Late in “An American Werewolf in Paris,” a Frenchman sarcastically thanks a club full of young Americans for all the great culture their country has added to the world. Funny, but this movie is just the kind of Hollywood product that those cranky Europeans crab about.
Not quite a remake of or sequel to John Landis’ 1981 horrific comedy “An American Werewolf in London,” director Anthony Waller’s new movie tells another werewolf story involving American students traveling overseas.
Landis’ movie was the kind of yarn you could tell around a campfire: Two Americans get lost wandering the moors of northern England; one is killed by a werewolf and the other becomes such a beast — haunted by his dead friend and doomed to kill by the full moon until he is killed.
“An American Werewolf in Paris” has a lot more going on and almost no relatable story. Three guys arrive in Paris by train and have been trying to one-up each other as to who can perform the most impressive daredevil stunt. Andy (Tom Everett Scott) is about to bungee jump off the Eiffel Tower when he spots a beautiful young blond (Julie Delpy) about to leap to her death.
After a dramatic midair rescue he encounters her again and learns she’s a werewolf, and she lives with another werewolf. In fact, there’s a gang of werewolves. Pretty soon, Andy’s a werewolf too, and some other people are dead, and the police are after him, and the other werewolves are after him, and there’s a lot of running around and screaming.
Director/co-writer Waller (“Mute Witness”) displays a nice eye early on, but by the time the unconvincing computer-graphics werewolves are running amok, so is the movie. You get a pointless car chase, blatant Christ imagery and gory attacks upon and by creatures you don’t care about.
Where’s the fun? Even the first movie’s playful soundtrack — consisting entirely of moon songs, like “Bad Moon Rising” — has been replaced by Gothic choral music and pounding rock meant not to comment on the action but to sell CDs.
Scott looks overtired as Andy, and his friends Brad (Vince Vieluf) and Chris (Phil Buckman) are generic buddy types. Poor Delpy, the radiant star of “White” and “Before Sunrise,” gratuitously bares her breasts as if that’s the price she had to pay to appear in such mainstream schlock.
“An American Werewolf in Paris” doesn’t even have the guts to be faithful to its original premise. In true ’90s form, it presents a possible antidote to werewolfishness so the lead characters might be saved for future “American Werewolf” installments. But you’d probably be quite content if they — and the franchise — just died.
”AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS”
(star) 1/2
Directed by Anthony Waller; written by Tim Burns, Tom Stern and Waller; photographed by Egon Werdin; edited by Peter R. Adam; production designed by Matthias Kammermeier; music by Wilbert Hirsch; produced by Richard Claus. A Hollywood Pictures release; opens Thursday. Running time: 1:40. MPAA rating: R. Bloody violence, nudity.
THE CAST
Andy ……………… Tom Everett Scott
Serafine ………….. Julie Delpy
Brad ……………… Vince Vieluf
Chris …………….. Phil Buckman
Amy ………………. Julie Bowen
Claude ……………. Pierre Cosso
