Sundance Review: Prisoners Of The Ghostland (2021)

A notorious criminal must break an evil curse in order to rescue an abducted girl who has mysteriously disappeared.

Prisoners Of The Ghostland was a no brainer for me to see at Sundance, I heard so much about it and it’s been on my radar for quite a long time now. I’m happy to say that Prisoners Of The Ghostland is the definition of a bizarre film and I mean that in the best way possible. Nicholas Cage has a ton of moments that are just flat out incredible, everything you want in a Nicholas Cage film is here. The film itself is a huge blend of several genres such as action, western, fantasy, sci-fi and what the film manages to do with those genres is create something truly unique. Nicholas Cage gives a fantastic performance as well as Sofia about Ella, both of them really shine here and commit to the roles they are in. What surprised me the most here is how incredible the cinematography and the costume design are, both of them really add a whole lot to the film and really set the theme and tone throughout the film. The writing is overall pretty great, the cinematography really tells the story here along with the costumes. Which is kind of interesting but the costumes really did tell the story, lastly it’s just a blast of a film. It’s so much fun while being really great. Overall Prisoners Of The Ghostland is some of the most fun I’ve had so far this year, any Nicholas Cage fan will love this! I definitely recommend watching this one when it comes out!

9/10 A

Willy’s Wonderland (2021) Movie Review!

A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Wally’s Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash — and only one side will make it out alive.

Willy’s Wonderland has been on my radar for some time now, so when I heard it got a February 2021 release date I was very excited! Willy’s Wonderland is exactly what I expected and I couldn’t be more happy, Nicholas Cage doesn’t actually talk in this film, which you would think would not be a good idea that could prevent him from giving a lot of the over the top performances we all know and love. However he still manages to play an absolute hilarious and quite fantastic role as well, there’s some incredibly badass fight scenes between Cage and the animatronics. Really incredible kills as well that are actually quite well done as well, I also do like Emily Tosta and Caylee Cowan as well! I can definitely see the both of them going on to be in several other horror movies. Willy’s Wonderland is also Incredibly silly which is expected, it’s a whole lot of fun and knows what it’s set out to do. The animatronics designs I actually thought were pretty interesting as well, sure they may not be unique but it was trying to capture the 80s/90s when these things were popular. So they did a pretty great job with that. Willy’s Wonderland is overall a very straightforward slasher film that’s quite solid, there are some areas that could have been better (mostly the first act) I highly recommend giving this one a watch!

7/10 B

Dolly Patton’s Christmas On The Square and Jiu Jitsu (2020)

An embittered “Scrooge” of a woman plans to sell her small town, regardless of the consequences to the people who live there.

Dolly Patton’s Christmas On The Square is basically A Christmas Carol but Dolly Parton thrown in and I honestly don’t mind that at all. This movie might not be anywhere near good, but there is seriously a lot to like about this movie. Some of the songs are quite great and surprisingly have some emotion to them which I really did not expect. Christine Baranski is actually not too bad in her role, the same can be said with Dolly Parton. Every single time Parton comes on screen you can’t help but smile, with that said yes the writing is super cheesy and a lot of the acting is not very good. But I just couldn’t help but have a lot of fun with this movie, it’s definitely one of the Netflix Christmas Original movies that could keep my interest, knows what it’s goal is and at least embraces what it really is. A severally flawed but a blast of fun musical!

6/10 C+

Every six years, an ancient order of jiu-jitsu fighters joins forces to battle a vicious race of alien invaders. But when a celebrated war hero goes down in defeat, the fate of the planet and mankind hangs in the balance.

Jiu Jitsu runs into so many problems it’s not even funny, I was hoping this would be one of those it’s “so bad it’s hilarious” type films. Unfortunately that is not the case, Nicholas Cage doesn’t even appear until halfway into the film. Plus there aren’t any memorable Nicholas Cage moments in this movie, leaving it as a terrible action movie that falls apart very quickly. The acting and writing are both garbage, the costumes feel like they are straight out of Power Rangers. Nicholas Cage is hands down the best part about but he can’t even save it, Frank Grillo is just sort of there and it’s easily his worst performance in awhile. Overall there really isn’t much to Jiu Jitsu it completely misses the opportunity to be absolutely stupid and fun.

1/10 F

Primal and Let It Snow Movie Reviews

A big-game hunter for zoos has booked passage on a Latin American shipping freighter with a fresh haul of exotic and deadly animals from the Amazon, including a rare white Jaguar – along with a political assassin being extradited to the U.S in secret. Two days into the journey, the assassin escapes and releases the captive animals, throwing the ship into chaos. Let’s be honest here did anyone expect this to be good? The good thing about this movie is it’s hilariously bad, there are some scenes that are absolutely ridiculous that you can’t help but laugh Nicholas Cage delivers some hilarious moments, but at the same time there were some huge missed opportunities with this movie. There could have been more jokes with the animals….speaking of animals let’s talk about the CGI Jaguar…..it’s unbelievable how bad it really is, like it was so bad I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! It felt like someone watched a marathon of garbage straight to DVD movies and decided to put it in. Besides that this movie really doesn’t have anything else that’s worth laughing about, the acting and writing are terrible. The direction is horrendous and it’s not very memorable outside of a few scenes and CGI Jaguar.
1/10 F

In a small town on Christmas Eve, a snowstorm brings together a group of young people. At least it’s better than Holiday in the Wild? I honestly don’t have much to say about this movie, it’s a very below average romantic comedy that has nothing new to offer. The acting is the highlight of this movie, mostly due to a very solid cast and everyone tries their best they can with what they are given. But the story has been done to death numerous times that in the end it just doesn’t matter at all…
4/10 D+