Check out this review from our partners across the pond, where the original Wicker Man was made, Take it Paul:

So, the day has arrived that Neil LaBute's remake of THE WICKER MAN hits cinemas across the globe. The film is based on the screenplay of the original flick that starred Edward Woodward and the legend that is Christopher Lee. The question on everyone's lips is 'is it any good,' and 'did we really need the movie to be remade?'

I'll answer that in just a little bit.

Minor spoilers ahead.

The story has been changed slightly, but the basics of the plot remains the same. Nicolas Cage's character, Edward Malus, travels to the remote island of Summersisle to help his former girlfriend, Willow (Kate Beahan), find her missing daughter. There, Edward is drawn into a web of ancient traditions and murderous deceit, and each step he takes closer to the lost child brings him one step closer to the unspeakable. Or that's how it's officially worded.

I watched LaBute's 'Wicker Man' literally days after I saw the original for the first time in around fifteen or so years. I had long forgotten about the original flick, directed by Robin Hardy, but as the movie is about to get a re-release on DVD (out Monday in an all new director's cut) I was able to watch the film in its extended form (the way Hardy intended it before the original distributors got their mitts on it) on Sunday evening. The movie weirded me out (though in a good way), and I have been haunted by the experience all week. The film has this underlying disturbing tone about it, and builds until the famous, and even more terrifying ending it unleashes upon the unsuspecting world. But if you've seen it, you know all that. I pretty much watched that movie with fresh eyes this week, as I was way too young to take it in all those years ago, and memories of it were long gone. But I love it. One of the movies where you're still thinking about it days later. The best kind.

However, having been reacquainted with the original, I think it effected the way I watched LaBute's version, and certainly affected my enjoyment of it. The 2006 WICKER MAN gives us a more in depth front and back end to the movie, and a lot more character development is put into Cage's character. Although the filmmaker has opted to do this, I thought that Cage's Edward Malus lacked depth, at least comparing it with Woodward's naive investigative police sergeant in the original. In fact the whole story, I thought was dumbed down for the update. There were a lot of touches to the original film that remained absent from this version, and while I know LaBute had to make things different from the seventies version, I thought he disposed of a lot of the 'good stuff' that made Hardy's movie so darn enjoyable - albeit disturbing.

Ellen Burnstyn's Sister Summersisle is not a patch on campy Christopher Lee's Lord Summerisle, the locals weren't 'local' enough for me (bad League of Gentlemen reference there), and there simply isn't enough tension-building leading up to that 'shocking' finale. I also thought that the religious aspect of this film, which plays a huge part in the final scenes, wasn't clearly explained. The film could have benefited from an extra few scenes in the second act to develop that aspect of the film thus giving the shocking revelations at the end more plausibility and thus a stronger impact. Another final downpoint is the last scene of the film which was, in my mind, completely pointless. I won't go into any details here, but it's just silly and silly with a cameo from a fairly famous young actor too.

I think that THE WICKER MAN 2006 will appeal to people that have either never seen the original, or caught it years ago and can't remember just how darn good it was. I watched the film with a like-minded friend who had never seen Hardy's film, but had a great time with LaBute's movie. I don't think this is a bad movie, by any means - but compared to the original (which I know I shouldn't do), then it just doesn't cut the mustard. If I had seen this before last Sunday, then maybe the grade would have come out a little more favorable.

In answer to my previously raised question. Is it any good? Well, yes in a way. But, did we really need to see it remade? Well no. I just hope that viewers of this movie will go back and take a look at the original, just to make up their own minds.

GRADE: C