Nice try, but is it possible to select it without seeing an image of the cover? Spoiler packaging stinks on ice.
Those of you who hate, hate Nicholas Cage should consider seeing it just to see his character die a horrible death – that is, if LaBute hasn’t gone totally Hollywood and deep-sixed TWM’s classic downer ending. Years ago I paid to see Bugsy in the theater just to see Bruce Willis get fitted in cement shoes, and I must say I found his death scene strangely satisfying.
Only if it happens in the first 5 minutes of the film, for real.
In the original, there were no clearly supernatural phenomena – it was all about people and their beliefs and actions. The trailer for the new version suggests they’re going to do it very differently, with real magic. I don’t think that’s a good choice.
What LoopyDude said. It’s a quote from Futurama that can fit almost any purpose, and something about LoopyDude’s post brought it to mind for me.
Specifically Episode 2: The Series Has Landed.
Rottentomatoes is ballyhooing the fact that this is one of three major pictures debuting this weekend that aren’t available to critics for prescreening. Bad sign, that.
Reading about the remake online, it seems that the remake substitutes a secular, civic sense of guilt and duty for the original detective’s moral and religious convictions (although Det. Howie was also very professional about his work, too). Unfortunately, it also sounds as though the psychological motivation for Nic Cage’s detective (namely, to successfully save the life of a young girl, after having failed to do so at a fiery car crash while on the job earlier) is driven home with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. One source mentioned the accident as being referred to in repeated flashbacks… another, to dream sequences and the like. (Then again, in the original film, Det. Howie’s devoutness as an Anglican was established initially through an extended flashback montage of him in church; and his partially solving the mystery is accomplished through more flashbacks, with voiceover.)
In any event, the contest of ideas (to the extent that there is one) in the remake sounds more like one of secular modernity and male supremacy vs. the Olde Tyme Religion and its traditional, matriarchal ways, rather than Christianity vs. paganism per se.
It remains to be seen whether Cage’s Det. Malus will be identified with Christianity at all, except by default in the diffuse sense that the vast majority of Americans are steeped in a Judeo-Christian culture, and whether LaBute will go all misogynistic in his treatment of the clash of gender politics. I’m also keen to discover if the matriarchal hierarchy of this village was knowingly introduced to the community as part of a desperate, calculated power ploy, as [neo-]paganism was re-introduced to the Scots in the original. It would be amusing if it were explained that this community was descended from an early-17th-C. colonial settlement of naive, irresponsible adventurers and would-be profiteers looking for [Indian] gold instead of laying away plenty of salted venison and fish for the winter, while learning to plant corn, beans and squash like the natives – and that at some point a female ancestor saved the colony from going the way of Roanoke with a novel combination of her indigenously invented matriarchy, paganism, and bee-keeping[!]. Implausible as all hell, but amusing all the same…
Viva la hijack! Damn, Jason Statham is hot… I just wish he’d quit making shitty movies. I mean, I keep sitting through them, expecting something better. Shouldn’t Guy Ritchie have a Statham vehicle coming out pretty soon? He’s due…
From some previews I saw, a main undoing may be this-
in the original, Summerisle looks like a hell of a lot of fun. You wanna party with these people!
in this one, the previews show a “The Village”-esque stilted-language dour bunch of matriarchs.
It’s in town this week, so I’m seeing it- God be with me!
It’s LaBute. Is there really any doubt whatsoever? 
17% on the Tomatometer. Not a good sign.
Avoiding critics is increasingly common, but when you have other bad signs…
You’re right that Howie’s religion was established in a similar way - although I don’t think the flashbacks were repeated - but the real problem is that this is the tritest thing on earth. If I saw that in a movie, I’d just laugh at the cliche.
Alright, I have no intention of shelling out money to see what I’ve heard has turned out to be a crappy crapfest. But can one of you poor souls who’s had a chance to go and see it by now tell me did they wimp out at the end?
Wow, the critics are hating this film big time. Currently 11% on the Tomatometer.
Best review quote:
“When he was reading the script and saw the part of the movie where he is supposed to run through the forest in a bear suit, I hope Cage asked for a huge pay raise.”
You know, the troubling thing is that by now I feel I rather want to see it, sort of like probing a bad tooth. But I also reckon that this will be a handy excuse for one of the television channels here to give the original another airing, so that has to be good. 
Pretty much what we were afraid of. Plus no nudity. Double-screw that.
One could write off this remake with a couple of snarky one-liners (and tips-'o-the-hat to the original), a la:
“Hacks. Bloody hacks!”
or,
“No, I was not refreshed!”
But since I’m such a Wicker Man geek and take this all way too seriously, I’m determined to work out my thoughts in a coherent, belabored essay… but not right now. I’m just too damned depressed and tired and need to take a nap or something. And it’s not that I thought the movie misfired on all cylinders or lacks any merit; it’s actually quite good in some respects (such as with some of the details and themes related to beekeeping), but was fatally slapdash and misconceived with respect to many of the details, ideas, and emotional tones. There were many instances where I thought it could have been better – the plot mechanics tighter and more realistic, the island life more bizarre and insular, and the betrayal more heartbreaking.
Im reviving this thread because we have all been approaching this film the wrong way. Inspired by this review at IMDB thealtmangoodbye's Review of The Wicker Man - IMDb
Im giving this a rewatch as a comedy. So far, so bad its good.
Its on HBO On Demand for anyone interested in losing two hours of their life they can never get back.
I have already lost those 2 hours. Even as a so-bad-it’s-good attempt, this movie fails. Watch it if you like Nick Cage, I guess?
It’s not the worse movie ever made, but I’m really glad I didn’t pay to see it.
This quote from that review is actually stated backwards:
should be
“a performance by Ellen Burstyn so awful that you’ll wonder how she was ever allowed to be in films, let alone nominated for an Oscar.”
This bit of pedantic fluff offered by your local fluffy pedant.
Not the beeeeeeees! 