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Bound to Vengeance Reviews

With grounded performances from Ivlev and Tyson, this is an excellent indie thriller that tries to do something a little different from the norm.

Full Review | Feb 29, 2016

Its message remains muddled at best as it tries, and fails, to effectively comment on the consequences of rape culture.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Feb 22, 2016

A pretty straight forward film that touches familiar ground but it's full of energy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jan 14, 2016

Though it begins with a certain amount of promise, Bound to Vengeance ultimately becomes as tedious and interminable a horror endeavor as one can easily recall.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Nov 18, 2015

"Bound to Vengeance" holds one's attention, but not one's faith, telling a story that simply has too many holes to buy into it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 17, 2015

Ultimately a daft, pulpy descent into stylized nastiness.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2015

Ivlev's spirited performance is undermined by the fact that her character's actions are so far-fetched, it would be easier to believe if she sprouted wings and flew out of captivity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 29, 2015

I recommend it only to a niche audience that can appreciate this kind of exploitative fare.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2015

Unbelievable indeed, the film, directed by José Manuel Cravioto, nevertheless manages to captivate throughout.

Full Review | Jun 25, 2015

José Manuel Cravioto's wants so badly to work the femsploitation angle, but has no functional understanding of the crucial factors that distinguish between the good and bad apples.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jun 24, 2015

There's an awful lot of redundancy here in the use of flashbacks, suggesting the quickly shot film didn't quite have enough coverage to make feature length.

Full Review | Jun 23, 2015

Director José Manuel Cravioto, in his English-language debut ... attempts to subvert the sadly commonplace "woman in captivity" narrative, but mostly only succeeds in testing the limits of our gore tolerance.

It trivializes victim trauma by treating its main character's best-laid plans as punchline fodder.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Jun 20, 2015

[An] abysmal thriller ...

Full Review | Feb 2, 2015

It's just a very bad, unfun, not scary movie masquerading itself as badass chick horror. NOPE.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jan 29, 2015

Bound to Vengeance

Where to Watch

Tina Ivlev (Eve) Richard Tyson (Phil) Bianca Malinowski (Lea) Kristoffer Kjornes (Ronnie) Dustin Quick (Laura) Stephanie Charles (Nina) Ric Sarabia (Skinny Man) Keith Johnson (Fat Man) Scott Vance (Tall Man) Amy Okuda (Captive Girl 1)

J.M Cravioto

A young girl, chained in the basement of a sexual predator, escapes and turns the tables on her captor.

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Review: BOUND TO VENGEANCE

Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on June 26, 2015, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files .

For a horror movie allegedly devoted to female empowerment, Bound to Vengeance —at least in its first half—is awfully devoted to the ways its women characters can hasten their own deaths.

The heroine of J.M. Cravioto’s feature directorial debut is Eve (Tina Ivlev), though the first person we meet is Phil (Richard Tyson), the incongruously named villain who has been keeping her chained in his basement for an undisclosed amount of time. That period ends when Eve manages to overpower Phil and escape the cellar—but not his remote, isolated house. Attempting to find the keys to start Phil’s van, she comes across evidence that she isn’t his only victim—he’s got other young women stashed elsewhere in the area, and is the only one who knows where they are. And so, despite the title (changed from Reversal , under which the film first played at Sundance), Eve’s mission becomes one not of vengeance but of rescue, as she forces Phil to lead her to each captive so she can set them free.

That title only comes up at the end of this long introductory sequence, a good 20 minutes into this 80-minute feature. Yet even at that abbreviated running time, Bound to Vengeance feels padded, largely by flashbacks/home movies of Eve’s happier times with her boyfriend Ronnie (Kristoffer Kjornes, son of co-scripter Keith Kjornes). The more these bits keep recurring, the more obvious it becomes that they’re there for another purpose besides easy irony, upsetting what is supposed to be one of the big latecoming plot reversals. (Perhaps that’s why they changed the name?)

Anyway, the bigger problem is in the movie’s here and now. As Eve and Phil travel through a long, dark night, Eve’s plans to save the first couple of abductees become violently confounded, in ways that subvert whatever kind of girl-power charge the film might have had. Even when her quest finds a little more success, she continues to make foolish choices that blunt her effectiveness as the heroine. Along the way, writers Rock Shaink and Kjornes make misplaced flirtations with eliciting sympathy for the devil, as Phil tells Eve at one point, “I never meant to hurt anyone” and “You suffered, I’ve suffered too.”

That last line is keyed to the idea that Phil isn’t the only perpetrator behind the crimes, which might have paid dividends if the movie had developed it beyond a banal All Men Are Evil motif. Despite unnecessary stylistic flourishes that work against the overall down-and-grungy veneer Cravioto aims for, the story development is overly simplistic, consisting mostly of Eve and Phil driving from one sleazepit to the next. “How much longer to the next one?” Eve asks at one point, echoing what may become the viewer’s mantra.

Bound to Vengeance ’s message ultimately becomes less one of overcoming adversity and more about the futility of struggling against a violent world—a point of view that the film has neither the narrative complexity nor depth of character to support. The conclusion attempts one more twist regarding Eve’s time in Phil’s holding cell—a situation she was obviously aware of, yet she acts in the final scene like this is the first time she’s realizing it as well. “This whole night’s been a bad fucking idea,” Eve says midway through, as if that wasn’t already evident to the audience by this point.

