The Wicker Man

Viewer Rating:fredgarven has rated The Wicker Man rating: 1 Star

If there is ever an argument whether remakes of classic movies is a good or bad thing this is evidence that it's a very bad thing. Why remake a movie that is a classic when there are so many crap films out there that could do with a re doing. The original 1973 movie is a horror classic. It builds a genuine sense of dread and paranoia and some great performances from Edward Woodward and Christoper Lee. This is a waste of time and has nothing going for it at all. The story- a cop Edward Malus(Cage) gets a letter from his ex saying her daughter is gone missing. He heads over to the island of Summerisle and starts his search for Rowan. He meets dead end after dead end in his search. There is a pagan festival going on and Malus finds he is the guest of honour. The 'twists' are so obvious that it becomes funny.This really is a mess of a film. I don't really blame Cage but the script is terrible-'Step away from the bicycle' is a line that says it all really. There's no sense of fear or mystery here, just confusion and astonishment! At one stage the cop has a fight with one of the islands hotties (Sister Honey!!) and he actually roundhouse kicks her in the face. Then she turns up a few minutes later looking like she just got out of the beauty salon. There are flashbacks that have nothing to do with the story as it's very obvious what's going on. There's nothing scary here either and there are signs of desperation when director Labute sticks in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream etc sequence to provide a scare(which it fails at doing). A total mess and a waste of a lot of peoples time(including mine for watching it). Go out and buy the original, forget about this and enjoy some real film making.

Review published on the 03 March 2008 11:38