Review of The Wicker Man (2006) by Rickj. — 04 Sep 2006
[***SPOILERS***] An utterly dreadful contemporary Hollywood defiling of a British classic. Gone is the compelling character of the devoutly Christian cop Sgt. Howie from the original. Gone is the ideal sacrifice who is a virgin, a man who represents the law and is King for Day, replaced with an aimless, pill popping dolt of a cop from California named Ed Malus, played by an overacting Nicolas Cage.
Yes, the film is so bad it makes you laugh, but this is hardly a credit to the makers of the film. It's not categorized as a comedy and yet viewers are counting the ways it made them laugh. Some are arguing that it should be a comedy, and they've got a point.
It just doesn't raise my opinion of the film. The sacrifice of Sgt. Howie at the end of the original is a chilling homage to Christian martyrs of the past, and the viewer doesn't doubt for a second that he is a martyr who dies for his religious beliefs.
In the remake you can only laugh when Malus is told that he is dying a martyr's death. Martyr for what? Popping pills all day? Overall, a dreary moment in film history I regret having seen.
This review of The Wicker Man (2006) was written by Rickj. on 04 Sep 2006.
The Wicker Man has generally received negative reviews.
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