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June 24, 2015 Reviews

Bound To Vengeance

By charles bramesco.

In the somewhat ignoble tradition of rape-revenge thrillers, the best entries recast a victimized protagonist as an agent of white-hot, womanly justice. Grindhouse artifacts such as Ms. 45 and I Spit On Your Grave behave like superhero movies, their heroines transformed by a pivotal, tragic assault into the hyperviolent avenging angel that the pervasive ubiquity of lecherous male sexuality demands. Even when these films get a little too hot on their own graphic images, the larger premise still promotes a feminist ideology. When men push a woman too far, as innumerable men do to innumerable women with untold frequency, her only proportional response is extermination. When put into practice smartly and tactfully, it’s a fairly radical proposition. A cop could investigate a rape and maybe even get a guy behind bars, but the only path to a real dismantling of the social architectures that allow for rape culture can be found through absolute destruction.

José Manuel Cravioto’s Bound To Vengeance wants so badly to work the femsploitation angle, but has no functional understanding of the crucial factors that distinguish between the good and bad apples. At every available opportunity, the film punishes its ostensible heroine for taking her welfare—and, more vitally, the welfare of her fellow women—into her own trembling, bloodstained hands. Cravioto’s got the sense and decency not to indulge in the leering gaze that the film baldly sets out to critique, and yet he’s still missed the larger point of these exercises in unpleasantness. Even as its protagonist rises from her own ashes to right the world’s wrongs, Cravioto never sides with her. And so Bound isn’t just a bad movie; it is a movie that is bad.

Cravioto’s not totally bereft of sympathy for Eve (Tina Ivlev), the indomitable survivor at the heart of the film. He picks things up with the young woman’s flight for freedom, mercifully excusing the audience from witnessing the implied extensive rapes, though recurring snippets of audio-flashbacks keep the memory close at hand. Chained up in a featureless rural basement, Eve finagles her escape by bludgeoning her captor (Richard Tyson, doing a bad impression of Heath Ledger’s Joker) with a brick loosened from a nearby wall. Two factors prevent her getaway, one practical and one ethical: She doesn’t have the keys to the only car capable of transporting her out of the scrubland, and her kidnapper suggested that girls just like her have been hidden strategically around the unnamed town nearby. Keeping her captor under her thumb through use of a handy dog-catcher’s pole, Eve forces him to bring her to the other sites so that she might free the remaining prisoners.

As feminism-tinged rape-revenge fantasies go, it sounds like it should be a slam dunk. Not only does Eve claim retribution, but she assists her fellow women in meting out unforgiving comeuppance as well. Cravioto, however, fouls up his own moral subtext by undermining all of Eve’s attempts to do the right thing. Behind door number one is a near-feral Nell type, who accidentally impales herself upon a poorly placed wrought-iron fencepost immediately following her liberation. If this is Cravioto’s idea of a joke, it’s a poorly- timed and sickeningly unfunny one. By the time Eve’s forced to kill the second freed girl in an act of self-defense, the viewer might wonder what, exactly, Cravioto’s trying to prove here. “Eve was the real villain all along!” would make for a thoroughly shitty plot twist, and if this be a nihilist’s shrug that some lives are beyond saving, it’s extremely out of place. 

Some lurid experiments with shadow and color lend a few scenes some stylistic punch, but it’s not nearly enough to distract from Cravioto’s wrongheaded treatment of Eve and her quest. He makes matters worse for himself by liberally cross-cutting between Eve’s mission of mercy and camcorder footage of a fondly remembered day at the carnival with her boyfriend Ronnie (Kristoffer Kjornes). Anyone old enough to handle this movie has developed the critical faculties to recognize that the guy Eve keeps thinking about (and, more obviously, her captor repeatedly mentions) just might factor into the third-act development this film half-heartedly passes off as a twist. Even with the basic components of a rape-revenge thriller securely in place, everything feels out of whack. 

Bound To Vengeance is not necessarily an evil film, or even a hateful one. It’s confused at best, though it’s more likely that the film’s misguided pseudo-feminist subtext is a result of simple thoughtlessness. But with all moralistic misfirings considered, Cravioto’s picture also suffers from another, more universal sort of ailment: No 80-minute film should feel this long.

GoWatchIt: Buy. Rent. Stream Bound To Vengeance

80 min / Run Time

June 26 2015 / Release Date

Thriller / genre

Theatrical Release, Video on Demand / Streaming / formats

• José Manuel Cravioto
• Rock Shaink Jr.
• Keith Kjornes
• Richard Tyson
• Bianca Malinowski
• Kristoffer Kjornes
• IFC Midnight

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Want to watch ' Bound to Vengeance ' in the comfort of your own home? Searching for a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or watch the José Manuel Cravioto-directed movie via subscription can be a huge pain, so we here at Moviefone want to take the pressure off. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription alternatives - along with the availability of 'Bound to Vengeance' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can watch 'Bound to Vengeance' right now, here are some specifics about the Dark Factory Entertainment thriller flick. Released June 26th, 2015, 'Bound to Vengeance' stars Tina Ivlev , Richard Tyson , Bianca Malinowski , Kris Kjornes The movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 20 min, and received a user score of 57 (out of 100) on TMDb, which collated reviews from 258 knowledgeable users. What, so now you want to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "A young woman Eve fights back and manages to escape a malicious abductor However after discovering she may not be the only victim Eve unravels a darker truth and decides to turn the tables on her captor" 'Bound to Vengeance' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on AMC Plus, Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, and YouTube .

