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Author Topic: The Wicker Man (2006) Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-19-2006 04:50 PM                        Screened during the Rocky Mountain Theatre Convention in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I would call this an above-average thriller. Nicolas Cage plays a California based motorcycle cop who tries to rescue his daughter and, to a lesser extent, her mother from a weird cult in Washington where they both have lived for years. I won't go into all the details about how the girl got into the cult, but the movie is creepy with a capital C. It leaves you with a strange feeling at the end. It's a horror movie like The Sixth Sense, in the sense that it's not gross, it just gives you the willies. It's really well-made and looks great. Cage gives a somewhat understated performance, and I have a hard time believing him as a motorcycle cop -- but he does a good job overall. The story weaves around a lot until the end when all the pieces fall into place. 3.5 out of 5 for me. My wife liked it a bit better than I did, I think. Technical goofs: The movie is scope, but the film started with the flat lens in place. After running about a minute, the projectionist attempted to fix it but instead managed to have the picture showing across the bottom 8 rows of seats instead of the screen for about 20 seconds. Finally the picture jumped back onto the screen, with the scope lens in place, but the flat aperture was still in. Another 15 or so seconds later, the aperture was corrected, and another minute or so went by before the side masking was pulled out to reveal the whole picture. So I missed the first 2 or 3 minutes of the movie due to this goofing around. Also the dowser was not closed at the end, so we saw a white screen for a few seconds until the house lights came up. Probably the worst excuse for a "presentation" I ever saw during a convention. [ 08-19-2006, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-21-2006 07:11 AM                        How does it compare with the original? Does the story work transported from the Hebrides to Washington?  |  IP: Logged Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 08-22-2006 01:38 PM                     I was also wondering how it compared to the original (both story and film) Celtic confection. Mike, I'm assuming the techical goofs were at the convention? Just wonderful! Bet that guy is looking for a new career now.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-01-2006 05:02 PM                        I've never seen the original so can't compare. Yep, those problems were at the convention screening. Nice little theatre too. (4 screens, new last year.)  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 09-01-2006 09:02 PM                     Not a bad movie, but it doesn't work as a "psychological thriller." There were no indicators throughout the movie of the twist at the end. I figured it out in reel 4, not by anything that was said or done but just because of the direction it was going. It is interesting and wierd, but doesnt hold up to better movies like the skeleton key or the sixth sense. When I watch a movie like this I want them to reveal the secret in a way that makes me want to kick myself for not being able to figure it out.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-02-2006 01:30 AM                        I saw this tonight and I walked out after the first 5 minutes and obtained a refund. That's how much the little girl in the car pissed me off. How dare Nicolas Cage try to save her! This movie was obviously ridiculous and did not warrant my continued attention. Thumbs down! As for the presentation, it sucked ass. I went to the Harkness Northfield 18 or something like that. It is a brand new theater in Colorado and it has the biggest screen ever built by humanity as well as digital sound which has more wattage than 15 lightning bolts combined. The place is quite substandard and the "big screen" is much smaller than the Continental. The auditorium is an ugly yellow which only further enhanced my rage. The subwoofers and surrounds could be heard... for the trailers at least. And even then it seemed like someone turned up the 80Hz or thereabouts because it was very boomy, but not in a good way. After the last trailer (no green bands) I saw the cue go through on screen and the Dolby Digital STOMP logo came on. It sounded like ass and was much quieter than the trailers. The movie sounded just as bad, almost as if it were in mono. The trailers were dirty, the Dolby STOMP was scratched and cut up to hell (didn't hear anything when the splices went through) as was Harkins policy trailer. The opening of reel 1 was scratched like a motherfucker (yes, motherfuckers are scratched up pretty bad) and the dirt really never went away. Didn't this movie just open TODAY? And I was there for the 6:50pm showing. What a crappy place to see a movie! I did get a lot of pictures that I will probably send to Adam or something, as well as some video of the start of the show and the first image (Cine Capri fanfare) hitting the screen (out of frame)!  |  IP: Logged Jennifer Pan THE JEN! Posts: 1219 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: Nov 2003 posted 09-02-2006 02:03 AM                        I hope you had a nice time making out with Bobby during those wonderful 5 minutes.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 09-02-2006 01:42 PM                     Hey! What happened to the "don't ask don't tell" policy!? Even if I rolled that way, the presentation was bad enough to annoy both gay and straight people everywhere so they wouldn't be able to make out. I laughed out loud when I saw Harkins' Cine Capris policy trailer come up out of frame. I have a theory on why the Dolby stomp trailer and movie itself wound up sounding like crap. When Joe and I went to obtain our refunds this fellow whom I'll dub "the musician's friend" walked up to complain about the loud trailers, "I'm a musician, I've been to rock concerts that aren't this loud; someone's going to suffer permanent hearing damage." Joe told the guy about the irritating nature of overly loud, shrill, shitty sounding movie trailers (with all their disco whoosh, slam, thud, boom cliche beyond hell sound effects). That guy wasn't going to have any of it. I don't know if they actually turned down the sound in the musician's friend's show or not. But I suspect someone like that guy whined to the manager for our show. He probably went by and turned off the Dolby Digital in response. At least that's my theory. Maybe their setup is just shitty. Afterall, this Cine Capris only has a Cinemacanica projector (unlike the OKC Cine Capris which has a Kinoton). There was probably 347 different things the OKC Cine Capris did better than this one, all of which I listed to Joe. Platter and roller scratches on the trailers shown in the lobby? The Bricktown Cine Capris doesn't do that! Normally a new theater is on its best behavior for at least a year or two before letting the presentation quality go to hell. Also, where was the manager to thank us for coming before the show and to tell us how many speakers and watts and all that stuff the theater had? They did that in OKC. When the truck hit that car, there should have been enough bass to rattle loose some of the fillings in my teeth. Instead, the sound quality was equivalent to the mono speaker in a 12" Philco black and white TV. I agree with Joe, the little girl in the vehicle was just an evil little bitch not worth saving. We may have stayed and watched more of the movie if Nicolas Cage just waved at the girl and shouted, "have fun cooking in that fire!" Also, why did Harkins stick such a poorly reviewed movie on their "best" screen. Rotten Tomatoes has The Wicker Man rating a mere 13% score. Very rotten. A big action movie, Crank, which opened the same day was stuck in some smaller auditorium.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-02-2006 05:46 PM                        quote: Bobby Henderson That guy wasn't going to have any of it. He acted like I cared if he was a musician or not.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 09-03-2006 05:02 PM                        Worst POS movie I've seen in a long time. I sat through the whole thing hoping there would be some kind of payoff in the form of a neato plot twist. Some plot twist. Best line of dialog by far is Nicholas Cage, gun drawn and aimed at bitch on bike: "Step away from the bicycle!" Overheard during the "What do we do with this piece of shit we bought" meeting at Warner Bros: "Well, it has Nicholas Cage. Let's play up his name, pray for one or two good reviews, release it over Labor Day, and hope for one decent weekend".  |  IP: Logged Justin Gorka Expert Film Handler Posts: 174 From: High Wycombe, England Registered: Apr 2006 posted 09-21-2006 05:55 PM                     Why?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-21-2006 07:11 PM                        In my post above, I forgot to mention the hilarious "security measures" we were subjected to at the screening. Everyone was "wanded" by a badge-wearing guard, there was a big fat guy digging through the ladies' purses, and there were 2 guys with infrared viewers scanning the crowd every 10 minutes during the film. They must have thought they really had something big here. (Or do they go to these lengths at all trade screenings?) Given everyone else's reactions to this, and its grosses, I'm surprised I liked it as well as I did. I'd never heard of the original so I had nothing to compare it to, which might have made a difference.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-21-2006 07:19 PM                        Trade screenings = terrorist magnets. You stop a trade screening, you stop America!  |  IP: Logged

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