Jeff Wadlow, Producer / Co-Writer Beau Bauman and Editor / Associate Producer Seth Gordon
Cry Wolf comes out today, Tuesday December 20th and is available at all the normal retailers.
