Author Topic: Willy's Wonderland - Nick Cage crazy  (Read 447 times)

Offline perc2100

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Willy's Wonderland - Nick Cage crazy
« on: February 18, 2021, 12:20:20 PM »
Some movies you watch to maybe be more learned: stuff like ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, or TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 - movies that tell a historic story via dramatic interpretation.  Some films have interesting social commentary, like last year's Best Picture winner PARASITE. 

And then some films you watch for pure, goofy fun.

Enter Nicholas Cage's seemingly unique brand of crazy, WILLY'S WONDERLAND: a film about demonically possessed animatronic animal characters in a family restaurant that are out for sacrificial murder.  Yes, you read that (only slightly simplified) plot description right.

Cage plays a nameless character who's car gets a flat tire in a small TX town after driving over a stream of spikes that seem like a trap.  A tow trucker offers to fix the car for him provided Cage go to Willy's Wonderland (a Chuck E Cheese's type restaurant with video games and human-sized robotic animals on a stage that sing and entertain kids): a seemingly easy proposition if this wasn't a movie situation.  Fairly quickly Cage (named similar 'The Janitor') realizes something is up when one of the giant robot critters comes alive and attacks him.  Cage calmly dispatches the robot, puts the destroyed parts in a garbage bag out back, and then gets back to dusting, mopping, and cleaning up the restaurant.  Pretty quickly some "kids" (deemed kids by the local sheriff, really either old HS - mid-college aged young adults) show up to burn the establishment down and end the "curse."  Of course, their _real_ purpose is to convince the audience these robotic critters are vicious murderers, and the majority of the 'kids' are really just cannon fodder.

That's the gist of the plot, and there aren't any real twists or surprises to be had (not that that's a bad thing): if you've seen a horror movie before you likely know where all of this is going.  Of course, the fun ISN'T in an intricate narrative, or acting chops on display.  The actors are fine, with Beth Grant as the local town sheriff and Beth's step-daughter Live (Emily Tosta) who is the kid leading the charge to burn down Willy's Wonderland and end the violence once-and-for-all.  While there's not a ton here to "spoil," I'll save the details of the Willy's Wonderland curse for your own enjoyment; as the character do their exposition dump (via VoiceOver as we see their stories take place via flashback), I couldn't help but laugh a bit at the silliness of it all.  I had to take a moment to think "this established actress (Grant, who's been in Best Picture-winning films) is delivering this goofy story with a straight face, not cracking up, and with earnestness: not a trace of irony or silliness."  The gore is actually kept to a minimum, or at the very least it's nowhere near over-the-top as I would have expected for a film like this.

Cage is fun, as is typical of him at this stage of his career, and the rest of the acting is serviceable at worst, good-for-what-this-is at best; in fact, I'm 99.9% sure Cage doesn't speak one line of dialogue in the film.  The film takes its premise seriously and there isn't any cynicism or self-parody or meta-ness to be had here.  The effects are pretty good for what I assume is a pretty low budget,  The robotic critter effects are done well.  I wouldn't say they're too scary to super creepy, but admittedly it takes _A TON_ to creep me out so your mileage may vary here.  Like the acting, the effects are serviceable-to-good, though it's hard not to feel like Cage is fighting team mascots at times.  None of the acting or effects in any way diminish the film (for me at least), and everything works well in service of the film/story.

If the description above sounds interesting or fun to you, you'll mostly get what you expect and you'll probably know right off the bat you'll enjoy this one.  I had fun watching WILLY'S WONDERLAND, and it's a movie that would absolutely be a blast to see with friends: a film on my list of "post pandemic, this is one to watch with a living room full of movie buds to have some beer & just enjoy a crazy-fun horror film."

WILLY'S WONDERLAND is currently available as a VOD