Bullet Points: Willy’s Wonderland (2021)
Nicolas Cage is full of surprises. He seems to choose his films based on the same principles that made Mad Libs fun when you’re 13. While it probably makes life harder for his agent it sure does make my job more fun by watching whatever cockamamie script he decides to take on next. Willy’s Wonderland is the type that I’m sure most will either love or hate. Let’s just see which side I end up on.
Synopsis: A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy’s Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash — and only one side will make it out alive.
- Drive it like you stole it: The film starts with Cage’s character driving his sweet Camaro like an absolute madman. He whips that thing around the backroads without a care in the world until he runs over a spike strip and blows his tires out. A tow truck driver shows up and does the usual bit where he charges him an arm and a leg for any of the repairs. It’s all a little fishy, of course, and our first opportunity to meet some of the characters in this small town.
- Small town courtesy: Speaking of the tow truck driver, he makes a deal with Cage since he didn’t have enough cash for the repairs and we’re off to our main location for the film. They meet Tex (Ric Reitz) at the local kids fun place Willy’s Wonderland and Cage learns that all he has to do to clear his debt for the car repairs is to stay the night and clean the place. Also very fishy, of course, and either Cage doesn’t see it or he just doesn’t care enough to question it. We also start to notice that Cage’s character doesn’t have a name or say a damned word the entire time. What have we gotten ourselves into?
- Break time: I would kill for a Punch Pop right now! Cage’s janitor character takes breaks throughout the film just long enough to crush a Punch Pop, play some pinball in a machine he cleaned up, and do a little dancing that only Nic Cage would look cool doing. It’s pretty hilarious at times when his alarm goes off on his watch and he stops what he’s doing and heads to the fridge to crack one open.
- Cleaning and killing: You can say what you want about how shady this whole situation is to have him in there cleaning for a $1000 bill but Cage cleans the shit out of that place! You can tell by how filthy the place was that not many of the other folks brought in did much cleaning. His time is well spent with a spray bottle or when he bashing in the heads of the animatronic monsters.
- Cannon fodder: Emily Tosta’s Liv is introduced to us early in the as a young woman intent on destroying Willy’s Wonderland. She knows what is going on there and it isn’t long before she interjects herself further into the story by getting locked in with Cage. Her group of friends also join her and it isn’t long before we get to witness just what it looks like when a big animatronic alligator starts eating bitches.
- Willy and his friends: At some point we were bound to hear about what the hell was going on with this place that that is the perfect job for Liv. Besides being one very attractive specimen, she also survived an earlier ordeal at the funhouse after her parents were killed by Willy and his psychos. She knows what is up and is determined to shut this place down once and for all. It seems that the history behind Willy’s involves some serial killers, a satanic ritual, and something that could best be described as a Chucky-doll situation where all their miserable souls went into the robots.
- Free Bird: A huge portion of the film is Cage cleaning the place, then murdering the animatronics with his bare hands, and then re-cleaning the mess he just made. There are several great bits in the movie which I loved. He always puts on a clean shirt after a fresh kill, he can’t get enough of his favorite beverage, and no matter what happens he still ain’t saying a word of dialogue! If you are interested in the concept behind the film and you’re still reading this then you can expect pretty much exactly what you think from the poster/trailer. It’s Nic Cage acting weird, killing robot ostriches, and slammin’ energy drinks all night long. Oh yeah, we also get the second best usage of Free Bird in a film that I can remember.
The Verdict: Nicolas Cage strikes again with his penchant for taking on roles and performances that many of his pedigree would scoff at. Willy’s Wonderland is definitely an odd film and I’m told that it is very similar to the game Fight Nights at Freddy’s without actually being connected to it. To me, it’s just a very deadly version of Chuck E Cheese and that in itself is very entertaining. Cage’s performance is perfect as he doesn’t say a single word throughout the film while still bringing that same kinetic crazy that we’ve gotten used to over the last couple of decades. He makes an energy drink an important character in the film and does enough where I would pay to see this Cage creation go against other monstrous beings all over the world. It’s different from anything else you could watch tonight and if you normally get a kick out of Cage’s wild new normal then I think you need to pay a visit to Willy’s Wonderland.
