simonthenixon I don't get the hate for this movie, because I think a lot of the stuff in it is supposed to be funny, and I found it hilarious. The bike and the bear suit were just classic. I mean, people hate this movie but they talk about it a lot, and I think that says something for the movie. You remember it, and I think that's because it was actually made really well. It's always a good laugh for me. Just don't try and take it too seriously.

soulexpress I have Pagan friends who despise this film with a savage intensity. Given its mean-spirited portrayal of them, I can certainly understand why. As if that weren't bad enough, the film has numerous plot points that were either abandoned or simply didn't make sense:In an early scene, Office Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) pulls over a car occupied by a mother and her young daughter. Out of nowhere, an 18-wheeler barrels into the car, setting it ablaze. As Malus attempts to rescue them, the mother and daughter seemingly vanish into thin air. First, why was the truck on the wrong side of the road, much less in the breakdown lane? Second, just who were that mother and daughter? And for that matter, why was their car unregistered?How did Willow's letter get to Malus without a stamp?If outsiders aren't allowed on Summersisle, why does it have an inn?At the inn, Malus mentions that the cassette tapes he brought with him had disappeared from his luggage. The tapes are never mentioned again.What's the deal with the bird trapped in the old school desk?Why don't the men on the island speak? Are they unable to? It's never explained.While Malus is searching an underwater crypt for the missing child, somebody closes and locks the lid to the opening through which he entered it. Why do that and risk his drowning when they need him alive for their ritual?After spending all night underwater (except for his head), Malus immediately bounces back and continues his search for the missing child. Naturally, his clothes are bone-dry not two minutes later.Why was that little girl hiding in the closet?You inject an Epi-Pen into the outer thigh, not the damned neck!Lastly, my DVD copy (which I found in a $2.00 bin) features what it calls a "shocking alternate ending not seen in theaters." All it does is leave out the epilogue. This version ends with the chants of, "The drone must die." So not only was the theatrical release garbage, the DVD was a scam!

generationofswine Have you seen it? No? There is likely a very good reason for that...it stinks.Like nearly ALL the endless remakes and reboots that have been plaguing movie goers for the past decade or so....all this is, is a heartless version of the original.It has no heart.It has no soul.It is a retelling of a film that we all love and cherish...and it adds nothing to the story. It improves nothing but the special effects--which held up very well over time--and in some cases belittles the fans of the original...particularly in the fact that they remade the movie at all, without adding anything clever to it.Like so many other remakes it is a hallow shell of the original.

Douglas Skinner This movie starts out interestingly but becomes very tedious as soon as one recognizes that the woman the protagonist (played by Mr. Cage) has come to a remote island to save isn't very interesting--or worth saving for that matter. Plus, upon arrival, the feminist community he encounters is absurd, even in fantasy terms. There is nothing endearing about it and, frankly, most sensible males would have immediately debarked upon encountering the sour-faced and well, to put it nicely, ample Sister Beech.But our hero decides to pursue the case. (The screen writers were evidently uneasy about tenacity with which Malus stays on the case so, midstream, we learn from Sister Woodward that the child in question is really his daughter conceived what I inferred was a single coupling.) After some reconnaissance of the local flora and a couple of clandestine meetings with "Sister" Woodward our hero finally meets the "queen bee", Sister Summersisle, of the colony and tries to confront her concerning the whereabouts and fate of a young girl with the absurd name of Rowan. (But it was evident that all the women were named after trees, so there you have it!) Sister Summersisle's responses are meretricious and patronizing and the viewer knows she's gonna get him in the end. The incongruity between the flower-child paganism of the female inhabitants with their likeness to bees and trees and the miserable emasculation of the men is disturbing but somehow it doesn't come off right; because it is almost believable! It's just the kind of queendom that formed the fantasies of the feminist coeds I encountered in my college days in the late 60s. As it was then it just makes you (me anyway, as a guy) frustrated and talking to the screen, asking Malus why he doesn't jack up these male bozos for being so wimpy; at least enough to find out whether their servility is based on weak character or some mysterious rewiring of the human male along the lines of a bee drone. (I asked the same questions almost 50 years ago!)Now I admit that police officer Malus is kind of an, to use that word so endearing to modern feminists, a**hole but he is sincere in his response to the call to help. Does this warrant his final incendiary end, with the gleeful complicity of an cute little girl (who scarcely knows what she's doing)? Probably yes because, as the movie makes clear, his macho is the dilithium power source of the cult and so must be harnessed. You see, unlike the feminists and very much like the bees, they've learned how to utilize maleness. Ultimate simplicity, no wrangling, no male unemployment so destructive to an ordered society (and it is!), no physical contest naturally favoring men, just emasculation for lesser beings and an auto da fe for those occasional potent types who are selected in advance to "mate" with the queen (we learn towards the end that Malus' and Woodward's consummation was no accident as she is the daughter of the queen bee). And I'm reasonably confident that this is the movie's ultimate and intended message. So guys, beware!