Just tell me where it hurts...

Had to run out and see a movie edited by one of our old buddies who has become a Hollywood guy.

I should have known that this was an ill-fated film viewing endeavor when a guy, some European guy, jumped in front of us at the ticket window to inquire where a film that was no longer showing at the theater had moved to, and astoundingly, the little old New Yorker lady in the booth started looking up this idiot's movie time in the NY Post. Forboding indeed. We eventually got in and joined the four other people in the theater who had paid to see the film.

Things started well, with our compadre having his editing credit nicely placed before the title of the film, director and screenwriter Neil Labute's remake of the 1970's quasi-horror film, "The Wicker Man". If you don't know him, Mr. Labute is a provocative filmmaker and playright with a reputation of being a practicing mysogynist.

On a positive note, Angelo Badalamenti, the composer from one of my faves, "Twin Peaks", created the soundtrack which set the mood with a "Shining" type vibe, however the film's star, Nick Cage, who now has the look of a guy who has made about 6 horribly misguided career choices in a row, took the film in another direction. Nick plays a terribly unsympathetic, confused, man-puppet (playing himself?), with hair and wig died an artificial, bottle-brown, fake teeth growing out of his mouth like he's some mutant hedgehog and a look on his face like he's in constant career-ending pain, which while reading Mr. Labute's dialogue, I'm sure he was.

The rest of the performances (200 year old Ellen Burstyn is the hottest chick in a flick dominated by women) are uniformly terrible. The only audience members frightened by the film are critics who must quake at the thought of Labute making another film. The movie builds no suspense and is ultimately, if anything, a comedy. Dialogue, which at times can be Labute's strength, turns on him in this turd, with much of the horror in the film emitting from people's mouths as they struggle to deliver this uncooked cheeseburger of a script. You just can't wait for Mr. Cage to stop running around in his bear-suit and get to his barbecue.

My final positive statement on this whole deal is that the film was very well edited.
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