Prisoners of Ghostland review: Nic Cage getting a Mad Max samurai movie

The Polygon animation team is signed on to the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which will become virtual for the first time. Here’s what you need to know about the indie gems that will soon be making their way into streaming services, theaters and the cinematic zeitgeist.

Log line: When Bernice (Sofia Boutella) goes missing in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, her rich, well-connected adoptive grandpa takes a bank robber (Nicolas Cage) out of jail, ties him a leather suit of bombs and gives him five days of time to bring her back – or suffer explosive consequences.

Longer line: Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono has made a career out of extremism. Movies like the four-hour sex-and-religion romp Love Exposure and the street gang musical Tokyo Tribe are the daydreams of a cinematic madman. Linking him to Cage doesn’t just seem like a good idea, it also sounds like a cosmic law. These two Chaotic Good titans had to make a movie together before they quit.

Going too deep on the plot of it Prisoners of the Ghostland is not so much a spoiler issue as a futile attempt to describe a genre mash-up with hedonistic impulses, but here’s a taste nonetheless: after a botched bank robbery, innocent blood spills, ‘Hero’ (Cage) and his bulky henchman (Nick Cassavetes) get trapped in the dungeons of Samurai Town. In the East-meets-West alcove, samurai roam the streets and a Kentucky Fried gentleman named The Governor (Bill Moseley) rules like a mob boss. The Governor recruits Hero as his own one-man Suicide Squad to bring Bernice back from the post-apocalyptic dead zone behind the walls. To keep the criminal from getting too handy, the mafioso locks up Hero in what is reasonable to call Chekov’s Limb-Splodin ‘Leather Suit. If something goes wrong with the mission, they’re precious body parts bye. There are even two small bombs on Hero’s testicles. No spoilers, but Sono won’t let that ball hang in the air for long.

Image: RLJE Films

What follows actually belongs to Nic Cage Mad Max: Fury Road. The title’s “Ghostland” is an irradiated zone with a fair number of infected civilians looking for a better life, and zombie-like creeps that Cage can plow through. When Hero makes contact with Bernice, the two unravel the mysteries behind How Things Got This Way and why some desert culters scream “THE PREDICTION! ”And“ THICK RED BLOOD! ”As he travels, Hero recalls the traumatic moments of the robbery gone wrong and works through the mistakes of his past to find something resembling redemption, as well as fighting a bunch of ninjas.

What’s Prisoners of the Ghostland trying to do? Strike the bombast of Hollywood blockbusters against the bombast of the Japanese action cinema to see what catches fire. From the glorification of a biker cage as the height of cool (someone off the screen literally says, ‘He’s … so cool’) to the almost lampooning of Kurosawa tropics, Sono has global flavor and no restraints whatsoever in placing of every lost idea on the screen. But unexpectedly, it’s one of the director’s more mainstream endeavors. Which could easily turn into one Crank-as exercise in hyperactivity is performed with a steady hand and an appreciation for the details. Sono wants his audience to do that be lush in the brutal beauty of Boutella with a gatling gun.

In his notes for the film, Sono says that while Prisoners of the Ghostland puts a penchant for pop entertainment on the screen: “What I really wanted to create behind it all are disruptions to modern society that make the unreal world a reality. I believe we live in an irrational world. Hard to disagree, although the film doesn’t spend much time considering those distortions. Yes, Ghostland is the byproduct of a toxic spill, and its inhabitants, good and bad, suffer. But the potential social or environmental commentary never emerges Instead, what we see is what we get: the “ghosts” are literal, the radiant timeline is mythology, and the decimated world is fertile breeding ground for Hero’s Journey prophecies about Cage as the “most powerful clock” or Sono seems to have challenged himself to make the most entertaining movie of all time.

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

Will it get there? Prisoners of the Ghostland is ready for the packed, few drinks-in-midnight movie slot. Presented in the non-ideal home location, by the nature of virtual Sundance, it is a delightful love letter to the surplus of action movies. Like The Wachowskis’ Jupiter ascending or, more literally, Who framed Roger Rabbit?Sono embraces cartoon nonsense logic to take Cage to each of the film’s unexpected milestones. So the governor is American apparently he walks out in all whites and a cowboy hat. The samurai warriors might as well be RPG NPCs taking part in a sword fight as part of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”. A series depicting the accident that melted the countryside into a decayed shadow of its former self spins across the screen like the pages of a manga. A star that shines the mouth-widening, raised eyebrow “Wut?” face is the glue that makes all the pieces stick to the collage.

Photo: RLJE Films

But let’s not underestimate Cage. He rises to the level of Sono. With strange spray-on Ken pop makeup and Lee Marvin killer energy, Cage becomes a living action figure. He even has kung fu grip! In a third act, Cage (or at least a spot-on body double in armor) goes toe-to-toe with the main samurai, delivering movements that keep up with the kinetic camerawork. If only Sono had found more for Boutella to do, Prisoners of the Ghostland may have achieved instant cult status. With action credits such as Kingsman, Atomic Blonde, and Star Trek Beyond to her credit, she is more than capable of performing stunts and choreographies. Sono loses her in Cage’s shadow, but again, she can really make that gatling gun sing.

Like Sono’s previous movies, Prisoners of the Ghostland is striking. Ranging from radiation outfits to the lavish traditional robes, the costumes tell as much story as any expositional dialogue. While the sets occasionally look like soundstage stand-ups, they continue the director’s aggressive Dadaist approach. One minute Sono takes viewers to the Tokyo-inspired streets of Samurai Town, and seconds later we’re in Ghostland, a junkyard built through Hook. It’s overflowing with quirks.

What are the benefits for us? A good reminder that dazzling action movies don’t have to cost $ 200 million. Sono’s output may never catch on like Japanese anime exports or Korean authors like Bong Joon-ho, but for anyone thinly worn by the homogeneity of American superhero cinema, a whole catalog awaits. Prisoners of the Ghostland is a great, digestible start.

And a note about Cage: After running into financial trouble in the 2010s, it has been suspected that the former A-lister will sign up with every script that crosses his desk. Okay, yes, there are stinkers in his filmography to back up the theory, but unlike Bruce Willis and his current DGAF-on-DTV career, Cage is showing up for every goddamn movie he’s in. He seems to find life’s blood in the strange and extreme. Sono is on the same quest. There is no wink cynicism to cast Cage in this role. He’s a BIG movie star with no BIG movies to star in. Prisoners of the Ghostland demands his style.

The most appropriate time: In case it’s unclear above … I really want to talk about what happens to the testicle bombs.

When can we see it? Prisoners of the Ghostland will arrive later this year from RLJE Films, the distributor behind the other recent crazy Cage movies Mandy and Color from space.