Blood and ChocolateI think there’s probably something wrong with me.

No, seriously.  I mean, first, and I hate to admit this, I think I actually enjoyed the movie Twilight.  I’m not going to read the books or anything, but I’ve actually sat through the movie twice at this point…BY CHOICE.  I tried to get my wife to see the zombie nazi flick Dead Snow instead, but I guess Hollister-wearing vampires were the order of the night.

This morning, I saw Blood and Chocolate. For all intents and purposes, Blood and Chocolate is like Twilight with werewolves (well, I guess Twilight has werewolves, doesn’t it?), and with older actors.

Is that a good thing?  Well, like Twilight, it’s not going to please people looking for an actual HORROR movie, but it’s a pretty decent watch as long as you go in with tempered expectations.  Check my full review after the jump!

So, Blood and Chocolate is about Vivian (Agnes Bruckner), a werewolf in Bucharest, who is sworn to marry the head of the werewolves, Gabriel (Olivier Martinez).  Apparently, because the wolves have a hard time not killing people and pissing off humans, they’ve moved to Bucharest and, right now, have a pretty good thing going.  They hunt scumbags late at night, they party like it’s 1999, and things are going pretty smoothly.  Then, Vivian decides to fall in love with Aiden (Hugh Dancy, who really needs to stop playing the love interest in chick flicks), and Gabriel is none too happy.  See, Aiden is a comic artist doing research in Bucharest about his newest graphic novel, which is about…you guessed it, werewolves!

I think that what sets this apart from a flick like Twilight is the acting.  Brucker, Dancy, Martinez, and Bryan Dick are all pretty good in their roles, and their is actualy chemistry between the two leads.  It’s not a lot of looking at each other somberly – they have a connection, but it takes a while before they spend time together, and they actually have fun together, not just talk about death.  You actually do care about the characters and, when Aiden finds out that Vivian is a werewolf, he actually does what a real person would do.  He dumps the bitch and decides to leave before the wolfy people eat him.

Of course, he’s brought back into it and, maybe in an effort to please the male audience, there’s a big shoot out at the end between Aiden, Vivian, and the werewolves.  I can’t lie, I’d normally be all about a shootout, but it seemed out of place in this flick.  Still, it’s produced by the Underworld folks, so I’m not totally surprised.

Much hubbub was made about the wolf transformations – see, these people actually turn into wolves, not wolfmen.  And it’s not a mean, nasty transformation – it’s all glowy and sparkly and then Bam!  pretty wolves running in the woods.  Sure, it’s silly, but in the context of the story, it works.  It’s a romance, and thus everything is supposed to have a certain beauty to it, you know?

It’s supposedly based on a book, but it sounds like they changed a LOT about the book, including the ending.  I’m sure fans weren’t too happy about that, but, having seen the movie and read about the ending of the book, my preference tends toward the movie’s.

I wouldn’t buy it, but if it comes on a movie channel, or you get a chance to rent it, it’s definitely worth a try.  If your lady likes Twilight, or you do, this has more to offer you than that one.  At least the leads in this one are in their 20’s.

Awesomeness Score - 7Paul’s Awesomeness Score – 7 out of 10!

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