Monkey Man (2024)

This is a more in depth review. The trailers made this film look like the Bollywood John Wick. I think that this film is Bollywood John Wick but that isn’t a bad thing. The plot sees Dev Patel plays Kid who loses his mother who is killed by an army guy who wants to turn the land that Kid and his mother are on into some holy ground which is basically a scam as its really more of a cult. 

The film sees Kid take part in fights wearing a monkey mask. The thing that works for John Wick are th fight scenes and this film manages the fight scenes really well. I would say that the fight scenes are on par with what i saw in ‘The Iron Claw’. I also like that Kid isn’t the perfect fighter from the very beginning, he starts off ok but as the film progresses his skills get better and he becomes a better fighter so come the final scene you feel he’s earned the right to be that good. It’s good character development which a lot of characters in movies don’t seem to go through. 

This is a classic example of Army of One where its Kid against the people responsible for his mother’s death. I don’t think that Kid says that much in the film but then he doesnt need to. His fighting does the talking and Patel is believable as a tough guy. I hadn’t seen Patel in a film since ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ and that is a very different performance but shows that he can do very different characters very well. 

The film isn’t perfect and one problem there is with the film is perhaps the most important. The shaky cam shots are distracting and there was at least two instances where it was shaking so much that I actually could see what was going on. Shaky cam has its purpose but if you can’t see what’s going on then how are you suppose to be emotionally connected with what’s happening. Another issue that the close ups are bad. Literally the first shot of the film is of Kid’s mother and all we see are her eyes, nose and face. It was too close and there more instances where the camera work let the film down. I’m not sure whether this was because they didn’t have time to set things up better or whether they chose to do it like this but i think this was definitely in the minus column. 

Monkey Man is a good film that’s only let down by technical issues. I think the performances are all really good and it clear from start to finish that Dev Patel cares about the film and also about the story. Hopefully he continues to direct because I think that he has a good eye for this sort of thing. He just needs to control the shaky cam shots and learn that cameras have zooms on them.

Civil War (2024)

Civil War is set in the near future where the U.S is at war with itself and some of the states have seceded from the union. Kirsten Dunst plays Lee who is a war photographer who along with Joel (Wagner Moura), Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) try to go to the White House to interview the President and that’s the plot with the characters encountering people along the way. 

I like these type of stories. I’m not sure when they are done well then they work really well and you end up feeling like you know these characters which is a really weird thing to write but bearing in mind connecting with characters is part of the point of films, it perhaps shouldn’t feel weird writing it. There is something weary about Lee as she feels like she has seen too much of it and almost looks at Jessie with envy and jealousy at the same time. I always get distracted when Wagner Moura is on screen because when I see him he reminds me of Narcos when he played Pablo Escobar (brilliantly I might add) but that’s not really his fault and Joel is perhaps the nice character that Lee needs in her life. Cailee Spaeny does well with what is a rather flat character. I think she has her moments but I always found the dynamic between Lee and Joel to be more interesting even though there was a passing of the torch thing going on with Lee and Jessie. Stephen McKinley Henderson is as dependable as ever and his death scene was sad to watch. It did seem like mobility was an issue as all his scenes involved him sitting down or standing still.

Jesse Plemons did steal the show even though he was only in it for about 10 minutes. He’s such a good actor that he only needs 10 minutes to show how good he is. That scene was probably the best in the movie and was by far the most dramatic and tense. According to trivia I have read, Plemons’ involvement was last minute as another actually had to pull out and being married to Dunst meant that he was able to jump in at the last minute and deliver a film stealing performance.

The final 10-15 minutes let this film down badly. It feels extremely rushed and when Lee is killed, there is zero time given for her death. We have just spent over an hour with her and got to know what she is like and dare I say it, care for her and yet she is treated like she is a background extra who doesnt matter to the story. 

Also the showdown with the President is thrown away like it didn’t matter even though it's the motivation for the entire movie. I usually over play what the scene might be like in my head but there can’t be anyone who thought that this was how the final scene was going to end. It felt like a waste of time.

Despite Alex Garland not sure how he was going to end his own film. I still enjoy everything up until the White House stuff. I thought that the film was tense and despite it being essentially a road trip movie, the characters all feel genuine and the whole feel of the film feels real especially with the chaos the world seems to be in at the moment. I think that Civil War is definitely worth seeing but don’t go in with hopes of a satisfying resolution.