Monkey Man Movie Review
Nathan Swank
April 6th, 2024
Dev Patel’s directorial debut attempts to mix spiritual awakenings and religious morality with incredible vengeance-filled, violent action. Does it succeed? Mostly. But mostly because the violent action portion is wildly entertaining. To put it simply, MONKEY MAN needs less talky talky and more punchy punchy.
MONKEY MAN follows Kid (Dev Patel) who fights for money wearing a monkey mask in some seedy, anything goes style arena run by Tiger (Sharlto Copley). However, we soon learn that Kid has different motivations in life and that is to exact revenge on the corrupt religious leader and his wicked law enforcement who stole his home and murdered his mother.
MONKEY MAN is clearly influenced by the most recent top tier action films, JOHN WICK. Patel wisely gives credit by outright referencing John Wick by name. The first act moves quickly. It’s well-paced story telling as Kid cleverly, but over-eagerly infiltrates his enemy serving drinks to them at an exclusive, secret nightclub. Unfortunately, the second act comes to a halt as the audience is treated to flashbacks and recovery learning about others wronged. Kid must learn to be the foretold legend and fulfill his vengeance becoming the savior for many who have been torn from their homes and living on the outskirts of life.
The vengeance storyline and fighting your way through different levels of baddies is nothing groundbreaking. THE RAID, DREDD, or Bruce Lee’s GAME OF DEATH are genres worth repeating again and again. While not quite at those levels as a whole, MONKEY MAN definitely has moments that are some of the best ever seen on film. Groans and cheers were audible in our audience with extremely inventive and memorable hard-hitting action. I personally cringed and giggled at more than a couple of scenes. I recommend watching MONKEY MAN with others just to share those gruesome experiences.
The making of the film had a rough time getting started as Dev Patel began production during COVID time around four years ago. Delayed from a broken hand, but determined to push on, Patel faced other challenges from starting with Netflix before moving on to Universal Studios. But it was horror/thriller director Jordan Peele who swept in amidst the struggles. Credited as producer, it is unclear how much influence Peele had on the film. But MONKEY MAN appears a bit choppy in its storytelling. I’m assuming some heavy editing came into play, which I personally think could have been tightened even moreso in the two hour runtime. The film has some odd choices in direction and cinematography with far too many dreamy flashbacks, attempting a more artistic merit, which all seems like a new director trying things out. While I’m not educated on India’s political imbalance, Patel seems to be drawn and determined to make a statement about class warfare and the misuse of religion. Even if those emotional attempts are the less effective and flawed portions of the film, I appreciate Patel’s intentions.
MONKEY MAN has a great visual look as the camera follows each kick, punch, and head smashing through a toilet. My earlier statement about less talky is a little unfair since the film does not have a lot of dialogue. But the pacing halts when too much time is spent telling the story, even if it is visually. But credit to Patel, who gives a strong, action star, leading man performance. Ultimately, what works outweighs what doesn’t work. MONKEY MAN has some truly exquisite fight sequences, all of which are excruciatingly fun.
[fbcomments]
