The Wicker Man (2006)

Great Film overall

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Haunted by a tragic accident, a policeman is called out to an isolated island community to search for a missing child only for the habitants' strange rituals and ceremonies to infuriate him which causes him to discover what the real reason was for the ceremony.This has a few considerable flaws going for it. One of the main issues is that there's a problem with the way the investigation is handled which is a huge factor due to the majority of the time this spends on the investigation. Since the film relies on the fact that everything around him is lying and he's being deceived quite obviously, this one goes for the society seemingly playing games with him from the start even if they appear to be trying to help him for the first half here. At the very end, he starts going around and throwing his weight around to make up for all the lies that were told to him which really seems like an act which should've been done sooner, especially after the reception received. It might've worked better and had better results if he had done something sooner rather than let the investigation get that way. This one carries on a joke far too long and really drags this out. Another pretty big flaw is that there are no real surprises to be had from this since it plays out exactly as it originally did, and all the surprises and fun to be had from that one are gone because it is so familiar. Even the plot twist doesn't surprise, which is the greatest flaw in here as the film is built up to a twist out of nowhere that has none of the fear and dread featured in the original, effectively ruining all the momentum it would've had going into it the same. Even the tagged-on epilogue is a failure, as the movie should've ended with the twist rather than the lame gag given here which manages to end this on an even more sour note. There's even way too much insistence on jump- cuts, and while there's some visual impact or shock effect they're a really irritating distraction. There's so many that it can become blasé which is deadening because there's too many of them. Alongside some truly cheesy and silly set-pieces, there are some really big holes as this gets very little right. One of them is that the opening really works for the film as the everyday normality it opens to is expertly shattered with a brutal and shocking crash, and the eventual race before the fire burns everything is handled with some nice suspense. The search at times can be quite fun, as there are some really good scenes in here that are derived from that, especially the sequence where he gets stuck in the underground cavern or the room covered with bees. It gets considerably more active and intense towards the end after the changeover to their celebrations as the revelry and costumes makes for quite a fun, cheesy time. These, though, constitute the film's only good points.Rated PG-13: Language and Violence.

The only reason why I'm giving this movie a 4 out of a 10 is because of Nicolas Cage's performance... which was comedic. You can't take this movie seriously. If it weren't for him, this movie would be god-awful. Watch it as a comedy, not as a horror movie. There is no horror in this, except for a few graphic scenes, but that's about it. Calling it a horror movie is an overstatement.Pros: Pretty actresses, Cage's funny performance. Cons: Story, "horror" moments.

I have Pagan friends who despise this film with a savage intensity. Given its mean-spirited portrayal of them, I can certainly understand why. As if that weren't bad enough, the film has numerous plot points that were either abandoned or simply didn't make sense:In an early scene, Office Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) pulls over a car occupied by a mother and her young daughter. Out of nowhere, an 18-wheeler barrels into the car, setting it ablaze. As Malus attempts to rescue them, the mother and daughter seemingly vanish into thin air. First, why was the truck on the wrong side of the road, much less in the breakdown lane? Second, just who were that mother and daughter? And for that matter, why was their car unregistered?How did Willow's letter get to Malus without a stamp?If outsiders aren't allowed on Summersisle, why does it have an inn?At the inn, Malus mentions that the cassette tapes he brought with him had disappeared from his luggage. The tapes are never mentioned again.What's the deal with the bird trapped in the old school desk?Why don't the men on the island speak? Are they unable to? It's never explained.While Malus is searching an underwater crypt for the missing child, somebody closes and locks the lid to the opening through which he entered it. Why do that and risk his drowning when they need him alive for their ritual?After spending all night underwater (except for his head), Malus immediately bounces back and continues his search for the missing child. Naturally, his clothes are bone-dry not two minutes later.Why was that little girl hiding in the closet?You inject an Epi-Pen into the outer thigh, not the damned neck!Lastly, my DVD copy (which I found in a $2.00 bin) features what it calls a "shocking alternate ending not seen in theaters." All it does is leave out the epilogue. This version ends with the chants of, "The drone must die." So not only was the theatrical release garbage, the DVD was a scam!

Neil LaBute's re-imagining of the 1973 classic horror serves as just another representation of horror remakes falling deeply interior in their original outing, with scares that more often than provoke unintentional laughter than spine chills; and not in an effective way incorporated in comedy-horror hybrids. The film never rises at the surface level of the cinematically inept, and instead relies heavily on a poorly executed plot and a script that falls shallow of nuance but feels sorely miscalculated at the point of leaving the average scratching their head pondering "What was director LaBute thinking?". And a laughably incompetent performance uprooted by Nicolas Cage certainly doesn't do much justice. So this film follows Seattle police officer Edward Malus (played by Nicolas Cage) recovering from an horrendous when he is informed by his ex-wife Willow Woodard (played by Kate Beahan) that her daughter Rowan has gone missing. This lead Edward on the investigation to a mysterious island for the missing girl, but discovers the island inhabited by individuals of a mysterious paganistic cult lead by Sister Summersisle (played by Ellen Burstyn) who apparently represents the goddess. Upon learning the nefarious dangers of the cult, Edward must discover the terrifying their terrifying secret and save the little girl from the sinister cult.After sitting through an hour of this, I honestly could have not tell if this film was supposed to be dark comedy or just a poorly conceived supernatural horror flick. Though it supposedly falls in the latter category, it really makes you wonder if its possible the movie suffers from a identity crisis. Why is this? The poster showing a terrifying, Exorcist-like image of the little girl leads you to believe you're for a spine-chilling thriller, but Neil LaBute's misguided direction proves otherwise. As the film deals with the lead character investigating an island influenced by paganism, and practice human sacrifices for reasons vaguably explained. The idea would be interesting enough if the story actually took the time to vividly explain some of the concepts other than occasional commentary on the Salem Witch Trials, or maybe if the plot made much sense before descending into a misguided mess. While the first film put religious conflict as the central theme of it's plot, this installment replaces the theme with women rebelling against men which frankly fails work here. The idea is is profoundly interesting on paper but when Neil LaBute's translates it on screen, it results in 102-minutes of unintentional comedy and lack of scares. From there on, we are forced to endure a plot that not only grows silly before the first hour, but also an over-the-top performance by Nicolas Cage who's scenes of hollering at Kate Beahan are painfully unconvincing, and scenes of his character being threatened by a crowd of pagans, that don't even amount to the slightest suspense. And it doesn't certainly doesn't help that his character is poorly drawn, engages in cheesy, and takes a hateful audacity of hitting women in multiple scenes. The Wicker Man is sorely incompetent remake of the 1973 horror classic with nothing to offer but a sheer lack of authenticity and scares. This film is laughably bad to the point of only being worth enjoying on a guilty pleasure level. But if you are looking for a good horror film with good scares and plenty of smarts, you are probably best looking further. For a list of the worst movies of 2006, this one definitely fills in a position.