Review of The Wicker Man (2006) by Johna. — 31 Aug 2006

Without doubt one of the worst films i've had the misfortune to sit through; it doesn't look good on paper and the reality is even worse. [***SPOILERS***] The most interesting thing about it is Nicolas Cage's 'interesting' hair styles.

Contrived and awkward from the off, excluding the thoroughly unnecessary embellishments to Cage's character - oh how coincidental he has anaphalptic shock and they have lots of bees. . ., the film starts poorly and never recovers.

The use of symbolism and imagery is atrocious with the director going to painful lenghts to signpost the, ratehr obvious, imagery of the film. Despite the interest in imagery the removal of all sexual tension is confusing and weakens the alleged motives behind Cage's actions, which are never fully explained.

we get various shots of him walking around, doing things, going somewhere else in such a disjointed and episodic manner that it appears to have little or no connection to the plot. A couple of scenes were so shockingly bad - the bear suit and burnt doll that people in the audience laughed, before they began leaving in droves.

Arguably the worst film you will see this year, and that is not judging harshly on the original, this fim tries to adapt the story and in doing so deserves to be at least congratulated for being awful entirely on its own terms.