Thanks go to Ponty, who mentioned in a comment—that I am not about to look up, ha!—this film. You really helped me out with #4, but I’d like $3.23 for the RedBox rental, mate. —TPP
This week’s flick is the second consecutive Nicolas Cage flick I’ve had to pan, which pains me: Nicolas Cage is probably—and unironically—my favorite actor. At his best, his loose cannon hamming can completely make a picture. At his worst, he’s either too ridiculous—a caricature of his already cartoonish self—or too subdued, leaving the best arrow in his quiver unused.
In the case of this week’s film—The Wicker Man (2006), the abysmal remake of the 1973 classic—the poor presentation is, fortunately, not Cage’s fault exclusively. He does deliver a rather lackluster performance, lacking either the over-the-top insanity of Vampire’s Kiss (1989) or the wordless panache of Willy’s Wonderland (2021), but it’s only occasionally bad. Mostly, it’s just forgettable.
Perhaps it’s unfair to compare any remake to the original (with the exception of John Carpenter‘s The Thing, 1982), but remaking this film was a bad idea. At least, the 2006 attempt is a very poor one indeed.
The Portly Politico 