#'view

oh and I don’t know if this should be a proper ‘view or maybe impressions -- I am still trying to wrap my head around Mandy.

I was not familiar with Panos Cosmatos before this movie -- but he is definitely a director that I am going to be watching with great interest.  There is so much that is absolutely amazing about this movie, drenched in psychedelic style

(no seriously, there is a point where the cult leader, Linus Roache who is totally channel Richard Lynch from Bad Dreams as I read somewhere on the internet, is making a grand speech, his face is melting, Mandy’s face is melting, his freak folk music is playing and I felt like I was having an acid flashback)

This movie has the unfortunate reputation of being the Nicholas Cage movie where he goes just totally out there, but surprisingly I felt that he was mostly subdued, he internalized most of the performance and it was astounding -- there were a few moments where he unleashed in Nicholas Cage-isms, but he was a silent force of rage and mourning for the most part.

This is a character actor movie -- all the cult faces are familiar but you can’t place them,  Panos Cosmatos has a great eye for casting.  Bill Duke is in but he looks so old, the fire has gone out and it makes me sad.  Richard Brake as the acid cook is wonderful -- that is the standout scene for me, I don’t even think that Nicholas Cage says a word in that scene but it is so powerful.  I love Richard Brake though -- he has become my go-to character actor (usually a slimy piece of shit or killer -- he was the scuzzy guy in Doom which I watched the other night and his performance captivated me, he just steals the scene when he appears).

Music is a big part of this -- Johann Johannson did the soundtrack, his last piece before he died, it’s basically throbbing drone doom metal -- Sunn O)))) did most of the heavy lifting.  The opening credits are a great King Crimson song that made me want to find the album - “Starless” is the track - great stuff.  Oh and the freak folk song is backed up by Mamiffer (Faith Coloccia) which means that I am totally there.

You might have noticed I am not talking about the plot - basic religious cult sacrifice and the guy is out for revenge -- deformed acid casualty bikers as the mid-bosses --- it is all dreamlike.  I really need to watch it again to wrap my head around it -- I keep saying that.  

This movie shouldn’t work.

It has about the plot of five movies shoved into one -- varying tone bouncing back and forth from laugh out loud to insane gore to intense action, all edited together with the subtle hand of a weed eater, chopping up entire scenes, placing obvious reshoots on top of stuff -- it is one of those movies that I can’t wait for the inevitable behind the scenes drama to spill out into the public domain so we can all think about the movie that this one might be.

Yet somehow it works.

If anything it reminds me of Gilliam’s Brothers Grimm which was notoriously messed with but somehow ended up being an enjoyable flick, perhaps because of the flaws instead of the strengths.  Yes, I know that is a contrary way to look at it but here we are.

I don’t know what Shane Black was initially trying for - I think a dark gory comedy with some great action beats and perfect one-liners -- he succeeded on that front but he also seemed to have to shoe horn that into a standard Predator movie.  

Who doesn’t want to see Jason Statham take on a prehistoric shark? I was into this movie before I even knew this movie existed.  This is Jason Statham we are talking about -- he is only capable of playing Jason Statham and that is a strength.  The man has weaponized five o’clock shadow.  The fact that him and the Rock will be in a Fast & Furious spin-off movie means that the entire quota of the next decade of quips, one liners, and intentional groaners coupled with a shower scene and a shirtless muscle stretch will be taken up.  Pack it up guys, we are done.

But about the Meg -- it is a PG-13, American-Chinese production about a giant CG prehistoric shark that Jason Statham has to stop or the cool folks you have spent the movie with are going to die.  I have to give it to the Meg, they do a good job creating characters and dialogue -- it is two dimensional at the most but it’s better than the nameless people that usually run around these movies.  

The jump scares are executed perfectly.  If anything, the Meg is all about execution -- it does what it sets out to do, edited down to perfection where the entire movie is a well honed machine.  That might sound like a backhanded compliment (and for a lot of movies it might) but the Meg works.  Its fun, stupid, good jokes, real scares, some intense stuff.  

I described it as Cliffhanger with a Prehistoric Shark (and underwater) and I stand by that -- Cliffhanger was a damn good flick, better than a 90s Stallone movie about mountain climbing and John Lithgow stealing money or something...I don’t know.  Instead of John Lithgow we got CG giant shark and scares and underwater stuffs.

Poke holes if you need to. The entire premise was thin at best but they make it work - nice level of escalation, convenient but it’s a PG-13 Jason Stathan fighting at prehistoric shark.

I loved it -- best Jason Statham movie I’ve seen in a bit.