Willy's Wonderland

I saw the trailer, so I could guess what I was getting into: a film with a silent Nicolas Cage fighting against bloodthirsty animatronic puppets. You can’t expect anything sophisticated from a movie like this, but I still looked forward, I even believed I would be able to appreciate this nonsense if it was refreshing, had swagger, pace, gore, and humour. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Willy's Wonderland it’s utterly unable to exploit its insane premise in any way that would be attractive to the viewer. (13.02.2021)

Nicolas Cage's agent tells him: I have a movie for you. The script reads: you won't have to talk at all, you'll drink energy drinks, play pinball and rip the spines and heads off robot puppets like a Predator, you up? I’m in! An extremely controversial flick for a fringe audience, but those who are open to new possibilities, not conservative, and welcome something new to the genre at last may be surprised. The film is reminiscent of Five Nights at Freddy's, except lacking in jump-scares, but otherwise it's a fairly substantial splatter that spurts black blood-oil for most of its running time. Nicolas Cage has really found his feet in horror films and I believe a nod to a modern day Bruce Campbell is within his grasp! The fact that he doesn't speak is interesting and his facial expressions and gaze are perfectly adequate. The visuals are old-school, like from the 90s, the animatronics are cool, the music is a big draw this time, the gore is great, the teenagers are cool (can't get enough of the two girls), and there were some laughs (Cage's dancing is great). Abroad, either 10/10 or 1/10 reviews are flying around. For some people it's rubbish, for others it's a fun flick. I enjoyed it. Only at your own risk. The film is still misunderstood here, abroad satisfaction prevails. Story***, Action***, Humour***, Violence****, Fun****, Music*****, Visuals***, Atmosphere***, Suspense***. 7/10. (14.02.2021)

Nicolas is falling deeper and deeper into career shit, but he's not afraid of it, he goes for it and tries (unlike Willis and co.) and I'm actually enjoying it. Sure, it's not a good film by any stretch of the imagination, but the premise is really original and I wonder what a smarter and more suitable filmmaker, like Robert Rodriguez, would have done with it. On a side note, I consider Cage's deliberate silence here to be a poor creative decision by the director, I missed his witty wisecracks and inimitable intonation – no one can get verbally angry as wittily as Cage. But it fulfilled its purpose, Nicolas made some easy money, got his hands on a cache to partially pay off his old debts and that's what it's all about :o) (25.02.2021)

Just like this movie’s main character, Nicolas Cage himself seems to have stumbled into this project by mistake, however, since he was already there, he just kept his mouth shut and put in a great performance just so he could then put the whole thing behind him with clear conscience, once it was over. This parallel is probably the most amusing aspect I can come up with regarding cheap trash. The direction, writing, and especially editing are absolutely atrocious. Nick is basically the only thing that saves this movie and makes it watchable. (19.07.2021)

A silent Cage in a semi-amateur parody on pulp slasher books of the seventies. The bizarre-sounding premise is sufficiently robust (a shame it didn’t get into the hands of somebody with more talent) and even though the whole thing doesn’t make any sense at all, when the hero clubs the animatronic emu or weasel that the twisted child raper has turned into, you just won’t care anymore. The entertaining songs, illogical behavior from the killed kids’ and from Cage (pin-ball, energy drinks) are basically bonuses. P.S.: Make yourself a strong drink to watch with. (19.11.2021)