The Wicker Man is a remake of a 1975 film by the same name. I unfortunately never saw the original, but last night I tortured myself by attending a showing of the remake. Most people that I have talked to so far, have told me that they want to see it because the previews look really good, or because they loved the original. Let me just say, that the movie is nothing like what the previews show it to be. This film is not suspenseful as the previews make it out to be. Before the movie was a half hour old, I had completely figured out how it would end. They give you such obvious clues, that if you are not completely overcome with boredom and you are paying attention, then you too will have it figured out before you even get into the full story.

The Idea behind the movie is a good one. A cop who is on leave from the force due to what appears to be depression (although they never really explain all of this) from an accident that he witnessed receives a letter from his former fiancé saying that her child has gone missing and that she needs his help. Since he is already on leave for a few weeks, against the better judgment from his friend at the police station, he decides to go and seek out this woman in an effort to help find her child. He travels to this secluded place called Summers Isle where he comes into contact with what appears to be a cult of women living together who’s only use for men, seem to be for breeding purposes. Not so bad I guess if you are the men.

From there the story tries to keep you guessing as to what is going on, but I guess the biggest problem was what appeared to be a lack of experience from Director Neil LaBute. Throughout the entire move, there seemed to be only basic shots performed. Standard long shots that put no emphasis on anything. One Scene in particular has Nicolas Cage running through the woods as he is being chased by 3 people. There was no sense of urgency here, and it almost looked as if they were all taking a nice brisk walk.

The acting overall was atrocious. I have never been one to declare Nicolas Cage as one of our finest actors, but this was by far his worst. He was not alone here. The whole cast was terrible. Again I would say that has to do with the lack of experience with the director. He has had other movies that I have not seen, but a large bulk of his directing has been done for TV, and this movie absolutely had a feel as if it was a made for TV movie. From the acting, to how low budget the costumes looked.

The only saving grace to this film was that there were some moments that were absolutely hysterical. The only problem is that I don’t believe that they were going for comedy here.