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‘Monkey Man’ Review: A Revenge Thriller Packed With Punches, Politics, Fury and Joy

This ambitious movie is a blood-filled vengeance tale, a diatribe against institutional injustice, an ode to indian culture, and a case for dev patel as a prodigiously muscled action hero..

A kitchen-sink directorial debut from actor Dev Patel ,  Monkey Man  is a knife-through-the-throat revenge thriller, a diatribe against institutional injustice and wealth inequality, an ode to both ancient and modern Indian culture and folklore, and a portfolio that proudly displays the action hero bona fides of its prodigiously muscled leading man— who just so happens to be the director himself. It’s an everything, all at once approach that at times threatens to overwhelm a knock-about good time with too many portents of meaning. But Patel, teaming with producer Jordan Peele and his Monkey Paw production house, manages to pull off his ambitious plan thanks to a plethora of fury, joy, and just enough moments of bold cinematic repurposing, if not reinvention.  

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Monkey Man  uncoils like a South Asian remix of the Batman myth, but one where the central inspiring tragedy is not committed by a couple of pearl-snatching thugs in an alley, but by the same type of systemic injustice that holds many down in the modern world. 

Here it comes in the form of a sneering, mustachioed chief of police (Indian actor Sikandar Kher ) who murders the mother of the hero (Patel’s character is called Kid in the press notes and, when not in his Monkey Man get up, calls himself Bobby in the film), and sets her and the rest of the village ablaze at the behest of the elites to whom the chief is indentured.   

The hero is left with scars psychological and literal: his badly burned hands are one of many aspects of his identity that connects him to the Hindu deity Hanuman. Patel’s film is meant to serves as a modern updating of the Hanuman, a divine monkey who once was said to have climbed a tree and grabbed the sun, thinking it a mango. Another link they share is evidenced by his day job: donning an ape-like mask, our hero ekes out a living as both heel and patsy in an underground fight club run by a sleazy South African promoter ( Sharlto Copley , from District 9 and  Beast .)

After cleverly gaining entry to the King’s Club, a high-end brothel and drug den frequented by local and foreign elites and overseen with ruthless authority by Queenie (the popular Marathi and Hindi language actor Ashwini Kalsekar ), Kid unleashes a bold yet unsuccessful attack in a club bathroom. It is a set-piece that goes toe-to-toe with the washroom contretemps  in 2018’s Mission: Impossible-Fallout , without quite besting it.

Set in the fictional Indian metropolis of Yatana and shot in Indonesia, Patel’s film is awash with violence of every sort in every setting— in the ring, on an elevator, in a rundown brothel where the pissed off proprietor wields an ax, etc. After he is nursed back to health in a hidden temple by a group of third gender mystics, Kid finally confronts the big bad guy in a lengthy face off pieced together by a team of editors to look like a continuous take. 

All of this whiz bang bloodletting is scored to needle drops that are sometimes playful—his training is spurred on by a cheeky tabla player—and sometimes corny: when drugs are introduced, we get a remix of Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love.”

These moments—like the one in which Patel’s camera lingers on people sleeping on the street as cars race by—speak to the director’s heavy touch when trying to drive home his themes. It would feel more tiresome if it weren’t countered by his impatient enthusiasm: having aced both cinema studies and social science, Patel comes off like a kid super eager to show off their report card. 

In the end, all is forgiven because Patel and his DP Sharone Meir (he also shot last year’s similarly themed John Woo revenge thriller  Silent Night , and   Damien Chazelle’s beloved  Whiplash)  have the good sense to make sure their star always looks as gorgeously heroic as humanly possible. 

Indeed, there must be some extra padding in that monkey mask because his face stays mercifully unblemished despite the considerable beating he takes. Even when Patel’s character is posing as a dishwasher, his crisp white work shirt is perfectly fitted and red carpet ready. 

Who knows if it was on the list of Patel’s lengthy agenda in undertaking the project, but if there was any doubt that he was capable of filling James Bond’s loafers, he himself has quashed it.

• SEE ALSO : Dorian Harewood Returns To Broadway In ‘The Notebook’ After Almost 50 Years

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‘Monkey Man’ Review: Vengeance Is His

Dev Patel stars as Kid, a human punching bag who comes up with a plan to avenge a past wrong. The hits keep coming and the hero keeps taking them in this rapid-fire film.

By Manohla Dargis

The thriller “Monkey Man” opens on a tender scene and a nod to the power of storytelling, only to quickly get down to down-and-dirty, action-movie business with a flurry of hard blows and faster edits. For the next two frenetic hours, it repeatedly cuts back to the past — where a mother and child happily lived once upon a bucolic time — before returning to the grubby, raw-knuckle present. There, the hits keep coming and the hero keeps taking them, again and again, in a movie that tries so hard to keep you entertained, it ends up exhausting you.

