what's going on everybody and welcome back to my channel movie files elliott back again with
a brand new movie review starring nicholas cage in a western action film by the name of prisoners of
the ghost land which actually premiered earlier this year at sundance got a chance to recently
check it out i'm really excited to share my thoughts with you all and let you know if it's
worth checking out either in theaters or on vod this friday september 17th all in this boiler
free review but before we break it all down do me a favor and check me out on all my other social
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if you all enjoyed this spoiler-free review well make sure to like and share the review it helps
out the channel a lot but i also appreciate the support and in those comments for all my nicholas
cage fans out there let's talk about this new film let me know if you're excited for it but
more importantly once you've seen this crazy ass movie we gotta talk about it let me know
your thoughts on the performances the story the direction the allegories the themes the pros the
cons everything in between and more importantly what's your favorite nicholas cage film let me
know that in the comments let's discuss it in the comment section so going into this film
i had heard out of sundance this year a lot of my friends had seen it said this is nick cage at
its finest in regards to diving more into like the mandy type of performances versus like the
pig performance was like a nuanced performance but like the bonkers crazy banana [ __ ] crazy type of
nick cage stuff this is for you so i was excited for i like nicolas cage a lot sophia boutella
she is like a a star in rise i've been saying that for years whether it was in the kingsman
star trek beyond atomic blonde i just feel like she's right there but just hasn't
the mummy kind of pushed her down a little bit nonetheless i was excited to see her
and excited to see what samurais and westerns and action and nick cage looks like so here
we are starting off with my positives first and foremost this was a personal goal of mine
to see every nicholas cage film that released in 2021 and ladies and gentlemen i did it i have
accomplished the trifecta willie's wonderland pig and now this and and i can say this about
nicholas cage and i've been this is this his whole career he's been doing this but this man
i don't think he can say no i don't think he can say no to any script i think if you said there's
a script about how to make bread and how bread were made by aliens and the aliens were made by
you know teletubbies and the teletubbies were created by coins then you know nicholas cage
will play into that script because he just wants to flex that acting muscle he wants to
shoot in the gym as an athlete would he wants to go on the field in one track he just wants to make
movies regardless of if it has a logical script or not so nicholas cage how do i describe this
film he plays our main character by the name of the hero and our hero goes on a hero's journey
because he has a tragic past and he's given this task by the governor of this samurai town to find
his daughter who's lost her ways and has went to this supernatural universe called the ghost land
so we're seeing him on this journey to discover sophia busella's character and on his journey
he's given choices he's given decisions that he has to make he has to interact with the
the rat man he has these things on his body where if he doesn't go through the mission he can
explode at any minute so just imagine how nicholas cage plays into that and him interacting with
different characters like the ghost town prisoners and and and the way that their methods are their
ways and him trying to discover himself within the methods of ways and that's one thing i do
take away from this film too is this there is an interesting story about imprisonment
and how our characters have to break out of their imprisonment and free themselves
and watch nicholas cage attempting to free his tragic past with something to see ladies
and gentlemen if you are a nicholas cage fan i mean a die hard nicholas cage fan you will
enjoy his performance as a hero i thought he was pretty solid but he didn't steal the show for me
those two characters or those performances to me that really kept me engaged number one i mentioned
sophia boutella i think that she is just she's fantastic man every time i see her i just feel
like she's just just right there to just blow up but for some reason man i don't know if it's her
or if it's just like she's just doing what she wants to do and really doesn't push the
envelope to you know be more in the forefront but you know kingsman and star track and
the film climax and just i can go on about just atomic blonde she's just so great and she's really
solid in this film like she doesn't literally have much to say in the first half of this movie
dives into her imprisonment her being the granddaughter of the governor and her just being
trapped and being not being able to be free i thought that her performance is really solid and
especially when we get to third act which involves a little bit more action she was fantastic
but i have to say her governor her grandfather her adopted grandfather played by bills mosley
who's an icon within himself and plays definitely into the campiness of all the films he's been in
especially this one he was great man he said some of the funniest stuff he had some of the funniest
lines him and nick cage were going bar for bar as far as in the joke department unintentional
jokes by the way which we'll talk about that in my criticism but i thought he was great the
