Season of the Witch (2011)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

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.

'Season of the Witch' – put simply – Lord of the Rings, it is not. It is a (modern) Nicholas Cage film. And, as any die-hard fan (and I'm including myself in that bracket) will know, his modern films don't really rate as highly as those he made in his heyday.Nicholas Cage plays... well, Nicholas Cage in a suit of armour. His natural charm and screen presence do their best to shine through as this time out he and Ron Perlman are knights returning from hacking a few dozen hordes of computer-generated barbarians to death in the Crusades. However, life in yesteryear was never destined to run smoothly and the Black Death only goes and kicks off, leaving thousands dead in whichever 'England-like' land this film is supposed to be set in.Now, you may be forgiven for thinking that a plague of epic proportions has nothing to do with a couple of battle-hardened knights. That's until the king tells them that they're charged with the task of escorting a witch across the land to be burned. Apparently, it's all her fault or something and she totally needs to be roasted in order to save the universe. Or something.Anyway, so begins the quest – the not-at-all-like-Lord-of-the-Rings quest. Nic, Ron and a few meaningless codpiece-wearing extras all trudge wearily across one grassy hill after the next, all the while defending against one computer-generated threat after the next. Um, and that's about it. It's hardly 'epic' – it's pretty much by the numbers. In the scale of things it's not that bad, but then it's not that good either. You can dip in and out of this film at your leisure and you won't really miss a thing.'Season of the Witch' is one of those films which has only one fault: its total and utter 'averageness.' You'll have seen it all before and, despite Nic and Ron doing their very best to raise it above being just another B-movie, they really can't do it with this script, plot or (not so) special effects.If you really love Nic or Ron that much, you may get something out of it. Otherwise, don't really bother. And don't get me started on Nic's haircut.

At times you see movies that have huge identity issues. Season of the Witch is one of those movies. The tone of the story is the biggest problem of the movie, as it's an odd mix of golden era Hollywood swashbuckling action and more grim horror story. Now, those two can coexist, but balancing them is a delicate act, which is something Season of the Witch doesn't manage very well. And that is a shame really, as the more grim supernatural parts of horror do work better than the more adventurous segments in the first part of the movie.With a different script, and probably with a different leads, as Cage keeps hamming it up as he always does these days, just like Pearlman, the movie could have been better. It has some nice set pieces and at places the cinematography looks very nice and bleak. But the way it all is pieced together just feels like an unbalanced mess that does what you expect it to do: fall flat on the ground.The clashing of the styles hits in from the start. It has witch hangings, which turn into b-horror clichés, where it goes to the holy land crusades, where Cage and Perlamn fight side by side cracking bad jokes, to a horrific realisation of the cruelties of war to a more grim setting of a sickness savaged land where the would be anti-heroes escort an accused witch to her judgement.The identity issues are what break the movie. It doesn't know how to pick a style and stay in it, so it just flings stuff at the viewer and hopes that something sticks. This does lead into that nothing does really stick and what could have been entertaining movie just doesn't work.

Season of the Witch (2011): Dir: Dominic Sena / Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Foy, Christopher Lee: Misfire medieval mess about trials. It opens with about a million battles scenes before two knights, played by Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman have had enough of women and children dying. Eventually they are assigned to transport a witch to a monastery in order have her tried by the monks. She is blamed for the black plague that has been sweeping the land. Directed by Dominic Sena who previously made Kalifornia as well as direct Cage in the pathetic Gone in Sixty Seconds. He is backed with effective visual elements of castles and winged creatures but his actors are at the mercy of lame writing. Cage and Perlman as this buddy knight duo is laughable. They will trek this witch in a cage while allowing her to screw with their brains. They are joined by some young sap who wishes to prove himself, as well as a Priest whom the witch fears. Then there is Claire Foy cast as "The Woman." She is blamed for the plague and will spend much of the film locked up before she becomes a giant winged creature with all the intimidation of a Care Bear on acid. She is also involved in a lame "I need to know about these men who died for me" sequence in the conclusion that is just lame. Christopher Lee makes an appearance to which one hopes he was paid really well for such an embarrassment. If you thought The Sorcerer's Apprentice was a stupid career move then Cage double bills it with a film that should never be seen by anyone at any season. Score: 3 / 10

Netflix put this up as 1 of the top 3 movies I should watch why????? I have no idea.First off the dialog was contradicting itself the priest in the beginning played by Brian O'Byrne off of flash forward the TV series axed after 1 season which I was gutted about was chanting in olden times talk so kind of setting period of the film then Ron Perlman says lets get the hell out of here and nick cage says crap when they get surrounded by other knights. So straight off the bat it shows it doesn't quite now what kind of film it wants to be.The landscape cgi was absolutely beautiful I really couldn't tell if it was real or not especially when they arrive in the town where they get caught, if that castle is real wow I've got to go see that.Nick cage ghost rider himself was bad man, it was like he knew this was going to be a bad movie so he didn't give anything just there for his pay check which set the tone for the film. If he gave it some beans he could of turned the film around but I think he was the wrong choice Neo Keanu Reeves would of been a better choice I think he's good at the straight/serious characters would of been perfect for him.The best actor for me and I think he is very underrated was Stephen Graham of off Boardwalk Empire he is so good it seems effortless for him really enjoy watching what he does hope to see him get a main role in a movie really soon.