Season of the Witch kicks off the new movie year with a resounding thud as Nicolas Cage, in a wig of blond ringlets seemingly snatched from Gwyneth Paltrow's Country Strong collection, portrays a knight of the Crusades on God's duty. It's the 14th century, baby, and Behman (that's Cage) and his comrade in arms, Felson (Hellboy's Ron Perlman), must deliver a witch (Claire Foy) to a monastery so a hotshot monk can read mumbo-jumbo at her and end the scourge of plague that has the population popping oozing postules.

Peter Travers reviews Season of the Wtich in his weekly video series, "At the Movies With Peter Travers."

The real plague is the movie, a sci-fi hodgepodge of bad history and worse special effects. Director Dominic Sena allows the actors to mug outrageously in accents that range from fake British to bogus Jersey Shore. I may be making Season of the Witch sound like more fun than it is. Trust me, it's as bloodless as a starved vampire. Instead of a review, it deserves a stake in the heart. Die, monster, die.

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“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.