psycho played by nick casavelli's he was a very interesting character there is a movie that's just
literally just popped in my head that i saw when i was a kid i can't remember the name of him i'm
gonna put on the screen now if i if i can remember it but he played a character that was like a jock
and it was charlie sheen and it was like a car that had like these powers and it was just a weird
wacky film and he channels that energy and puts it in this role as a psycho who is just literally a
cycle in this film so i got to say man regardless of what i'm going to say here in a couple seconds
of my criticisms the actors did the best they could now get into my criticism with this movie i
am one that appreciates craziness wackiness weirdness you don't even have to really be like
a straight up great story for me to be entertained i was entertained at points but i could not ignore
this terrible uncomprehensible story this story to me which again it sounds pretty straightforward
a guy's given a task to save a young girl and and seeing everything in between that
but it is very very slow paced and just there are scenes chunks of scenes that
just did not have to be in this movie this movie clocks in about an hour and 40 minutes
i literally thought you could have probably chopped off about 25 minutes of this film from the
dance sequences to the interaction of nick cage hero meeting the governor and just like that whole
situation going on just didn't really make that much sense to me and just the entire film doesn't
really make sense to me the ghost land and the origins and the lack of origin and this
completely unnecessary 20-minute exposition of how nick cage became the the hero before
the hero and his relationship with the psycho and a robbery that takes place which just felt
completely misplaced in the film and there's a lot of moments in this movie where it's just like why
do we need that who the hell is the rat man how did we get to this point in the film is again i
can appreciate wackiness i think of mandy which by the way is a it's not a bad script at all i
really enjoyed the story of manny but you can even mute that movie and visually it takes you
on this journey and this film i know the director who i've never seen his work before but i've for
my research he's a very pronoun really proclaimed type of director who has a visual style and and
that style to me was kind of lacking i didn't find anything visually impressive about the film
it felt very muted at points and just uh the the costuming the the getting the pacing the direction
was really a lacking point for me i know and i don't mean to speak ill as directors i know he
comes with a lot of cliche and people love his his style but i just i wasn't a fan of the style and
i really wasn't a fan of the script and just the unnecessariness of this story which made no sense
and went went absolutely nowhere i will apply the third act because at least there's action
but up until that point man this film was a slog fest for me personally and it took me
multiple times to say let's just shoot through it you love nick cage maybe he's going to do
this and he gets wacky listen the case gets wacky in this film but it's just it's just
boggled down by this really uninteresting story so before i give you my overall thoughts and let
you know it's worth checking out before we do that make sure to like share comment your
thoughts in the comments subscribe to the channel if you haven't already hit that bell that way you
don't miss any other content listen at the end of the day ladies and gentlemen prisoners of
the ghost land was nick cage doing his nick cage thing sophia botella's always fantastic and the
supporting cast did the best they could i can't blame the actors unfortunately the story was just
not for me this film was just not for me and i and i'm someone that likes unique and bonkers
batshit crazy stories but it's a story man that just was just very boring on interesting i found
myself to be very kind of disappointed because i was expecting some really crazy visuals and
fights and just quackiness and and it tried to do that but it just didn't stick the landing for me
so with all that being said i'm gonna give this film prisoners of the ghostland a two out of five
and take that score as you will take my review as you will it will be available in theaters
this friday as well as on vod if it was me i don't want to tell you how to spend your time or money
but if you must see this film because you have to see every nic cage fam film and you want to
do the trifecta like i did maybe watch it on vod but i don't think this is a theater worthy
type of film that's just my opinion i will say as far as films this year as far as rankings
pig is a fantastic film i won't be surprised if pig ends up on one of my favorite films this year
but that that performance that movie is way more superior no disrespect to these next two films but
i go pig wally and then this film this is this was not for me but that's just my thoughts
ladies and gentlemen let me know what you all thought of this film once you got a chance to
check it out what were your pros your cons your thoughts on the story the allegories the themes
your favorite parts your least favorite parts let's talk about it and also let me know your
favorite nicholas cage film in the comments below if you stuck around to this point in the
video i appreciate you all make sure before you leave to like share comment subscribe
to the channel if you haven't already hit that bell that way you don't miss any other content
hope you enjoyed this review hope you're staying safe we'll see you in the next video