Season of the Witch Blu-ray review

            The number of bad films which have started with the phrase “starring Oscar Winner Nicolas Cage” is staggering. It isn’t amazing that an Oscar-winner could make bad movies, because what has Cuba Gooding Jr. done since he won. Or Halle Berry. What is truly amazing is how many bad films Cage manages to get attached to. Not all are bad, but somehow he has more outlandishly silly films than nearly any other actors still working as steady as he does.

Season of the Witch isn’t even the worst film he made this year (that prize goes hands down to Drive Angry), but it also isn’t necessarily good. It falls somewhere on the bad side, though not nearly as outlandishly so as you might imagine. Then again, my standards are much lower whenever I begin a film starring Cage, so perhaps I’m being kinder than I should.

            Cage is paired with Ron Perlman, and the two star as crusaders and best friends in battle, until they have doubts about what they are doing. After years of killing successfully in battle, they refuse to go on after a slaughter of civilians occurs. They set out on their own until they are forced to take a transport job for the church. A woman (Claire Foy) is accused of being a witch, so they agree to take her to a remote monastery for a proper trial. At first there is doubt that she is a witch, but he superhuman strength and a tendency for things to go wrong around her makes the convoy’s diminish along the way.

            The arduous journey ends with a revelation which makes the title a little confounding, but this is the least of this film’s problems. It builds nicely at the beginning, but the resulting film is far less compelling at the end. The Blu-ray high definition makes the special effects look nice and sharp, but does nothing for the story. The special features include an alternate ending, but this doesn’t really matter when you don’t even care how the theatrical version ended. There are also two featurettes and some deleted scenes.