Dev Patel brings his feature directorial debut with Monkey Man and although the trailer is a tad misleading, the movie is a pleasant and entertaining surprise.
A young man barely survives by participating in an underground fight club. Every night, he wears a gorilla mask and gets beaten up by more popular fighters for money. After years of suppressing his anger, he finds a way to infiltrate the group of the city’s sinister elite. His childhood trauma resurfaces, and he seeks revenge on the men who took everything away from him. With his scarred hands, he launches a violent campaign of retribution to settle the score.
What you get when you see the trailer for the first time is a sense that this could be a John Wick-style movie with the action/fight sequences and in a way the last part of Monkey Man does go down that route and it feels like it could take place in the John Wick Universe, but Dev Patel has brought us more with this movie with some mysticism of the back story of his character.
The movie is a bit of a slow start, but this is where we are pulled into the world of the “kid” as he dons a monkey mask and takes to the ring to fight for money but he isn’t getting what he should be getting as the rather shifty promoter Tiger (Sharlto Copley) is taking most the earnings and informs him that he will get a bonus for the more punishment and blood he spills.
As the story unfolds we find out more about Kid’s past and he makes his way into a new job to discover that there is someone from his past that he sets his sights on for revenge, now we start to build up to the action that we have seen in the trailer.
Along the way, he is battered and bruised and trains to fight harder to take his revenge on those who have caused his childhood trauma. There are some great moments throughout Monkey Man along with the great directing from Patel, the action sequences and a superb soundtrack from Jed Kurzel (The Babadook, The Pope’s Exorcist) we have a movie that is certainly one that keeps you entertained from the start to finish.
Dev Patel is brilliant to watch in the role of Kid and if this is what we get with his first feature directing then I can’t wait to see where he takes us next, will he keep to this genre or move on to another style? I would like to see more like Monkey Man, although I’m not sure that this one could get a sequel it would be good to see more movies from him based in India.
If you are going in to see Monkey Man hoping for an all-out John Wick-style movie then you may be a tad disappointed, but my recommendation is to go in to see this one and enjoy the flow that the movie has as it builds and builds as the story plays out and gets more intense and action based towards the final act.
Dev Patel brings us a brilliant directorial feature debut
Movie title: Monkey Man (2024)
Movie description: An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.
Date published: April 7, 2024
Country: UK
Duration: 2h 1m
Director(s): Dev Patel
Actor(s): Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash
Genre: Action, Thriller
Summary
Dev Patel has brought us a movie that is well worth seeing on the big screen, his directorial feature debut is entertaining to watch.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