Set largely in a fictional city in India, “Monkey Man” stars Dev Patel as a character simply called Kid who, in classic film-adventure fashion, is out to avenge a past wrong. To do that, Kid, who works as a human punching bag in shadowy ring fights (Sharlto Copley plays the M.C.), must take repeat beatings so that he can, like all saviors, triumphantly rise. Before he does, he has to execute a complicated plan that pits him against power brokers working both sides of the law. As with most genre movies, you can guess how it all turns out for our hero.

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In this madcap film, a mother’s apology leads to a delightful misadventure that begins with mourning and ends with a father’s favorite recipe.

Kid’s half-baked plan involves an underworld operation with national political designs, and it takes him to one of those dens of inequity that movies love, filled with slinky women, thuggish men and lines of white powder that lead to corridors of power. As the story comes into blurry focus, Patel gestures at the real world and folds in some mythology, but these elements only create expectations for a complex story than never emerges. What mostly registers is an overarching sense of exploitation and desperation: Everyone is always hustling someone else. That gives the movie a provocative pessimism, one that Patel seems eager to counter with the flashbacks to Kid’s mother, Neela (Adithi Kalkunte), a saintly figure in chokingly tight close-up.

Patel, who directed the movie from a script written by him, Paul Angunawela and John Collee, is an appealing screen presence and you’re rooting for him — both as a character and as a filmmaker — right from the start. As an actor, he was built for empathy, with a slender frame and melting eyes that he can light up or expressively dim to create a sense of vulnerability. His performance in “Monkey Man” requires a lot from him below the neck — he has sculpted his body into stunt-ready shape, as a bit of striptease shows — but it’s his beseeching eyes that draw you to him. That’s especially crucial because while the messy story crams in a great deal — sad ladies, musclemen, brutal cops, exploited villagers, a false prophet and the Hindu god Hanuman, who appears as half-human, half-monkey — it never coheres.

Patel does some fine work in “Monkey Man” even if its fight sequences rarely pop, flow or impress; they’re energetic but uninspired. Far more striking is an extended sequence early in the story that begins with a thief on a scooter robbing a woman at an outdoor cafe. The bandit zooms off only to soon hand the pilfered item off to someone else who — as the camera hurries alongside each courier — rapidly snakes through the streets before passing the stolen object to another person (and so on) until the package finally lands in Kid’s hands. It’s a witty, flashy bit that announces Patel’s filmmaking ambitions and visually expresses how the story itself zigs and zags even as it hurtles forward.

That sequence — with its rush of bodies and scenery — also encapsulates one of the movie’s more frustrating flaws: its unrelenting, near-unmodulated narrative pace. For much of “Monkey Man” it’s just go, go, go . Rapid-fire editing is a feature, not a bug, in contemporary action movies, but even John Wick takes an occasional breather. (The “Wick” franchise is an obvious influence on “Monkey Man,” so much so there’s even an adorable dog.) When Kid does slow down midway it’s only because the character needs to heal, recalibrate his thinking and ready himself for the final showdown, which he does at a temple watched over by a towering statue and a welcoming group of hijras, who are referred to as India’s third gender .

It’s too bad that Kid doesn’t stay longer at the temple, where the company is charming and includes one of those wisdom-spouting elders, Alpha (Vipin Sharma, a sly scene-stealer), who guide heroes onto the right path. At the temple, Kid trains in time with a tabla maestro (Zakir Hussain) in a nicely syncopated interlude that makes you wish the musician had played throughout the movie to help with its pacing.

All too soon, though, Kid flexes his rested muscles and resumes his quest, racing ahead as Patel folds in flashbacks and vaguely waves a hand at the world that exists. By that point it’s clear that while Patel wants to say something about that world, however unclear, his character would be happier delivering beat downs in that magical, mystical land where John Wick and other violent screen fantasies live, fight and die in blissful unreality.

Monkey Man Rated R for, you know, violence. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

1 hr 12 min

118. Road House (2024) / Love Lies Bleeding (2024) / The Movie Re-View: Se7en (1995‪)‬ Medium Cool: A Movie Podcast

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For episode 118, Austin comes back with a vengeance. Updates, reviews, and more. Joe does a solo review of the Road House remake, Austin solo reviews Love Lies Bleeding, and the two of them discuss their updated opinions on David Fincher's Se7en. All that and more on Medium Cool: A Movie Podcast. Enjoy! 0:00 - Intro 6:00 - Joe's review of Road House (2024) 12:55 - Austin's review of Love Lies Bleeding (2024) 25:05 - The Movie Re-View: Se7en (1995) 1:09:40 - Outro Please subscribe to Medium Cool: A Movie Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! Also, follow us on social media to get updates on all of the exciting things we have coming up! Instagram: MediumCoolPod Letterboxd: www.letterboxd.com/AustinGlidden Email: [email protected]

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Review: In ‘Femme,’ a secret act of vengeance comes disguised as erotic flirtation

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The most revelatory aspect of the art of drag is how it lays bare the centrality of performance in our everyday lives. That’s most obvious when it comes to thinking about gender. Wigs, heels and makeup go a long way toward revealing femininity to be a kind of armature deployed as intentionally on the streets as it is on a stage. In “Femme,” Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s debut feature, that kernel of truth becomes the anchor for a deliciously vicious London-set revenge thriller.

When Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) steps into the spotlight at a bar as his alter ego, Aphrodite, you can see he’s in his element. With voguing dancers flanking her, Aphrodite is aptly named. She is a goddess of the night. If you saw her lit only by moonlight, you’d be forgiven for being so taken with her grace. But such magic tends to disappear under the humbling fluorescents of a corner store, particularly unkind to drag makeup.

“Is that a bloke?” Jules overhears a friend ask Preston ( George MacKay of “1917”), as Aphrodite stands in line waiting to get a pack of cigarettes. Quietly, in a tight close-up, you see the queen trying to figure out how best to react to Preston’s posturing homophobia. Should she shrink herself into nothing or try to shine as brightly as she’d done on stage?

She opts for the latter. “How can you call me a fag in front of all your friends when I caught you checking me out earlier?” she says. All too quickly the scene devolves into a violent blur. Stripped, kicked and recorded on Preston’s phone throughout the ordeal, Jules is left with nothing. No wig. No dress. No comebacks. No dignity.

Imagine his luck, then, when one day at a bathhouse, Jules spots his assailant (all abs, tats and attitude). In a split second, whatever self-pity had taken a hold of him following the attack is gone. He pursues Preston (who, it seems, doesn’t recognize his victim), hops in his car and kicks off the erotic, tense tête à tête that structures this slick, stylish queer neo-noir.

Scouring the web for sex videos of outed masc “straight” boys, Jules begins concocting a plan. If he can get Preston on camera, maybe he can finally find closure, find a way to make good on the taunting line that first egged this loutish guy into senseless violence. Pulsing with Adam Janota Bzowski’s drone-like synth score, lit by James Rhodes’ neon-tinged cinematography and cut with flair by Selina Macarthur, that scene is but one moment when “Femme” firmly establishes itself as a bold self-assured debut.

Already a keen performer, Jules quickly becomes everything a closeted guy would want. Using his coyness as his most versatile seductive power, Jules (and, in turn, Stewart-Jarrett) nails the role of homme fatale the film requires. That includes dressing “normal” for his dinner “dates” with Preston and playing into the fantasies he knows excite him.

These late night encounters begin with a wild kind of violent, volatile chemistry. But they soon become more tender. Away from his mates, Preston is much softer than he purports to be when drowning in oversized sweatshirts and hardened grins. And armed with such a protective partner (or maybe so close to recording his revenge sex tape), Jules is finally able to climb out of the depression that had derailed him.

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The question throughout the film, of course, is whether this budding relationship is or could be real. These are two young men who move in worlds that constantly demand that they perform. Both are experts at code-switching and calibrating their moves, their words and even their bodies in any given context. The two begin by offering one another versions of themselves they can’t show others. And as they each wonder whether such vulnerability will be anything but a liability, we’re left to wonder instead whether film and romance alike can end in anything but violence.

To watch Stewart-Jarrett (a glittering steel blade) and MacKay (a hardened fist blooming) play this pair of wounded would-be lovers is to witness two actors walking on a razor’s edge. Their characters’ mercurial motivations are often violently splintering, to the point where you’re never sure what, if anything, is authentic after all.

Within that funhouse mirror of an erotic-thriller premise, “Femme” proves to be a gorgeously mounted meditation on queer and queered performance. As Freeman and Ng’s film arrives at its necessarily cruel, bloody ending — as surprising as it is inevitable — you’re left as torn as its central pair. Bruised, yes. But perhaps all the stronger for it.

'Femme'

Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes Playing: Now in limited release

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Monkey Man Took One Thing From John Wick

• Dev Patel's Monkey Man sets a new standard for realistic male physiques in action movies, promoting healthier body image ideals.
• Monkey Man marks a significant moment for Indian representation in the action genre, inspiring audiences and breaking typecasting barriers.
• Monkey Man showcases Dev Patel's athletic but attainable physique, emphasizing natural beauty and realistic standards.

Monkey Man has the potential to be the dark horse of the action genre this year. Starring, co-written, and directed by Dev Patel, Monkey Man blends John Wick -style action with Hindu mythology. The film follows a young man as he seeks vengeance against the corrupt officials who oppress his people and murdered his mother. The film premiered at SXSW earlier this year and was met with a five-minute standing ovation.

Dev Patel has delivered great performances and featured in big action movies before, including Chappie and A24's The Green Knight . But Monkey Man is the British star's first time in the leading role of an action-heavy blockbuster. Dev Patel's starring role in Monkey Man is an important moment for the action genre. In addition to the style of fight choreography, Monkey Man also took one refreshing element from John Wick , and it shows that the industry is moving back in the right direction.

Monkey Man Features Realistic Male Physiques

Release Date April 5, 2024

Director Dev Patel

Cast Sikandar Kher, Vipin Sharma, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel

Runtime 1hr 53min

Read Our Review

While the superhero genre is far from the monolith it was during the 2010s, it has left residual effects on the industry and audiences. During the height of the genre, audiences were obsessed with actors' 'superhero transformations .' While seemingly innocent – because who can't commend an out-of-shape actor for putting on 20lbs of muscle for a role – the phenomenon inadvertently caused a damaging trend in young men. Teenagers and young men have become obsessed with trying to look like the superheroes they saw on screen, and it's damaging their bodies and their mental health.

