Film Review: PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (2021): Nicolas Cage Returns to Obscurity in Bizarre New Film

Prisoners of the Ghostland Review

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Sion Sono and starring Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Nick Cassavetes, Bill Moseley, Tak Sakaguchi, Young Dais, Charles Glover, Tetsu Watanabe, Takato Yonemoto, Shin Shimizu, Matthew Chozick, Yuzuka Nakaya, Hiroshi Kaname and Canon Nawata.

When Nicolas Cage gave one of his best performances earlier this year in Pig, many people thought he could earn another Oscar nomination for it. He may get the nod for that film but if he gets any recognition for his new film, Prisoners of the Ghostland, it will likely be from the Razzie awards rather than the Oscars. That’s because Japanese director Sion Sono’s film is, in a word, absurd. That’s not to say there isn’t an audience for the new action picture, it’s just that this science fiction picture will appeal to a very limited audience and that’s a shame because there’s a lot of ingenuity in some of the scenes in Cage’s new mess of a movie.

Set in a place called Samurai Town, Cage stars as a character referred to in the credits as “Hero.” The film opens with a flashback to a bank robbery that Cage’s central character was participating in. As the story line moves into motion, he’s enlisted by the seemingly evil character in a white hat known as The Governor (Bill Moseley) to find his missing granddaughter Bernice (Sofia Boutella). The Governor puts our hero in a black suit that will self destruct if he tries to escape or if he fails to carry out the mission successfully. The big obscurity with the suit is that he has a trap on each one of his testicles as well as other less private body parts.

When our “hero” does locate Bernice, the on screen chemistry between Boutella and Cage’s characters seems to be off a bit thus causing some awkward scenes to occur. Of course, these characters are not meant to like each other right away if at all. Both of these performers seem to be meeting for the first time in their sequences together and the relationship between their characters falls flat as a result. They’re better in their individual scenes than as a screen pairing.

The film is full of unusual characters and situations. The most unique one is the wild screaming sister of Bernice (Yuzuka Nakaya) who seems to be a “good guy” despite her extreme quirkiness and the fact that she is really annoying to watch. Another oddball character featured is a bodyguard/samurai warrior known as Yasujiro played by Tak Sakaguchi who doesn’t know if he’s taking sides with the good guys or the bad guys. There is also a scenario with characters trying to stop time and a constant motif of a kid known as Gumball Boy (Hiroshi Kaname) who was there when Cage’s hero robbed the bank and constantly haunts him. Then there is the matter of when our hero actually does lose one of his testicles. It all plays a lot less interestingly than it sounds.

There is some plentiful sword action in Prisoners of the Ghostland and a predictably offbeat Cage performance as well. Cage does what we’ve come to expect from him and gives this zany character a very distinct personality. It’s an improvement over Cage’s turn in Willy’s Wonderland earlier this year but that’s not saying much.

Director Sono is making his English language debut here and has a lot of fans from his older Japanese films who may appreciate the wild humor and quirky action scenes in his new picture. All the characters in the film are unpredictable and we’re never quite sure what will happen next. But, the movie goes off the deep end in some scenes and the plot of the film doesn’t gel and hook the viewer like it should.

The main problem with Prisoners of the Ghostland is that not a single character in it really makes the audience want to root for them. If the world blew up and all the characters suddenly disappeared, I wouldn’t have minded and that’s a no-no in an American action picture. We want to either love or hate our characters and stick with them every step of the way and although many of the characters in the film are frustrating to watch, we don’t love them or hate them enough to care about what happens to them.

With that said, if you like Cage’s less distinguished films and his eccentric B movie performances, you may enjoy Prisoners of the Ghostland. Mainstream audiences are going to want more than what this film offers in terms of relatable characters and coherent action sequences. Cage is always intriguing, though, and it will be interesting to see what others think of this new foray into wild, uncharted territory.

Rating: 5/10

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