Editorial Review:

Product Description:
A sheriff investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a small island discovers theres a larger mystery to solve among the islands secretive non-pagan community. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/15/2007 Starring: Nicolas Cage Kate Beahan Run time: 102 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Neil Labute

Amazon.com:
Nicolas Cage stars in The Wicker Man as a traumatized police officer investigating a lost girl on a mysterious, mist-shrouded island of imperious women and dimwitted men. Summoned by his ex-fiancee (Kate Beahan, Flightplan, who seems to have borrowed her lips from Angelina Jolie), Edward Malus (Cage, Adaptation.) blusters his way into a closed religious community by flashing his out-of-state badge around and insulting everyone he meets. To describe The Wicker Man any further would deprive viewers of enjoying the staggering ineptness of this absurd remake of the fairly creepy 1973 original. Despite a talented cast (including Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream, Molly Parker, Deadwood, and Leelee Sobieski, Joy Ride), the performances are uniformly awful, with Cage leading the pack; his overwrought cries of "How'd it get burned?!?" will provoke barks of laughter. Arbitrary wierdness abounds--ranging from animal masks to a body-stocking of bees--in a flailing effort to distract the audience from the narrative running madly off the rails. Maybe writer/director Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things) aspired to create a fever dream of male fears about women, but the result is a deformed hybrid of Invasion of the Bee Girls and The Village. A future camp classic. --Bret Fetzer

If you like seeing films about innocent protagonists being tortured and killed with no sense of justice, this movie is for you. Please do not support this type of filmmaking. It was bad enough that they made this movie the first time. Nicholas Cage and everyone involved with the making of this movie should be ashamed!

Average Rating:

Rating: - The filmmakers should be ashamed.
If you like seeing films about innocent protagonists being tortured and killed with no sense of justice, this movie is for you. Please do not support this type of filmmaking. It was bad enough that they made this movie the first time. Nicholas Cage and everyone involved with the making of this movie should be ashamed!

Rating: - So bad it's funny...
First off, I have to say that the movie as it is intended (a horror flick) would only rate a 1/2 star or no stars. However as an unintentionally funny flick that's now a camp classic, it would get at least 2-3 stars. Some of the scenes are so outrageously bad that you can't help but laugh.

The 2006 film takes on the daunting task of remaking a film that's regarded as a brilliant classic, a task that should have been left for better directors or (more wisely) left alone. Nick Cage plays a detective who travels to a private owned island off of Washington to find his ex-fiancee's little girl. Of course after a while he discovers it's actually *his* daughter, but by that point the viewer could really care less. Along the way we are exposed to some of the finer points of mysogyny as seen through the eyes of director Neil Labute. (Who as one review stated, needs to go on a date with a nice lady & get lots of hugs.)

Personally I think this is one film that would profit from having an outside group perform a commentary, most notably the Rifftrax crew (old MST3K members) who actually made a commentary that can be synched up with the film. Otherwise it's a film that is fun to watch for the camp value, but not worth owning. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's the absolute worst film ever (the recent spoof films have that title), but it's pretty darn close.

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Rating: - Don't even get curious
Well done, Hollywood. Another European cinematic classic well and truly butchered. Any remake was always bound to pale, but this shallow, Disneyfied sham is actually too bad to be true. Anthony Shaffer's original story has been gutted of all the sub texts and research that made the original so fascinating. Instead, we have a lazily written, lethargically directed and appallingly acted mess of a movie which throws out any sense of structure and goes for style over content. The endless references to other films like Don't Look Now (always a sign of a director stuck for original ideas) are meaningless and confusing. It is as if Writer/Director Neal La Bute thought "Oh, this is just a horror film. I'll toss any old cliches together". His invention of a matriarchal pagan society based on the Apis Genus (women in charge, men as mute drones)is laughable (and I speak as a practising Pagan). A typical ill informed notion of a so called "paganism" by someone who obviously knows nothing of the culture. And why would should a society use a Wicker "Man" as their method of sacrifice? Oh, sorry, it is to justify hanging onto that title and cashing in on the reputation of the original.

Unlike Anthony Schaffer, La Bute is evidently too lazy to research genuine paganism and its components. He just makes it up as he goes along. Attempting to transplant the story to the United States also fails to come off. It just does not feel right in that setting and, unlike the Hebredian community of the original, the "Summersisle" (sic) community in this movies looks ludicrous and contrived with no obvious dynamic to justify its continuation.

Message to those who have not seen the original - see it and enjoy original filmaking at its best. Avoid this crummy parody at all costs.

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Rating: - Horrible Movie
This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It's on par with Showgirls. Save a couple hours of your life and don't watch.

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Rating: - 0 STARS: Another remake that stinks.
One really has to wonder where Hollywood will end in its relentless determination to remake every single horror movie that was ever made. Admittedly, the original "The Wicker Man" really is not a good horror movie to begin with. In short, the original is an interesting portrayal of a paganistic society, but it is not scary, nor is it very interesting or entertaining.

As undynamic as original "The Wicker Man" is, the remake relishes in its own futility beyond belief. Nicholas Cage was just awful in his role as the police officer, and the rest of the cast turned in forgettable performances at best. The liberties with the original script that the makers of the remake took are of negligible effect except to perhaps bring an already boring movie down to an even lower level of insipidity. Aside from the poor acting, my first thought after seeing the remake was, "what is the point?" It simply did not make any sense to remake this movie at all. It seems Hollywood's reasoning to remake old horror films (other than to just make money of course) is to give the film a present-day feel to it. I don't really see the point though because what inevitably happens is that the atmosphere and mood of the original is forever lost in the remake's new age flavor. Hence, an exercise in futility is the end result. Such is the case with the remake of "The Wicker Man".

In all fairness, everyone should see the original "The Wicker Man" at least once. Christopher Lee's hairdo in the movie is simply fabulous--in a humorous kind of way of course. :)

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