That's where John Wick and Monkey Man come in. John Wick is undoubtedly one of the coolest figures in the action genre. Keanu Reeves had to be in fantastic shape to keep up with the extensive choreography and stunt training. However, despite the fact that John Wick and probably Keanu Reeves could beat most action heroes in a fight, Reeves' physique in the film was realistic and attainable. Reeves even shows his physique in the first film. The scene is brief but showcases John Wick's natural, athletic build. His character is a better representation of a healthy male physique than most superhero movies.

It is this element that Monkey Man has taken from John Wick . Dev Patel has had to bulk up for roles in the past, most famously for his Oscar-nominated performance in Lion (2016). But Monkey Man has pushed his physical conditioning to another level. Despite that, Dev Patel still boasts a natural and attainable physique in the film. Seeing Patel kick-ass with an athletic but natural body shape will hopefully shift the industry toward a healthier representation of male body types in action movies.

The constant attention to an actor's accentuated physique warped audiences' perspectives on what a healthy and attainable male body actually looks like. Chris Hemsworth looks phenomenal as Thor , but his hulking physique isn't naturally attainable for regular people. There have also been several accusations of some actors chemically enhancing their bodies for roles. While muscle-bound physiques in the action genre were on the rise, so was body dysmorphia in young men. Social media is filled with young men using steroids to achieve these action-star physiques. Not only is this severely damaging to their physical health, but also their mental well-being.

Monkey Man Is a Landmark for Indian Representation in the Action Genre

Monkey Man doesn't just present audiences with healthy male physiques; it is also a significant step forward for Indian representation in the action genre. Dev Patel has been very public about his previous typecasting. Patel discussed how he was typecast by Hollywood, saying, "The only roles I was getting offered was the funny sidekick or the guy that hacks the mainframe," while on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon .

"I never had access to it... looking like this."

- Dev Patel

Dev Patel has worked on Monkey Man for 10 years and cast himself in the leading role to counter his typecasting. The film hit theaters this weekend, and it's already inspiring people. Patel later told Jimmy Fallon that he was approached by an older American-Indian man after Monkey Man 's screening at SXSW. The man said he was "jealous of his 14-year-old son." After Patel questioned why, the man said, "I never had someone like you expressed in a movie like this... and my son does." Patel said the moment brought him to tears.

James Bond Fans Are Calling for Monkey Man Star Dev Patel to Be Next 007

Bruce Lee was a major influence on Patel throughout the film's production. In an interview with Jake's Takes!, Dev Patel said watching Enter the Dragon "got me into films." Bruce Lee was, for the longest time, the most iconic figure in the action genre. Lee was in incredible shape, but his physique was also naturally attainable. Bruce Lee's popularity in Hollywood was also a landmark moment for Asian representation in cinema and has been cited by many Asian and Asian-American actors as their biggest influence and inspiration. Monkey Man is playing in theaters now.

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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. 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. 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.

• Paul Angunawela
• John Collee
• Sharlto Copley
• 85 User reviews
• 114 Critic reviews
• 71 Metascore

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• Trivia Dev Patel began training in Taekwando when he was 10 years old. He earned a 1st dan black belt in March 2006 at the age of 16.

Kid : Blessings from my mother.

• Connections Referenced in Nerdrotic: FNT Too Hot for YouTube! A Friday Night Tights Q and A (2024)

User reviews 85

• DoNotComeToTheCinemaDepressed
• Mar 31, 2024
• How long is Monkey Man? Powered by Alexa
• April 5, 2024 (United States)
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• Batam, Indonesia (Infinite Studios)
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• Runtime 2 hours 1 minute
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Monkey Man review – Dev Patel goes wild in ultraviolent Mumbai revenge flick

Patel exacts wildly OTT vengeance in the neon-lit city in this stylish and exciting action thriller, which doubles as a boisterous satire of Modi-esque nationalism

D ev Patel brings the gonzo chaos for this very impressive writing-directing feature debut, with Jordan Peele on board as a producer; it’s a wildly over-the-top revenge action thriller on the teeming but uncliched streets of Mumbai – doubling as a boisterous satire of Modi-esque nationalism. As the lead performer, Patel shows us some pretty serious martial arts chops, kickboxing and thumping seven shades of ordure out of the punchbag, and then the bad guys – and periodically pausing, of course, attractively dropletted with sweat, to let us get an eyeful of those sculpted abs. And he also gives us a gloriously old fashioned men’s room punch-up, with the flimsy wooden dividing walls of the lavatory cubicles going over like dominos and each washroom mirror smashed to its constituent molecules.

Patel plays a guy calling himself “Bobby”, a fake name taken ominously from a brand of bleach; as a kid, he lived in the forest with his adored single mum, who held him spellbound with tales of Lord Hanuman, the monkey deity. A greedy property developer passing himself off as a spiritual guru (in league with a populist rightwing politician) wanted this forest and brought tragedy into the kid’s life, with the help of a hateful, corrupt police chief (Sikander Kher). Now Bobby is driven by a need for payback, infiltrating the criminal organisation, biding his time, and earning cash on the side as a monkey-masked fighter at bare-knuckle bouts run by a leering master of ceremonies played by Sharlto Copley; he is dreaming of the time when he will rain down terrible vengeance.

