On March 9 I posted an article about Monkey Man (2024), that serve as a preview, second trailer had come out and I was very excited about it for many reasons, first the ambient and location where the movie develops, its not every day that we get a movie that happens in India but well at least that what it look like since the filming happen during the Pandemic so shooting was move to a small island in Indonesia but most of the scenes from the city were taken in Mumbai. Then comes the background music, this is classic that I like very much, all kind of music and drum sounds from this part of South Asia, on top of all this unique set of features for a movie presented on Western hemisphere, this was Dev Patel first time as Director and he was also the main character.
The movie is very simple and straight forward, man kills boy mother, boy grew up wanting to kill man, end of story, well not that simple but there is nothing new that we have not seen before, its from the action sequence scene, the pain, the blood and part of the culture that is shown on this movie what makes it special, something that action movies have been needing since John Wick took over and single man handle the action movies genre.
I will keep the review free of spoilers so you can still enjoy the movie, will basically focus on a couple of scenes that I like and how everything started.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9214772/ - Platform: Amazon - Release: April 5, 2024
The story of Monkey Man is based on Hanuman, on the Indian Mythology Hanuman is consider the patron deity of martial arts and meditation, the main character is initially known as Kid latter on he use the name of Bobby that he pick up from a cleaning chemical label bottle so I'll refer to him as Bobby. Bobby and his mother lived in the outsides of the city where there was lots of vegetation, he and his mother use to go to the river and she would tell him stories of Hanuman, how he was brave, strong and how he one time eat the Sun thinking it was a Mango, for this the Gods decided to punish him, there is a fable, a story telling that will be the base of the entire movie even when Bobby was an adult he still believed in Hanuman, that's the entire reason he wear a mask for his fights and latter on bleach the mask the second time around when he came back to the ring.
I think that for some people this movie might be a stereo type but from my point of view this is pure entertainment, I do not see the movie to be a reflection from the culture or the country of India itself.
From what movies present to their audience this is a very classic image, crowded packed places with people everywhere, hot, dust, the ring side area is a fucking mess with men and women screaming out of their lungs living the experience while two men fight on the ring for money, for little money, trying to make a living out of it and one men run the show and controls everything. Bobby is part of the low class, very low class, he is tired of been there without much to do about it, he still kind to his people and within them he is someone they look at and respect him.
Part of Bobby frustration comes from how his mother was killed, this is revealed latter down the line, I wont spoil it for you. There are multiple images from that day, a matches box with the crown logo, the logo of the places Bobby wants to work at because there he knows will find the man who killed his mother, Bobby has no fear of dying in the attempt to kill this man, that is his only mission and nothing else, he is a nobody, he has nothing to life for only the desire to kill the man who killed his mother but the world keeps crushing him all this years and there still people taking advantage of him like Tiger the man who run the fights, mocking him and paying him very little.
Bobby has located his target and came up with a plan to get in, this part was very funny and movie like, Bobby get a bunch of his people to steal Queenie Kapoor wallet, the manager of "Kings", the place Bobby wants to get in; to then bring it to her like a type of hero, he comes in asking for a job and not money to what at first Queenie said no because they don't hire from the streets, this place is very exclusive.
Lucky for Bobby he gets hired and its only up from here, once in he gets himself a gun, funny comment within this scene is that the gun trafficker mention "Do you like John Wick..." just as I mention before all action movies now days want to be like or better than John Wick, that is the new standard until it fades out, probably like the times of Bruce Lee when he was the standard of Martial Arts.
Alphonso is a man who Queenie trust and Bobby notice this fast enough so he gets Alphonso on his good side and make him some money when he arrange a fight for him, this is the moment when as a favor he gets a promotion getting him closer to VIP clients, between this clients the man who killed Bobby's mother, the Chief Police called Rana, Bobby's first attempt to kill him failed and gets him into an adventure of recovery and healing but this also makes him stronger so he could go past the thoughts that kept tormenting him day and night.
I hope my review gets you interested on this movie, Monkey Man is a movie that in my opinion between all the action, speed, blood, music and culture tries to get you in that environment, make you feel what Bobby was going through, his desperation to avenge his mother within a corrupt system and a country that is been abused by those in power, not everything is hate and revenge, there are few scenes where there could be a small love story but never flourish probably because the story was mostly focus in Bobby's revenge, the movie also sets very clear the ending of this hero not leaving space for a sequel, this I think they also got this from John Wick and its very important because it sets it aside not pretending to be another John Wick type of movie, its done period.
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