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Hollywood is a machine. Every week, every month and every year countless films are released into theatres and not every one is as successful as the studio heads would hope. Sometimes the publicity machine was askew, sometimes the movie targeted an odd demographic, sometimes the release was steamrolled by a much larger movie and occasionally the movie is flat out bad.

But Hollywood's loss is our gain. There is a veritable treasure trove of film out there that you may not have seen. I will be your guide to this veritable wilderness of unwatched film. It will be my job to steer you towards the action, adventure, drama and comedy that may have eluded you, and at the same time, steer you away from some truly unwatchable dreck.

Hopefully we'll stumble across some entertainment that may have slid under your radar. Wish us luck.

The Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)

It's hard to sum up The Brotherhood of the Wolf in just one word, but I think it can be done. The word I'm going to choose is "bizarre". This is a movie that is literally all over the place thematically and plot wise.

The movie stars Samuel Bihan as Gregoire de Fronsac, Vincent Cassell (Eastern Promises, Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 13, Irreversible) as Jean Francois de Morangais, Emelie Duquenne as Marianne de Morangais, Monica Bellucci (Shoot'em Up, The Matrix Reloaded, The Brothers Grimm) as Sylvia and Mark Dacoscos (The Crow TV series and believe it or not, the current chairman in Iron Chef America) as Mani, Gregoire's native American sidekick. There are a number of actors in this film that look to have spectacular resumes, but as I don't so much speak French as mangle it, I haven't seen any of them. They could all be masterpieces, or they could be truly representative of a culture that worships at the font of Jerry Lewis. I don't know.

What we have here is a film that is supposedly about a surreptitious plot to incite sedition against the current king of France. The story is told by a nobleman biding time as an angry mob waits with the mandatory pitchforks and torches. Personally, if an angry mob is waiting outside to take me to the guillotine, there are several other things I'm going to try first aside from storytelling. Escaping or hiding seems pretty high on the list actually. Storytelling? Not so much.

At any rate, the nobleman tells a tale of bygone days when a monstrous wolf was terrorizing the countryside and slaughtering poor maidens left and right. And they are not kidding about the slaughtering. Barely five minutes into the movie we are treated to one such nameless victim frantically attempting to escape the beast and failing miserably. Gregoire de Fronsac is a scientist, philosopher, martial artist, tracker, hunter and explorer, so he is dispatched to deal with the problem. I think it's a good call actually. When people start showing up dead it's always wise to send in the guy with the skill set similar to Batman.

The gruesomely savaged corpse is examined by Gregoire and Mani, as they have been sent to deal with the situation as unrest in the countryside makes the King look bad. Gregoire examines the remains and confers with Mani and they both immediately decide that whatever this thing is, it's not a wolf. What it is, they don't know, but they know what it's not.

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