Making its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW TV & Film Festival, is the Universal Pictures film Monkey Man written and directed by Dev Patel. Notably produced by Jordan Peele under his Monkeypaw productions banner. There are some heavy influences of John Wick in this movie and that could be due to the fact that Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee who are named producers also worked on the John Wick franchise.
But to put it plainly, Monkey Man is John Wick on steroids.
Dev Patel stars in the narrative as Kid, a man who is out to seek revenge against the man who murdered his mother in cold blood. We see flashes of Kid with his mother and how deeply connected he was to her. That very deep and spiritual connection is exactly what makes her homicide even more tragic. As Kid is now a hardened man focused on one objective — revenge — he takes up a job at an underground fight club. As he’s making a living by helping to throw fights by allowing fighters to defeat him round-by-round, he dons a monkey mask. His anonymity serves to his advantage as this allows him to stay hidden in plain sight while he exacts his revenge. And all of this suppressed rage gives him the determination and the fortitude to infiltrate his way into the inner circle of the city’s most notorious criminals. Filmed in India and Indonesia, Monkey Man provides a landscape of the poorest and wealthiest parts of the region. Illustrating the dichotomy between the powerless poor and the wealthy elite.
As the Kid delivers his justice and fights his way to get the man who killed his mother, one-by-one the methods to how he takes down each and every opponent gets more creative with each scene. Fighting scenes got so intense at times that during the Q&A at the 2024 SXSW TV & Film Festival Patel mentioned he did sustain injuries while on set. And as for those methods that the Kid uses that get creative at every turn, Patel also states, “I was trying to make a resourceful hero that doesn’t have the tools and answers.” Without giving too much away, there are knives used in some pretty imaginative ways and the Kid himself using his own body as a weapon at times.
And speaking of resourcefulness, Patel and his team also shot various scenes of the film with his mobile phone according to the Q&A. There are times as the story building is happening in the film the pacing is a bit slower than I would like since this is an action film. However, I do understand that Patel wanted to get the cultural touchstones just right and balance the themes of family, culture, and the legend of Hanuman into this story so that it could be a fully fleshed out narrative. Once the story gets back into action it takes you on a rollercoaster ride. There’s a ton of blood, guts and gore in this movie so much so that I’m convinced that not gallons of corn syrup but barrels of it were used during the production of Monkey Man. And the body count that the Kid leaves on his trail of vengeance is incredibly high.
Dev Patel, who also has mentioned was influenced by Korean cinema, knocked it out of the park with this flick. The Oscar-nominated actor already has the acting chops to play a dramatic role, which he did flawlessly here. But what he likely has surprised most viewers here is his capacity to be an action star. His fight scenes were incredible and the choreography was top notch. The fight scenes get so intense at times that you find yourself looking away. Watching this with a crowd at SXSW, was quite entertaining as you heard the collective “oohs” and “aaahs” inside of the theater. One thing can be said for certain, Dev Patel has now rightfully earned his place among Hollywood’s action-star roster of actors.
Monkey Man is action-packed, full of thrills, and deliciously violent. If you have a knack for the action genre, you’ll absolutely love what this film will bring.
Monkey Man made its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival and releases in theaters on April 5th.
What's Your Reaction?
