Nicolas Cage was instrumental in ensuring his new film Willy’s Wonderland was full of his favourite animals. Willy’s Wonderlandstars Nicolas Cage as a man known as The Janitor, a drifter who is offered a cleaning gig at an abandoned family pizza joint in exchange for a new car tire. By now, Cage is such a master of his style that his viewers know he’s speaking to them and to their expectations of him, even when he doesn’t appear to be. The Governor hooks Hero up with a bodysuit rigged with explosives set to blow if he mishandles Bernice, if he tries to take the suit off, or if he fails the task. There’s a mechanical logic to his movements, which, if you’re into Reddit speculation, hints at who or what he’s supposed to be playing.

Nicolas Cage wanted his new horror film changed so it had Nicolas Cage wanted his new horror film changed so it had

Cage is a conscious actor, but he’s never self-conscious — he builds his performances on a foundation of deliberate choices, even if those choices come across as outlandish at first blush. Cage’s performances in Wonderland and Ghostland read like the product of a movie star in terms of personality and charisma. Drew Barrymore Breaks Down In Tears For The 2nd Time This Week On 'Drew Barrymore Show' — And It's Only Wednesday!Mandy is the culmination of a latter-day career renaissance that began with Brian Taylor’s 2017 movie Mom and Dad, where Cage smashes a pool table with a sledgehammer while singing “Hokey Pokey. The parody versions of the songs here are pretty funny, as is Cage’s solemn devotion to his job, down to his insistence that he takes a pinball game break at intervals throughout the film. In Pig, he comes off as a thespian, a real actor, one devoted to his craft and the pursuit of greater truths through fiction. It’s also a blip on Prisoners of the Ghostland’s radar, the moment that makes the movie a must-watch, even though it doesn’t exactly justify the rest of the story.

Willy’s Wonderland review – Nicolas Cage cleans up in gory

When he arrives at Willy’s Wonderland, The Janitor learns that the restaurant is overrun by a group of animatronic characters possessed by the souls of serial killers who committed suicide in a Satanic ritual many years ago. The Janitor tears each of them apart one by one and piece by piece, with zero explanation given to his apparent super-strength and super-endurance. It’s the effect of the relationship Cage has fostered with the camera and with moviegoers for years, from Raising Arizona to Vampire’s Kiss, from Mom and Dad to Mandy to Color Out of Space, from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to now. When he addresses Derek, he stares just beyond the cinematographer’s lens as if he’s talking past Derek to us, because we have just as much need to hear what Rob has to say about integrity and self-worth. There will be sniggering once word gets out about this ridiculous horror film featuring a former kids’ birthday venue/game arcade occupied by evil, life-size animatronic puppets.John Stamos Snapped At Elizabeth Taylor While Filming 'General Hospital': "Get That Old Lady Out Of My Eye Line! Cage chooses his moments wisely, stretching out his enunciation of “testicle” from three syllables to what feels like a whole sentence, crescendoing in a shriek: “Test-ih-cuuuull! There’s also something weirdly satisfying about watching him clean the grime off the restaurant, like one of those reality-TV shows in which middle-aged ladies with rubber gloves scrub the homes of hoarders, but with added demons. Willy’s Wonderland suffers from an overabundance of exposition, and a cast of supporting characters written into the movie just to get dead, as curious teens always do in schlock horror. If Prisoners of the Ghostlands is a reminder of what he can do with actual lines, Willy’s Wonderland is an object lesson in the great toolbelt of acting flourishes he carries with him.

to Watch ‘Willy’s Wonderland’ - Decider Where to Watch ‘Willy’s Wonderland’ - Decider

Attention has now turned to Willy’s Wonderland, a 2021 movie starring Nic as The Janitor, who is pitted against animatronic animals during a wild night of survival. The moment contrasts nicely with Cage’s best work in Mandy, a solo scene where he fixates on and rages at the camera, screaming like a man gone mad. As a silent stranger stranded in a made-up dump in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada, Cage, aka “the Janitor,” goes toe-to-toe with bloodthirsty animatronic beasts in a family entertainment center-cum-abbatoir, once shut down on account of a rash of child murders, and now in the midst of an ill-advised renovation by macho entrepreneur Tex Macadoo (Ric Reitz). Across the 2010s, there were a number of films in which the 57-year-old Academy Award-winner embraced his singular larger-than-life acting style, elevating his approach to new heights.

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