This is another Sci-Fi Channel movie, but it's a bit unusual. Most Sci-Fi Channel movies are wonderfully straightforward. Everything you need to know about the plot is right there in the title. (My personal favorite - Rock Monster.) They often involve either gargoyles or giant reptiles, or some sort of body-snatcher aliens (so it can be added to the themed-marathon lineup), and if you can throw in Nazis, or otherwise explain why everyone but the three leads is obviously Romanian, well, even better. They usually exhibit a decent sense of humor, terrible CGI, worse scripts, acceptable acting, occasional cameos from familiar faces, and are competently put together in their way. They are like the Big Mac of horror films - cheap, satisfying, and pretty much the same all over.

War Wolves shows signs that someone wanted to do something more. During the first third, this flick looked like it might use the werewolf as a metaphor for the savagery of war that some veterans carry home with them, isolating them from their fellow citizens and former lives, driving them to violence, alcoholism or other self medication. Sadly, it didn't manage to follow through.

After some token backstory, a US military unit, led by a Captain Gideon (our leading man, and also director), is pinned down in some house to house fighting in ... I guess Iraq. Anyhow, the troops are holding their own, until the "dog men" the locals fear set upon them.

Back in the States, the survivors now share a terrible secret that they all struggle with differently.

Had the film continued to develop that line, it could have been pretty cool. However, I suspect something changed mid-stream in the scripting or development, because everything becomes incoherent after we establish that (1) the women of the unit are now all completely hot and pissed off at rednecks, and (2) the men are either power tripping or despondent winos.

That is on top of the usual B-movie incoherence. They seem confused about what branch of the military these guys are with (Army? Marines? If special forces, which one?). This is pretty common and usually doesn't really matter, but it still annoys me. Then it isn't even clear where they're fighting, though I assume it's Iraq based on the fact that the setting is current and there was an extra in a head scarf but not a burqa - the costuming of the locals seemed to range from Morocco to Moldova.

Anyhow, John Saxon and Tim Thomerson suddenly appear, but your relief will be short lived, because they introduce a totally different incoherent plot line: they are the unit's former commanders, now turned werewolf hunters, and they're after Captain Gideon. Adrienne Barbeau wanders through as Gideon's AA sponsor; sadly she is mainly there for the comic effect of her belief in aliens, government conspiracies and cryptozoology - which is of course about to be proven right.

The whole thing takes yet another turn when we learn that the rest of the unit is also trying to find Gideon, who is somehow "special" or "the one." What does that mean? Why do they need him? What are they trying to accomplish? No clue. Best I can figure out, the lead female werewolf (easy to identify because she was given the longest hair extensions) wants to make little baby werewolves with him, but the rest of them seem to think something more is going on for reasons totally opaque to me. But Saxon and Thomerson apparently agree that he is special and can somehow help them. How? Why? Why are they even doing this? Dunno.

Maybe the Sci-Fi movie machine just can't handle anything outside of their usual formula. Maybe someone in charge of script development just screwed the pooch. Either way, the movie becomes incoherent pretty quickly and stays that way. The performances are mixed. The old pros do a stand-up job, and the leading man does a fine job as Gideon. But the script is atrocious, clunky and unnatural, and while Saxon, Thomerson and Barbeau can make anything work, I've heard better line delivery in pornos than you get from some of the other actors. (And, what is up with the lead actress's accent? It's not heavy, but still, we have ears. If you're going to cast an eastern-block model, at least pretend to explain her accent by, say, adding the words "after my family came here from XXX" to the speech where she reminisces about her all-American high-school days.)

The semi-werewolf effects are ... pathetic. Maybe it was a budget thing, but either show a transformation or don't. Don't go from humans, to humans with big teeth, ears and doggy-noses (yes, I'm serious), to trained animals on the horizon, it just looks silly. I was reminded of Wolf, which was pretty cool up until Jack Nicholson and James Spader started sprouting Neil Diamond's sideburns and flying around on wires like freaking Peter Pan.

Anyhow, I want to give them more credit for looking like they might go in an interesting direction, or at least for providing work for some deserving old war horses, but I just can't. 3 out of 10 (including an extra point for a Lance Henriksen shout-out).