Patel clearly thinks that his movie looks like John Wick; hence a rather self-conscious pre-emptive line about that well known Keanu Reeves franchise in the script. But that’s not precisely the resemblance; given Patel’s need to avenge a dead parent, his personal growth “wilderness” experiences at the hands of socially marginalised but wise people, and his bloody and ultraviolent attack in the neon-lit city – Monkey Man looks more like Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives crossed with The Lion King. And Patel turns it into a very exciting and stylish movie. His previous acting work didn’t obviously point to a kickass action career, although his performance in The Green Knight might have given us a hint. He’s evolved.

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Every Movie Releasing in Theaters in April 2024

Some highly anticipated films are set to hit theaters in April 2024. Here is a complete rundown.

After a stellar March outing in theaters , featuring the release of Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire , April is looking to continue the trend with several major films. After a slow start to 2024 , March picked up the slack. Hopefully, these upcoming films, including Dev Patel's directorial debut, a Nicolas Cage flick, and Alex Garland's latest thriller, will see audiences return to theaters.

In addition to these highly anticipated movies, next month's list includes a beautiful romance film based on a #1 New York Times Best Seller alongside films starring prominent actors such as Henry Cavill and Sean Astin. So, without further ado, here is every movie coming to theaters in April 2024.

Someone Like You

Watch it in theaters on apr. 2.

Someone Like You , directed by Tyler Russell, is an upcoming romance film based on Karen Kingsbury's #1 NewYork Times Best Seller. Starring Jake Allyn and Sarah Fisher in the leading roles, this achingly beautiful love story follows Dawson Gage, a young architect who loses his best friend, London Quinn, but soon discovers that she has a twin sister named Andi, who was separated at birth. As Dawson sets out to find his friend's long-lost sister, they form a romance of their own, giving them both hope amid a life-altering tragedy. Someone Like You is in theaters on Apr. 2.

The First Omen

Watch it in theaters on apr. 5.

The First Omen is a much-anticipated prequel to 1976's The Omen . The last film in the franchise, directed by John Moore, was released in 2006; therefore, expectations are rather high. The new movie follows Margaret, an American woman sent to work at a church in Rome as part of a service. However, she uncovers a dark conspiracy that questions her ideals and takes her closer to the truth about the birth of evil incarnate. The First Omen is in theaters on Apr. 5.

Monkey Man , a forthcoming action film from actor and director Dev Patel, has received favorable reviews following its debut at the South by Southwest Film Festival on Mar. 11, 2024, with many critics comparing it to action masterpieces such as The Raid and John Wick .

Certainly, Dev Patel appears to deliver a one-man show in this revenge thriller, which follows a young man who sets out on a brutal quest for vengeance against the corrupt officials who murdered his mother and continue to torment the poor and vulnerable. This might be the start of another major action franchise akin to John Wick , but that depends on how the audience reacts when it is released. Monkey Man hits theaters on Apr. 5.

Watch It in Theaters on Apr. 12

Movies about the end of the world typically appeal to audiences, with the stories being both highly emotional and exhilarating, as demonstrated in The Road , War of the Worlds , and A Quiet Place . Arcadian is a fresh entry in the genre, starring Nicolas Cage as the father of twin teenage sons, Joseph and Thomas, who are fighting for survival in a remote farmhouse. The family must face the terrors that emerge once the sun goes down, but more importantly, they must stick together to increase their chances of survival. Arcadian is in theaters on Apr. 12.

Watch it in Theaters on Apr. 12

If not for its adrenaline-fueled trailer or the incredible cast consisting of Nick Offerman and Kirsten Dunst, you'd be excited to see Civil War based purely on its overwhelmingly positive reviews following its debut at SXSW. Alex Garland, well-known for his works 28 Days Later , Annihilation , and Ex Machina , seems to have fashioned another dystopian action thriller that numerous critics labeled a masterpiece.

Why Alex Garland's Civil War Is Bound to Feel All Too Real

Set in the near future, a group of journalists travels across the United States as a Civil War erupts for the first time since the 1800s. As they race against the clock to reach Washington, rebel factions led by the separatist Western Forces are prepared to incur wrath on the White House. Civil War , arguably one of the most anticipated releases of next month, will be released in theaters on Apr. 12.

Raising pets is a great way to combat loneliness, but what if you choose the wrong one? Sting , the upcoming horror thriller written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, illustrates the notion in the form of a spider. Charlotte (Alyla Browne), a 12-year-old girl, secretly nurtures a spider, knowing her family will never approve if she tells them the truth. However, as time passes, she realizes that was a huge mistake, as the once adorable tiny arachnid quickly evolves into a gigantic, flesh-eating creature. Will Charlotte be able to save her family before it's too late? Sting will be released in theaters on Apr. 12.

The Absence of Eden

Zoe Saldana has recently scored several hits with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 , From Scratch , Special Ops: Lioness , and Avatar: The Way of Water , but she's already back to star in another film, The Absence of Eden . The movie had its world premiere at the Taormina Film Festival earlier last year on Jun. 23, 2023.

It narrates the journeys of an ICE agent grappling with moral dilemmas while working in border security and a woman fighting to flee a brutal cartel. When their paths collide, they band together to save an innocent girl's life while also discovering new sides of themselves. The Absence of Eden is in theaters on Apr. 12.

