Review of Ghostland prisoners: Nic Cage wins a Mad Max samurai movie

The Polygon entertainment team is connected to the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which becomes virtual for the first time. Here’s what you need to know about the indie gems that will soon hit streaming services, cinemas and the cinematic zeitgeist.

Logline: When Bernice (Sofia Boutella) disappears into a post-apocalyptic desert, her wealthy and well-connected adoptive grandfather takes a bank robber (Nicolas Cage) out of prison, puts him in a leather suit equipped with bombs and gives him five days to rescue her – or suffer explosive consequences.

Longerline: Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono made a career in extremism. Movies like four-hour sex and religion prank Love Exposure and the street gang musical Tokyo tribe they are the daydreams of a cinematic madman. Pairing it with Cage doesn’t just seem like a good idea, it looks like a cosmic law. These two titans Chaotic Good had to make a movie together before they close.

Going too deep into the plot of Ghostland Prisoners not so much a matter of spoiler, but rather a futile attempt to describe a mixture of gender with hedonistic impulses, but here’s a sample anyway: after a bank robbery that spills innocent blood, “Hero” (Cage) and his massive accomplice (Nick Cassavetes) is locked up in the dungeons of the city of Samurai. In the East alcove lies West, samurai roam the streets and a Kentucky Fried gentleman named The Governor (Bill Moseley) rules as a mafia boss. The governor recruits Hero as his own one-man Suicide Squad to rescue Bernice from the post-apocalyptic dead zone beyond the walls. To ensure that the criminal does not become too practical, the mobster locks the Hero in what is fair to call Chekov’s Limbo Squirt Leather Suit. If anything goes wrong with the mission, it’s bye precious body parts. There are even two small pumps located in Hero’s testicles. No spoilers, but Sono won’t let the ball hang in the air for long.

Image: RLJE Filmes

What follows is basically that of Nic Cage Mad Max: Fury Road. The title “Land of Ghosts” is an area irradiated with its share of infected citizens in search of a better life and zombie monsters for Cage to plow. When Hero connects with Berenice, the two unravel the mysteries behind How it got this way and why some desert cultists scream “THE PROPHECY! “And” THICK RED BLOOD! ” Along the way, Hero remembers the traumatic moments of the robbery that went wrong and works on the mistakes of his past to find something similar to redemption, he also fights against a gang of ninjas.

Which is Ghostland Prisoners trying to do? Attack the bombastic of Hollywood blockbusters against the bombastic of Japanese action cinema to see what catches on fire. From the exaltation of a Cage motorcyclist as the culmination of the cool (someone off-screen literally says “He’s … so cool”) to the almost satirization of Kurosawa’s tropes, Sono has a worldwide taste and zero restraint on putting everyone’s lost idea on the screen. Unexpectedly, however, it is one of the director’s most conventional efforts. What could easily turn into a hand crankExercises similar to hyperactivity are performed with a steady hand and an appreciation for details. Sleep wants his audience delight in the brutal beauty of Boutella wielding a machine gun.

In his notes for the film, Sono says that while Ghostland Prisoners puts the love of pop entertainment on the screen, “What I really wanted to create behind all of this are distortions of modern society making the unreal world real. I believe that we live in an irrational world ”. It is difficult to disagree, although the film does not take much time to consider these distortions. Yes, Ghostland is the by-product of a toxic spill, and its inhabitants, both good and bad, are suffering. But the potential social or ecological commentary never comes up. Instead, what we see is what we get: the “ghosts” are literal, the radiation timeline is mythology and the decimated world is a breeding ground for the Hero’s Journey prophecies about Cage being the “most powerful clock ” or something like this. Sono seems to have challenged himself to make the most fun movie of all time.

The quote that says it all: [Extreme Nic Cage acting voice] “I’M RADIOACTIVE.”

Does he get there? Ghostland Prisoners he is prepared for the packed movie with a few midnight drinks. Presented in the less than ideal location at home, by nature of the virtual Sundance, it is a delightful love letter for the excess of action films. Like The Wachowskis’ Ascending Jupiter or, more literally, Who framed Roger Rabbit, Sono embraces the absurd logic of the cartoons to take Cage to each of the film’s unexpected mileage markers. The governor is American, so obviously it comes out in all white and a cowboy hat. Samurai warriors may well be RPG NPCs involved in a sword battle set in Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”. A sequence that describes the accident that melted the field in a decaying shadow of his old self I saw on the screen like the pages of a manga. A star who perfected “Wut?” expensive is the glue that keeps all the pieces stuck to the glue.

Photo: RLJE Filmes

But let’s not underestimate Cage. It rises to the Sleep level. Sporting a strange powdered Ken doll makeup and Lee Marvin’s murderous energy, Cage becomes a living action figure. He even has a kung fu grip! In a third act sequence, Cage (or at least a perfect body double in armor) goes head to head with the chief samurai, delivering movements that accompany the kinetic work of the camera. If only Sono had found more for Boutella to do, Ghostland Prisoners may have attained instantaneous cult status. With stock credits like Kingsman, Atomic Blonde, and Star Trek Beyond in her name, she is more than capable of performing acrobatics and choreography. Sleep loses her in Cage’s shadow, but then again, she can really make that machine gun sing.

Much like the previous Sono films, Ghostland Prisoners it’s attractive. The costumes, ranging from radioactive radiation equipment to luxurious traditional robes, tell both the story and any exhibition dialogue. The sets, although occasionally look like studio stand-ups, continue the director’s aggressive Dada approach. One minute Sono takes viewers to the Tokyo-inspired streets of Samurai Town, and seconds later, we are in Ghostland, a junkyard built using Hook. It is overflowing with oddities.

What does this bring us? A great reminder that whirlwind action films don’t have to cost $ 200 million. Sono’s production may never catch on like Japanese anime exports or Korean authors like Bong Joon-ho, but for anyone exhausted by the homogeneous American superhero cinema, there’s an entire catalog waiting for you. Ghostland Prisoners it’s a great digestible start.

And a note about Cage: after experiencing some financial problems in the 2010s, it is suspected that the ex-A-lister will sign any script that crosses his desk. Okay, yes, there are stinks in your filmography to support the theory, but Cage, unlike Bruce Willis and his current DGAF-on-DTV career, appears for every damn movie he’s in. He seems to find vital blood in the strange and extreme. Sleep is on the same mission. There is no cynical wink in casting Cage for this role. He’s a big movie star with no big films to star in. Ghostland Prisoners demands your style.

The most capable moment of memes: In case it’s not clear above … I really want to talk about what happens to testicle pumps.

When can we see this? Ghostland Prisoners will arrive this year from RLJE Filmes, the distributor behind Cage’s other recent crazy films Mandy and Color Out of Space.