I don't understand what the matter was with Nicolas Cage when he picked Neil LaBute to make this, because the result manages to fumble EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of what made the original film great.
Amazingly, it seems to be a peculiar hybrid of Hollywoodised rubbish and LaBute's usual anti-female ranting. It starts out establishing that Cage's Edward Malus (a name no-one in the film pronounces properly) has "issues", and when he gets to the pointlessly retitled Summersisle (not, unfortunately, pronounced "summer sizzle"), the local act in such arch, melodramatic and generally suspicious manner as to make K9 & Company look subtle.
The dialogue is so bad that people were openly laughing at the screen, and there were what appeared to be some very poorly-judged attempts at humour which may have been unintentional. Changing the original's Pagan-but-modern society into a bizarre quasi-Amish matriarchy doesn't work, and merely shows up LaBute typical apparent hatred of women, as the all-female conspiracy to trap and kill the only independent man on the island is revealed. "Look out!", LaBute is shouting, "the women are all out to get you and sap your masculine power!" I find it incredible that the subtlety, intelligence and wit of the original could have been totally excised from the script and direction, but with a talentless cretin like Neil LaBute in charge, it should be no surprise that this is as insulting, ugly, obvious and misogynistic as it is.
It is by far the worst film I have seen since Revolver, and that really stank.
Amazingly, it seems to be a peculiar hybrid of Hollywoodised rubbish and LaBute's usual anti-female ranting. It starts out establishing that Cage's Edward Malus (a name no-one in the film pronounces properly) has "issues", and when he gets to the pointlessly retitled Summersisle (not, unfortunately, pronounced "summer sizzle"), the local act in such arch, melodramatic and generally suspicious manner as to make K9 & Company look subtle.
The dialogue is so bad that people were openly laughing at the screen, and there were what appeared to be some very poorly-judged attempts at humour which may have been unintentional. Changing the original's Pagan-but-modern society into a bizarre quasi-Amish matriarchy doesn't work, and merely shows up LaBute typical apparent hatred of women, as the all-female conspiracy to trap and kill the only independent man on the island is revealed. "Look out!", LaBute is shouting, "the women are all out to get you and sap your masculine power!" I find it incredible that the subtlety, intelligence and wit of the original could have been totally excised from the script and direction, but with a talentless cretin like Neil LaBute in charge, it should be no surprise that this is as insulting, ugly, obvious and misogynistic as it is.
It is by far the worst film I have seen since Revolver, and that really stank.