Watch It in Theaters on Apr. 19

Abigail is a highly anticipated horror film based on the 1936 classic Dracula's Daughter . The film, which stars Giancarlo Esposito , Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, and the late Angus Cloud, follows a group of criminals who abduct Abigail, the ballerina daughter of a prominent underworld figure, unaware that she's not an average child. However, they are blinded by the fact that the girl would make them rich and fail to realize that she holds a dark secret. Will any of them survive the isolated mansion where they have imprisoned Abigail? Abigail is in theaters on Apr. 19.

Spy x Family Code: White

For the past two years, Spy x Family has been one of the most popular and entertaining anime shows for people of all ages. With each season outperforming its predecessor, the franchise has decided to release a film titled Spy x Family Code: White .

While under the guise of a perfect family, The Forgers go on a weekend trip, where Loid resolves to help Anya win a culinary competition. However, Anya inadvertently becomes involved with the military, setting off a chain of events that prompts both Loid and Yor to take matters into their own hands, jeopardizing the world's peace. Spy x Family Code: White will be released in the United States on Apr. 19.

Sasquatch Sunset

We seldom see no-dialogue films , but Sasquatch Sunset , directed and co-written by David Zellner, will tell the story of Bigfoot in an unconventional manner, which may be even rarer. Sasquatch Sunset , starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough, takes place in the foggy forests of North America, where a family of Sasquatches embarks on a beautiful journey over the span of one year. These innocent giants attempt to adapt to the ever-changing world while preserving the last of their kind. This one will undoubtedly be bizarre. Sasquatch Sunset is in theaters on Apr. 19.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is Guy Ritchie's war thriller based on Damien Lewis's 2014 book Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII . The film stars Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Eiza Gonzalez, and many other prominent actors in the roles of military recruits. The official synopsis of the film reads as follows:

Billed as a true story about a secret British World War II organization; the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Nazis helped to change the course of the war, and gave birth to modern black operations.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is heading to theaters on Apr. 19.

Hard Miles , co-written and directed by R. J. Daniel Hanna, is a promising sports drama film inspired by Greg Townsend, an avid Colorado-based cyclist who dealt with troubled teens and utilized the sport as a form of therapy. The film, which stars Matthew Modine , Sean Astin, Leslie David Baker, Cynthia McWilliams, and Jackson Kelly, made its world premiere at Bentonville Film Festival on Jun. 13, 2023, and received rave reviews from both critics and audiences.

10 Intense Rivalries in Sports Movies

The plot revolves around Greg, a beleaguered coach who gathers a group of distressed teenage inmates and leads them on a cathartic journey of a 1000-mile bicycle ride over the Grand Canyon in the hopes of giving them a fresh start. Hard Miles is heading to theaters on Apr. 19.

Watch It in Theaters on Apr. 26

Milla Jovovich's action films often involve zombies ( Resident Evil ) or otherworldly monsters ( Monster Hunter ), but Breathe will introduce fans to an entirely new apocalyptic notion. Breathe , also starring Sam Worthington, Jennifer Hudson, and Common, is set in a world where oxygen levels on Earth are rapidly depleting, rendering it uninhabitable.

Darius, who is protective of his family, which consists of Maya and Zora, leaves in search of something that will sustain them long enough. However, a mysterious couple, Tess and Lucas, later arrive at their doorstep, claiming to know Darius, who hasn't returned in days. Will the mother-daughter duo trust these strangers and let them in, or will they do whatever it takes to keep them out? Breathe is in theaters on Apr. 26.

Breathe (2024)

Unsung hero.

Unsung Hero is an upcoming biopic about the pop group For King and Country, well-known for their soundtracks "9-1-1," "Priceless," and "Woodlawn." The forthcoming drama film offers a comprehensive look at the Smallbone family, who migrate from Australia to the United States in search of a new beginning. As David and Helen embark on a journey to rebuild their lives in the West, they give birth to two children who would go on to become successful music artists, earning five Grammys in the process. Unsung Hero will open in cinemas on Apr. 26.

Challengers

Challengers is Zendaya's latest venture into the romance genre, in which she plays Tashi, a former tennis prodigy forced to retire due to a career-ending injury. However, she is married to Art, a Grand Slam champion on a losing streak, and her life takes an unexpected turn when Art faces off against Tashi's former best friend and boyfriend, Patrick. The film, directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, stars Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist. Challengers is set for release in the United States on Apr. 26.

Boy Kills World

Boy Kills World may be the most entertaining film to be released in April, not only because it stars one of Hollywood's biggest names, Bill Skarsgard, but also because the narrative is jam-packed with action and comedy. Set in a dystopian world, a young boy's family is murdered by Van Der Koys, leaving him deaf but vibrant with imagination.

As he embarks on a path of vengeance, he trains hard under a mysterious master to become an instrument of death and ensure that his plan to make Van Der Koys pay for their actions is carried out. Boy Kills World , which is expected to be comparable to action blockbusters like Kingsman and Nobody will be released on Apr. 26.

Additionally, here's the list of all the other theatrical releases in April 2024:

• Wicked Little Letters (Apr. 5)
• Coup de Chance (Apr. 5)
• It's Only Life After All (Apr. 10)
• The Long Game (Apr. 12)
• Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (Apr. 12)
• The Hopeful (Apr. 17)
• The Night of the Harvest (Apr. 19)
• Nowhere Special (Apr. 26)