Willy's Wonderland (2021) Was there ever a career trajectory stranger than Nicolas Cage's?
Decades from now, when someone gets around to producing a "The Films Of Nicolas Cage" coffee table book, it might require a steel reinforced coffee table to support it.
At the rate he's going, his filmography could hit close to a 1000 titles.
It feels like a several centuries ago when Cage won a Best Actor Oscar and used to front big budget tentpoles like "The Rock" and the "National Treasure" movies.
Now he's the insanely prolific, reigning King Of Krazy Kult Krapola, a one man 42nd Street Grindhouse, cranking out a never ending stream of direct-to-video ultra low-budget demented, out of control thrillers and horror films.
With each of these films, you enjoy the added attraction of watching Cage performances more unhinged than the movies that surround them.
And he's never looked back. By the time we're done writing this post, you might find 2 or 3 more Cage movies hitting the Wal-Mart shelves.
But who are we kidding? We dove into the deep, dark and dank sludge pools of his previous mini-epics "Mandy" and "The Colour Out Of Space" with the same abandon that Cage did himself. We guilty-pleasured ourselves into near orgasmic heights by watching them.
(Which we think is the whole reason he makes these movies......we'd like to believe he's at least having as fun as we are....)
But we digress. Now let us heap unadulterated praise on "Willy's Wonderland", which possibly may stand as the penultimate Cage-fest. It features the relentless Cage-inator as a non-speaking cool cat billed as "the janitor" who does mighty and gory battle with demonically possessed animatronic puppets.
These jumbo creatures were star attractions at an extra cheesy 'Chuck-E-Cheese'-like kids' birthday party playground-restaurant.....operated by serial killers who offed themselves so they could live inside the puppets......
Do we really need to explain anything further?
Blood flows freely, as well as quarts of oil from the creepy puppets foolish enough to engage the CageMeister in mortal combat.
As an added attraction, stupid teenagers left over from some 80's slasher movie also invade the Wonderland, so the puppets can properly eviscerate them.......(and you guessed it, especially two of the horny ones who get ripped to shreds in mid-boink. Poor shmucks probably never saw a "Friday The 13th" or "Halloween" movie......)
Perhaps the funniest and most apt metaphor in the movie is Cage's single-minded devotion to the job he's given as the overnight cleaner of Willy's Wonderland. In between his punching, pounding and disemboweling of the puppets, he goes right back on the job, mopping the gore off the floors, patching himself up with duct tape and chug-a-luggin' can after can of energy soft drink.
It's a perfect symbol of the Nicolas Cage career......he's our very own, blood soaked Energizer Bunny, wipin' the slime off himself and marching on and on, through film after film.
We're not sure if that's either sad or hilarious. Maybe both at the same time.
We do know that as a longtime lover of nutso outlaw cinema, "Willy's Wonderland" is a kick and half to watch.......for better or worse, Nic's the Master Of His Own disasters......and nobody does it better. 3 stars (***)
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