3/4  A solid remake, despite all the hate it got
Too many flashbacks and an odd choice of directors do little to ruin this pungeant remake of the 1973 cult classic; the film has several eerie moments and gets better as it goes along with powerful feminist statements from the usually mis... (read full)

1/4  This movie has never seen snow it's so far south
Wow. Nicholas Cage in a hat twice the size of his head wasn't bad enough. No, lets make an island with some females obsessed with bees. That's terrifying. I LOVE BEES!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! HONEY NUT CHERRIOS FOR ALL. Not worth... (read full)

0.5/4  The Wicker Man Quick Review
worst movie i've ever seen. It wasn't scary, it was kinda weird actually. don't see it!

1.5/4  The Wicker Man Quick Review
While the story is there, this remake takes all the fun out of the original. The original was a bit campy, but that was the point; it had a certain charm. The new one is cold, unfeeling and full of bees for some reason. It's just empty.

3/4  The Wicker Man Quick Review
Utterly creepy and suspenseful. I haven't seen the original, but will now that I have seen this. Not that scary but the plot is good and it twists and turns enough to keep you guessing. Reminds me of the Shinning and Rosemary's Baby.

1/5 Forget Nicholas Cage. The truly awful performance is by Ellen Burstyn.
  by Buck Rogers (Framingham, MA)
As other reviewers have pointed out, this is probably the worst movie ever made. The screen-play sounds like it was written by a high school sophomore who tried to re-write the original 1973 Wicker Man in order to pass it off as his own work for a creative writing assignment. The Christian-versus-pagan theme that framed the original story has been replaced by some weird feminist cult that apparently worships bees. Apparently, the writer and director must have felt that it'd be too difficult or controversial to make a movie with an evangelical Christian protagonist that ends with the pagans being shown in a bad light, so instead we have some weird feminist bee cult opposed to "normal people." Okay, whatever.

A lot of people have remarked on Nicholas Cage's performance ("Oh Gob, the bees!"), but the true stinker here is Ellen Burstyn. The 70-something former soap actress simply does not ooze menace, and if Burstyn hadn't made so many other films, this role would probably have been a career-killer. Her portrayal of Lord Summersisle is so horrifically bad (in the unintended way) that I suspect it'd give Christopher Lee a coronary if he ever saw this film.

The cinematography is also amazingly bad, with cheap Halloween props amid an unremitting orange color scheme. I can't believe that director LaBute didn't see the sets and immediately fire the entire set-design team. This is easily the ugliest, cheeziest-looking film ever.

But it's worth viewing once, just to see Nicholas Cage punch fat girls and wear a bear suit.

3/5 Bruce Willis could have saved Edward
  by S J Buck (Kent, UK)
He could have appeared in his trademark vest, with machine gun at the end to save Edward (Nicholas Cage). He didn't and I was grateful for that. So is it as awful as most of the reviewers here are making out? Well frankly no. Its actually a decent film, especially if you haven't seen the original version (which I strongly recommend you watch first). Nicholas Cage does his usual good acting job and is as always is very watchable. Ellen Burstyn is very good but woefully under-used. Its not badly directed and the core of the story is mainly similar to the original play.

The problem with this film IS the original version. The original is better in nearly every respect and whilst this isn't a shot for shot remake like the stupid remake of Psycho a few years ago, its pretty close and because of that rather pointless. Key elements from the original film are missing from this version. Most importantly Nicholas Cage's character isn't devout, he isn't really even tempted by the women, so the reason for him being 'chosen' is pretty unclear.

So its not a bad film, but for anybody reading this please see the original version first, then watch this.


1/5 Absolutely Abysmal Film
  by EuroTraveler (Minnesota)
If you want to see a decent version of this film, watch the original, which, though dated, has an ending that is truly chilling and horrifying. This version is absolutely abysmal.

1/5 Feminist Island starring Nicolas Cage
  by Benjamin Kroell (Cincinnati, Ohio)
I made the mistake of renting this movie because I was in the mood for an up-to-date horror movie. This was the opposite. I wouldn't even consider this a horror movie, bizarre yes, but not scary whatsoever. I did follow the storyline, it wasn't one of those that just confuses you and leaves you completed bewildered. There were some funny parts towards the end though, not intentionally, but hilarious regardless. This won't spoil it for you, believe me if you're gonna watch this movie, you've already spoiled it for yourself. But the two best parts are (1) at the end when he is being closed-in by all the islanders and he has gun drawn and off to the side two straight up retarded lookin ladies start moving in closer to him and he aims at them and yells "BACK....UP!!". Haha he regulated on them.
Another classic part: I was using my computer and had my head down for ummm, I'd say about 3-5 minutes. So I look up, and I see Nicolas Cage wearing a grizzly bear costume with a whole cut out where his face was. I thought to myself, I really must've missed something. Hahah. But it gets even better, cuz he ran up on this lady and hit her with a cold right hook. Haha. That was the best part, he launched a slap-a-hoe marathon up in there. Classic.
Okay I had to poke fun at those two points. Had to be done. But in all seriousness, I did not like this movie at all. The idea of a desolate Island with a population living in a completely different fashion, luring in an innocent man to use as a sacrifice to their God seemed pretty cool. Given the right Director, this movie (or idea) could've had some great potential. I was shocked/sad at the end though. Because Cage was the main character ya know, I mean he made it through Con-Air alive. But an Island full of old white feminists killed him, and that was the end. I was just waiting saying to myself, he's gonna break out and unleash hell. But yea that didn't happen. I apologize, whereas I would consider this more of a personal rant rather than a review, but I felt the need to inform whomoever it may concern. If you've seen the movie, you probably agree with it all. Thanks for your time.

3/5 Joyless
  by J. Kinney (Virgo Supercluster)
After having watched both versions of this movie, I thought that there were two major problems with the Nicholas Cage remake: 1. The stark dichotomy between Christianity and Paganism isn't present and 2. The people of the remake's Summersisle are joyless in thier pursuit of a harvest.

The original police officer was clearly a devote Christian, praying instead of answering Willow's call to sleep with her. The detective in the remake didn't have this. While in the first movie it was clear that the islanders needed someone who was pure (a virgin), someone who's beliefs were radically different and didn't have a connection to the island. In the remake, this has totally disappeared, and the replacement back story (of Willow and Edward) didn't really cut it. Without this dichotomy, the film falls flat...the women have no real reason to choose Edward, other than the fact that he had fathered one of the children...any man on the island could have been the sacrifice. Why choose him? What made him so very special that he, and only he, could fulfill the part of the sacrifice?

Secondly, the filmmaker of the remake made his pagans very joyless. There wasn't the fun, the sensuality or the joy that the original's islanders had. In the original, people are having sex in the fields, Willow tries to seduce the detective and the bar patrons encourage this with lusty folk songs. The director of the remake took all the fun and joy out of the film, making it seem like a prison, run by women. There was no life, no fun, no May pole. It was almost like being in a convent...there wasn't the same sense of joy in life that the original had.

If the director of the remake had really wanted to catch the spirit of the original, he needed to reproduce what made the original so successful (and I'm not talking about Christoher Lee's terrible haircut!) He needed to recreate the joy and sensuality of Summerisle. Instead he made a very Christian film, showing a society run by women to be a horrible, joyless place. This remake is a completely joyless, almost anti-women movie.

I agree with most people who have seen the original and the remake...do yourself a favor and see the original. You'll enjoy it a lot more.