Teen Wolf (1985)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Lack of good storyline.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

I'm a huge fan of 80's movies, but this one is terrible. It's not just the poor effects or awful music... the entire film struggles to find it's way with a poor storyline. It seems to take half the movie before any real action begins. The character development is weak and there is virtually no chemistry between any of the main characters. It's hard to believe someone was convinced to make a TV series about this. Perhaps the best use of this film is to see some pretty authentic 80's clothing and hairstyles that should spark some great ideas for your next Halloween party. There are other solid Michael J Fox movies, but this isn't one of them.

Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox) is an average student and an average basketball player on a very bad school team. Popular girl Pamela Wells doesn't care for him. His best friend is the girl Boof (Susan Ursitti) who is secretly in love with him. His other best friend Stiles (Jerry Levine) is a talkative schemer. He is slowly showing signs of something. His father Harold (James Hampton) tells him that their family are werewolves. When he shows his true self on the basketball court, the students surprise by showering him with love as they win games. Even Pamela starts to like the popular Scott angering her boyfriend Mick. However it's not all smooth sailing as he struggles to find his identity.This is a very average teen movie. Michael J. Fox is the only thing that make this compelling. He has a charm that makes this silly concept watchable. There is a good message underneath with Scott trying to figure out his identity like all teenager movie. It's not as stupid as one might think but we're not talking about Shakespeare either.

When people complain about the "Twilight"-ifaction of the classic monsters, I like to point out that Stephanie Myer did not invent this phenomenon. Cinema isn't that old a medium. It was only about thirty-so years old when the Universal Monsters came along. It was only twenty-some years later when pop culture overexposure had watered the original horrors down to TV sitcoms, kid cartoons, and breakfast cereals. You can't trace a path from Lon Chaney Jr. hunting maidens on the foggy moors to Taylor Lautner turning into a big shiny husky without passing through "Teen Wolf," a fondly remembered bit of ridiculous eighties nostalgia.The premise is hacky, Hollywood, high concept writing at its best/worst/burst. Scott Howard is a high school student who's not quite a loser but definitely isn't cool. He plays, poorly, basketball for his school's poor basketball team. His friends are weirdoes obsessed with van-surfing who can only get into the good parties by promising to bring booze. His object of desire, the hottest girl in school is also a drama student somehow, is way out of his league. All of this is confounded when Scott finds out he's a werewolf. While horrified at first, the powers that come along with the transformations quickly make Scott the most popular kid in school. But, ah, the screenplay implores us, will Scott learn to accept himself for who he is? If that plot synopsis didn't clue you in, "Teen Wolf' is an exceptionally dumb movie. Co-written by Jeph Loeb, a frequently terrible comic writer who gets a life-time pass for "Commando," the movie takes place in that bizarro high school world that only exists in 1980s comedies. One of Scott's basketball teammates is a big fat guy clearly in his thirties. Even the perpetually youthful Michael J. Fox looks a bit too old for this. Jerry Levine plays Scott's best friend, Stiles, a really bizarre creation. Aside from the van surfing, he wears obnoxious t-shirts and MCs inexplicable party games, one of which involve two people in their underwear, tied up and covered in whipped cream. The entire premise hinges on the student body finding a kid turning into a werewolf to be the coolest thing ever. That strikes me as somewhat unlikely. Despite this being made in the mid-eighties, the film parodies "Saturday Night Fever" during the prom scene.Despite its general dumbness, "Teen Wolf" manages to mildly amuse at times. Released the same year as "Back to the Future," Fox is as charming as ever, making his bizarre character a likable every-kid. Even when Scott's sudden popularity is suppose to turn him into a huge jerk, Fox makes him immensely likable. Occasionally, the movie's lame humor catches up with its wacky premise. The basketball couch delivers rambling, heart-to-heart speeches that are in no way helpful. James Hampton is delightfully dead-pan as Scott's very patience father. The jerk principal subplot pays off nicely. Susan Ursitti is also over-qualified as Scott's childhood friend. You know the two of them are going to end up together and it's clear she loves him. However, Ursitti and Fox have great chemistry and she's likable enough to make the obvious plot mechanics less clunky.Like all ridiculous high school stories, "Teen Wolf" tries to play its deeply inane premise for drama in the last act. The school turns on the wolf and Scott is forced to prove himself at the final basketball game. It makes the preceding stupidity seems even more stupid in retrospect, no more so then when an overdone ballad plays over the slow-motion end-credits. The werewolf make-up isn't very good and, considering the tiny budget, it's no surprise that there's only one on-screen transformation. The storyline involving Scott's crush, her douche bag boyfriend, and the drama teacher is terrible. The sometimes homophobic dialogue will probably make you wince. "Teen Wolf" is an occasionally entertaining stupid kid's movie that's a bit too raunchy for kids. Aside from a terrible cartoon show and terrible sequel, the movie would also lend its title to a terrible MTV supernatural romance soap-opera, bringing the "Twilight' connection full-circle.

The tragic story of a simple minded adolescent boy with a rare disease that turns him into a wolf at inappropriate times. Scott is small for his age and has suspect banter which makes him an easy target for bullies and practical jokers. While shaving one morning Scott suddenly turns into a wolf, a painful and humiliating ordeal which fills Scott with an inner steel and a taste for blood. A member of the school basketball team Scott is determined to be accepted as a wolf with or without his glasses on and tries to prove that wolves aren't just big dogs. Sadly for Scott, though more impressive physically and certainly hairier his suspect banter and high pitched teenage voice remain a constant source of anguish. Scott must decide whether to remain as a wolf, stronger, hairier but ultimately less human and therefore an animal or undergo extensive surgery returning him to an awkward teen with average basketball skills and poor eye sight. Scott's father Harold also suffers from the rare disease but has made his choice long ago choosing to stay in during the day and come out at night though always wearing a balaclava and boiler suit.