Thursday, August 4, 2011

Season of the Witch - DVD Review

l 1/2

Starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Claire Foy, Stephen Campbell Moore, Stephen Graham, Ulrich Thomsen and Christopher Lee. Directed by Dominic Sena.

Not as bad as I thought it would be, but it does make some gloriously terrible choices to where I can't in good conscience give it that second full star. First would be casting Nicolas Cage as an English crusader. Well, once you've made that choice, it doesn't matter what you do with everyone else, does it?

Cage and his band of merry men, who somehow make it the whole movie without belting out a single tune from Spamalot, are charged with bringing an accused witch (Claire Foy) to trial. They face perils on their journey. Rickety bridges, hungry wolves, that sort of thing.

Ron Perlman has some fun as Cage's right-hand man. I also liked Boardwalk Empire's Stephen Graham as a thief turned navigator for the party. I just wish it had either embraced its hokeyness or aimed to be an actual enthralling adventure.

There's plenty of swordplay, but not too much blood actually squirts out of their victims so they can keep that PG-13.

Do you think you know what really caused the plague of the 1300's? This movie dares you to think again. Think again, I say.

Still, not as bad as The Rite.

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