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The Season of the Witch

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Season of the Witch

Director           Dominic Sena
Cast                Nicholas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Stephen Graham, Claire Foy, Christopher Lee, Robert Sheehan, Ulrich Thomsen
Year                2011
Genre              Fantasy

All actors have to keep themselves busy.  Some more than the rest.  And Nicholas Cage falls in the former (more) category.  The Season of the Witch is Cage’s desperate attempt to tell the rest of the world that he is still around and still acting.  So what if he is pushing 50 and has acted in over 50 movies in his 30 year career? He released only 2 movies last year as compared to the 4 in ‘09 and 4 in ‘07 (only 1 in ‘08).  And so what if he has 6 other movies on the table that are going to be released over the next 24 months.  Man’s got to act to make money right.  Maybe the bank balance has dwindled too much eh Mr.Cage?

Continuing with the fantasy genre of movies that he left with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice last year, Cage now plays the role of Behmen, a 14th Century Knight who has enlisted himself in the service of God, to rid the world of all pagans far and wide.  He is a crusader and along with Felson (Ron Perlman) has been responsible for killing hundreds of such outcasts who have sinned.  All of this in the name of the Church.  After a few years of mindless killing, he is severely upset for the first time when one such crusade results in the killing of innocent women and children.  He questions the religious leader of the crusade and on not getting a satisfactory answer decides that he cannot serve the purpose anymore.  He and Felson are now outlaws for defecting and therefore are charged with treason effective immediately.

They manage to survive for a while on their own and finally land up around a hut where they find the owners dead for a reason they will find out soon enough - Plague.  Soon enough, they find themselves in front of a town that Felson wisely recommends that they avoid since they are outlaws.  But they need horses and don’t have a choice but to go into the town to buy some.  No points for guessing that they get caught and presented in front of the cardinal (Christopher Lee) who has himself been struck by the plague.  News is that the church has captured a witch (Claire Foy), who has confessed to being one (Yeah Right!!!) and now needs to transport her to the Monastery @ Severac where Monks will read from the only copy of “The Book of Solomon” that is left and rid her of the witch craft that seemingly has possessed her.

The Season of the Witch is yet another random story about the Devil with special effects thrown in for impact.  Nothing that we have not seen before.  But what is surprising is that it is directed by Dominic Sena who is best known for his slick thrillers of the likes of Swordfish and Gone in 60 seconds.  How he got conned into directing this below average flick is beyond me.  Nicholas Cage is as constipated as ever and Ron Perlman provides him with the support that barely keeps acting alive in the movie.  Claire Foy doesn’t have much to do since most of her expressions are controlled clearly by a computer.  Acting – Lead of supporting – is not the hallmark of this movie.  A bit of interesting SFX and some reasonable fight sequences get this movie to the 4 on 10 mark.  Not going to miss much if you don’t see it though.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3830683929/

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