Rent Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

Weird & Awful - Prisoners of the Ghostland review by GI

The director, Sion Sono, names Wild At Heart (1990) as a key influence for this weird post apocalyptic fantasy and East/West hybrid film. I'm guessing that's all about Nicolas Cage because I saw nothing in in this that remotely made me think of David Lynch's film. This is more a daft Escape From New York (1981) and Mad Max series rip off and frankly it's all style, and little of that, over substance. Cage is a criminal in this strange land of samurai warriors and cowboys. He's nameless to give him an extra moody edge, as if he needs it! He's released from jail by the corrupt leader of 'Samurai Town' who fits him into a leather suit primed to explode in five days unless he returns from Ghostland with a missing woman (Sofia Boutella). So off he trots to get her. This cues over rehearsed fight scenes, some blood fountains, some disfigured crazies, Cage can even keep Kung Fu up just after blowing one of his own testicles off and pretty dull it all is too. It's certainly colourful and follows a typical and predictable B movie story arc that drags a good twenty minutes too long. One of Cage's throwaways.

A really mixed bag for me. Not great by any means, but definitely engaging with Cage on crazy form - Prisoners of the Ghostland review by TB

The best thing I can say about this film is that is has a very large number of genuinely inspired visual flourishes. The cinematography and colour palette, alongside other zany moments, really give the film a shot in the arm and keep the momentum going.

As much as I wanted this film to be more, sadly the rest of it is extremely schlocky. The world the film creates is very uneven, with random and not always good choices. It also, for all its good points, does sometimes get lost and stretch the patience. But this is a solid 3 star film.

Finally, this film contains another memorable Cage performance, part freak-out, part profound, part crazy. But again, he is never anything less than committed, never winking at the audience or coasting through. We are very lucky to have Cage as an actor working today, and I'll always be grateful that he takes the chances that he does, even if not all of his attempts pay off

Prisoners of the Ghostland by VE - Prisoners of the Ghostland review by VE

What a load of rubbish it didn’t really qualify a 1 star.  Such a ridiculous plot and who in their right mind thought it would be worth turning into a film to watch! 

Rubbish - Prisoners of the Ghostland review by PM

Waste of time to watch, waste of energy to put that into a DVD, even waste of information of every bit of it.

Perfect to torture anybody who already saw more than one movie.

Watch and wonder - Prisoners of the Ghostland review by Alphaville

Sion Sono’s first English-language film is even more unclassifiable than his previous work. With explosives attached to his privates, gangster Nick Cage sets off on his push-bike to rescue a woman from the land of no escape. Not that the plot matters as it barely hangs together from one scene to the next. What matters is the epic scale, surreal visuals and wild confrontations. For example, one monumental set has hordes of people trying to stop the hands moving on a giant clock to stop the universe exploding. You’ll either give up on it all after a few minutes or sit open-mouthed in wonderment. The final guns and swords climax, played out to a dramatic orchestral score, is a tour de force of operatic grandeur. It’s a divisive film not without many faults, but a Sion Sono movie is always an event worth catching.