The Wicker Man marked a new low for Nicolas Cage. Though it was released in 2006, it wasn’t until the DVD release with an extended version of the now infamous honeybee torture scene that changed the context of Cage’s career from respectable and intriguing to baffling.
This movie is insane. It has the quality of those movies that are so bad that they become amusing, and then the filmmakers try to argue that this was their intention all along. This one seems as though it started out like a serious attempt at a loyal remake, but somewhere along the line they decided to go Snakes on a Plane with it and just throw caution to the wind. Cage’s performance is central to this. It’s impossible to tell with Nicolas Cage whether he’s doing deadpan comedy or serious drama. I doubt he approaches either genre any differently. In Wicker Man, his earnest delivery of lines like “How’d it get burned??” and “You bitches!!” have become legendary. At the end we’re wondering “How’d it get made?” and “Why did you agree to do this? You won an Oscar!”
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Published: Apr 9, 2013 11:14 pm