Released: January 7th, 2011
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Ron Pearlman, Claire Foy, Stephen Campbell Moore, Robert Sheehan
Writer/Director: Bragi F. Schut/Dominic Sena
Description: 14th-century knights transport a suspected witch to a monastery, where monks deduce her powers could be the source of the Black Plague.
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
There is nothing more frustration than a movie that doesn't know what it wants to be, and ends up being nothing. Sure, you can dabble into different genres, but the film needs something to ground it. If you're going for comedy, then go all comedy, or if you're going epic, the go full epic, but please don't go back and forth without being successful in either.
"Season of the Witch" tries to be a historical, epic and comedic movie all at the same time. Unfortunately, it fails at all three. Nick Cage and Ron Pearlman play super Templar Knights, who after killing 1,000 "infidel" villagers, gain a conscience and leave the the crusades. On their travels the run across a town that is infested with the plague, and believes the source of the affliction is a witch. So to avoid the death penalty they agreed to take the witch to some monks to have a "fair trial", which didn't really happen at the time. Historical accuracy failed.
The second act is where they tried to reach the epic levels of "Fellowship of the Ring". They walk for a good half-hour and nothing happens. The action picks up when they are attacked by a pack of wolves which, from what I heard, had more wolf punching than "The Gray". Unfortunately, this scene comes at the end of the travel. Honestly, the action ranged from terrible to ridiculous, especially the opening fight which had an over the top voice over attached. Epic, failed.
Now, we move on to the climax and the laughable third act. First, the predicable twist that the monks have all died from the plague, and then the girl is found to be possessed and not a witch. This transition into the moment in the movie where I laughed out loud alone in my house: the introduction of the "demon". I mean, seriously, it looked like the CG department took every B-movie devilish creature and morphed it into one. It had a deep voice, bat wings with talons, and the face looked almost exactly like photo of Lucifer from any classic painting, so it was created by 5th grader. Even its death was generic, which was your standard burn to death by the reading of a prayer. Comedic moments missed.
While the movie was ridiculous, the performances were exactly what you would expect from a movie starring Cage and Pearlman. Nick continues his current trend of overacting everything, and looks over matched in the action scenes. This is where Pearlman comes in. He tends to underact at times, but kicks ass in the action scenes, but neither helps make the movie good. The breakout performance was Claire Foy as she was equal parts creepy and mysterious, and did her best to keep you guessing whether or not she was a witch. She could definitely have a future in period films because she has a natural beauty, which is needed when lots of make-up is not an option.
For the first film of Nick Cage week, "Season of the Witch" is a good example of how far he has fallen since "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Raising Arizona". He has become an actor who is only going for a paycheck; I use the "Ghost Rider" sequel as an example. If this movie, would have stuck to one theme with others sprinkled in occasionally. This is a borderline B-movie that with small tweaks would have been could have been a solid adventure movie.
,
Rating: 4.5/10 -- A nice way to start off Nick Cage week, but it wasn't bad enough to be good. I hope this changes as the week progresses. Was wishing this could have gone into my Nick Cage guilty pleasure movie vault, but alas... ,
"Season of the Witch" tries to be a historical, epic and comedic movie all at the same time. Unfortunately, it fails at all three. Nick Cage and Ron Pearlman play super Templar Knights, who after killing 1,000 "infidel" villagers, gain a conscience and leave the the crusades. On their travels the run across a town that is infested with the plague, and believes the source of the affliction is a witch. So to avoid the death penalty they agreed to take the witch to some monks to have a "fair trial", which didn't really happen at the time. Historical accuracy failed.
The second act is where they tried to reach the epic levels of "Fellowship of the Ring". They walk for a good half-hour and nothing happens. The action picks up when they are attacked by a pack of wolves which, from what I heard, had more wolf punching than "The Gray". Unfortunately, this scene comes at the end of the travel. Honestly, the action ranged from terrible to ridiculous, especially the opening fight which had an over the top voice over attached. Epic, failed.
Now, we move on to the climax and the laughable third act. First, the predicable twist that the monks have all died from the plague, and then the girl is found to be possessed and not a witch. This transition into the moment in the movie where I laughed out loud alone in my house: the introduction of the "demon". I mean, seriously, it looked like the CG department took every B-movie devilish creature and morphed it into one. It had a deep voice, bat wings with talons, and the face looked almost exactly like photo of Lucifer from any classic painting, so it was created by 5th grader. Even its death was generic, which was your standard burn to death by the reading of a prayer. Comedic moments missed.
While the movie was ridiculous, the performances were exactly what you would expect from a movie starring Cage and Pearlman. Nick continues his current trend of overacting everything, and looks over matched in the action scenes. This is where Pearlman comes in. He tends to underact at times, but kicks ass in the action scenes, but neither helps make the movie good. The breakout performance was Claire Foy as she was equal parts creepy and mysterious, and did her best to keep you guessing whether or not she was a witch. She could definitely have a future in period films because she has a natural beauty, which is needed when lots of make-up is not an option.
For the first film of Nick Cage week, "Season of the Witch" is a good example of how far he has fallen since "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Raising Arizona". He has become an actor who is only going for a paycheck; I use the "Ghost Rider" sequel as an example. If this movie, would have stuck to one theme with others sprinkled in occasionally. This is a borderline B-movie that with small tweaks would have been could have been a solid adventure movie.
,
Rating: 4.5/10 -- A nice way to start off Nick Cage week, but it wasn't bad enough to be good. I hope this changes as the week progresses. Was wishing this could have gone into my Nick Cage guilty pleasure movie vault, but alas... ,
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