There was a time when a Nicholas Cage movie was exciting prospect: From Raising Arizona, Con Air, Wild At Heart to name a Few. Nowadays one of his movies is certainly an intriguing affair to see how low can he go to destroy any faith humanity, sanity had in him wash drown the drain. 2010 seems to be a blip in his career taking a surprising upward spiral instead of the traditional downward one with Kick-Ass and Bad Lieutenant been distant memories. It must be something to do with his hair or stupid hats similar in a style he constantly wears (Sorcerer’s Apprentice, probably due to his recent financial woes) he seems to slide back down the downward spiral once more and hasn’t look back since. His latest comedy oops fantasy horror sees Cage team up with Hellboy aka Ron Perlman team up to kick some witches ass in Dominic Sena‘s (Gone In 60 Seconds) SEASON OF THE WITCH.
Cage & Perlman play 14th century Knights who decide after years of meaningless bloodthirsty battles, they are questioning if God’s work includes killing innocent peoples especially women and Children, so desert the Crusaders. After they leave it doesn’t take them long to be captured and be charged as deserters. However, the pair is given a chance of redemption by transporting a young mysterious girl (Claire Foy) suspected of been a witch and the witch responsible for the plague ravaged lands our heroes now reside in. For this treacherous journey to the remote monastery, the girl is to face trial our heroes are joined by a devious priest (Stephen Campbell Moore), Young ‘Altar’ Boy (Robert Sheehan), noble knight (Ulrich Thomsen) and a guide with a chequered past (Stephen Graham).
When a film is as bad as this one your mood and ability to make you laugh you actually deep down actually enjoy this movie, it’s a crazy notion but it’s also a true one. Season of The Witch is not a comedy, but sit down with a big bowl of popcorn bring around a few friends get out your favourite alcoholic beverage and you’ll enjoy laughing at the expense of the movie. It’s cliched, silly movie that had the potential to be better and one scene especially the wolves that looked like the love child of Disney and Twilight that looked more like cartoon wolves rather than the bloodthirsty animals they should have been.
What was really frustrating about this movie was its indecisiveness, is it a horror? A fantasy? historical drama? Mixed up with religious doctrine with Crusader’s tyranny. This was meant to be a battle against good versus evil, but all we got was a feeling of a child in a sweet shop who can’t decide if they want chocolate or candy but they want both but can only have one or the other. Season of the Witch had the chance to be that dark twisted period horror flick of a demon playing mind games with its captures but what we got was a movie that played mind games with the viewer trying to decipher what this movie is really all about.
This movie is simply a dour fest with very little exciting moments to remember and you know things are bad when the only exciting endeavour is a bridge crossing, a bridge that is ready to fall at anytime but when you look at the scene it was a pointless scene which has been seen many times in films gone by. Season of The Witch does feel like an unfinished article with the characters development a big let down and what we get is undeserving, wasted talent (Robert Sheehan) that fail to impress. Only Claire Foy is the movies ray of light as she actually accomplishes her task of playing a witch with a blanket of mystery surrounding her questioning is she or isn’t she? Just a shame the director didn’t elaborate more on her history with the priest as it would have brought some more browning points to the films
Apart from the odd funny moment like the hilarious demon headbutting by Hellboy (or Perlman thinking he is Hellboy), Season of The Witch was a dull affair plagued by poor indecisiveness decision silly CGI and developed characters but if sorted even the bare minimum if could have been a lot more than the predictable tale it ended up been.
★★
Fantasy, Adventure | USA, 2011 | 15 |27th June 2011 | Entertainment One UK |Dir: Dominic Sena|Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Stephen Graham, Claire Foy, Robert Sheehan
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