Season of the Witch

Way back during the Crusades, God’s knights Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) are trapped in a montage that plays out like a teaser for an upcoming medieval-times first-person-shooter videogame. Our heroes trudge, trudge, trudge until they enter the Black Plague period in the form of a disease-wracked village and are compelled to drag a slatternly witch in a cage (Claire Foy) across the countryside to another abbey where the monks will read a passage at the witch from some ancient tome and end the plague. Or something like that. Season of the Witch is not a very ambitious film. It’s competent enough but never anything more. Throughout, Cage and Perlman exchange action-movie dialogue against a background that remains stagnant with fog and mossy gray. Though admittedly the movie does rouse itself and shake its head for the CGI-happy climax, by that point it’s about an hour too late. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13