Things I've Seen...

I've actually watched two movies in the last week!

*The Wicker Man, starring Nicolas Cage. This is a remake of a seventies film which starred Edward Woodward, and the original supposed to be much better. But I've never seen it, so that didn't really concern me. It was an interesting movie, slow at times, but different than most of what seems to be out there these days. It's about a policeman who goes to a small island colony in the Pacific Northwest. What he finds there is very strange. There were some strong actresses in small roles (Ellen Burstyn, Frances Conroy from Six Feet Under, Molly Parker from Deadwood, Diane Delano). But the female lead, an actress I had never seen before, was beautiful, but incredibly wooden. It was kind of jarring every time she came onscreen.

*The Covenant, starring a bunch of young good-looking men I've never seen before. The husband brought this home for me. Sometimes he makes strange choices on my behalf, but this looked promising enough. There were a bunch of hot, shirtless young men on the back of the case, and it was about young sorcerors in Ipswich, MA. It started out promisingly enough, with an (unconscious?) homage to The Lost Boys. I was looking forward to some cheesy fun. But the story was very poorly told. I suspect the movie was edited to within an inch of its life. The narrative took big leaps, so that it didn't make too much sense. Things seemed to happen with no reason. Except for a note at the beginning, the boys' powers and their origin were never explained. The Covenant of the title was given only a cursory mention about 2/3 in. I don't really know the what or why of it. If it's the title it should be explained. And the villain and his motives? Just dumb. This was a disappointment. One note: one of the actors, Taylor Kitsch, was quite pretty. And he's over 21. I checked, so I don't have to feel guilty over ogling.