STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
An anonymous young man (Dev Patel), holds a low level position in a busy restaurant, whilst taking a pasting in underground fight tournaments whilst wearing a distinctive monkey mask. This comes to the attention of fellow dogsbody Alphonso (Pitabash), who opens him up to a seedy underbelly, where his chance to avenge the death of his mother, at the hands of former General Rana (Sikandar Kher), and his commander, cult leader Baba Shakti (Makrand Deshpanti), presents itself.
Flying high after his breakout role in 2008's Slumdog Millionaire, Dev Patel now delivers his writing/directing debut, that does a complete three hundred and sixty from the personal brand he became known for. Given his significant involvement in the project, it might be a safe gamble that Patel maybe had a fondness for the "chopsocky" flicks that this lengthy effort seems fairly indebted to, and wanted to offer his own contribution to the genre. He goes against the grain with his lead role here, playing a hero who initially doesn't cut the mustard as much of a great fighter, before delivering a pretty devastating onslaught at the end. If ultimately not much else.
Patel's film features all the trappings of many modern action films of present times, with everything close up, from the blurry screen, to the fight scenes, especially disconcerting when they're flying at a million miles a minute. It features an impressive heavy, harsh soundtrack in the early stages of the film, creating an unsettling atmosphere in the build up to the initial showdowns, but from there-on-in it becomes a meandering, overlong experience, taking two hours to tell a story that could have lasted about an hour and a half, with a long, dull, dragging interlude, before a savage, brutal finale, where Patel channels The Raid films style to shattering effect.
If Patel had been a little more focused and less over indulgent, he could have delivered a masterful directorial debut. As it is, while delivered with flair and successful in places, it serves as a lesson to learn from. Maybe with Monkey Man 2. **
An anonymous young man (Dev Patel), holds a low level position in a busy restaurant, whilst taking a pasting in underground fight tournaments whilst wearing a distinctive monkey mask. This comes to the attention of fellow dogsbody Alphonso (Pitabash), who opens him up to a seedy underbelly, where his chance to avenge the death of his mother, at the hands of former General Rana (Sikandar Kher), and his commander, cult leader Baba Shakti (Makrand Deshpanti), presents itself.
Flying high after his breakout role in 2008's Slumdog Millionaire, Dev Patel now delivers his writing/directing debut, that does a complete three hundred and sixty from the personal brand he became known for. Given his significant involvement in the project, it might be a safe gamble that Patel maybe had a fondness for the "chopsocky" flicks that this lengthy effort seems fairly indebted to, and wanted to offer his own contribution to the genre. He goes against the grain with his lead role here, playing a hero who initially doesn't cut the mustard as much of a great fighter, before delivering a pretty devastating onslaught at the end. If ultimately not much else.
Patel's film features all the trappings of many modern action films of present times, with everything close up, from the blurry screen, to the fight scenes, especially disconcerting when they're flying at a million miles a minute. It features an impressive heavy, harsh soundtrack in the early stages of the film, creating an unsettling atmosphere in the build up to the initial showdowns, but from there-on-in it becomes a meandering, overlong experience, taking two hours to tell a story that could have lasted about an hour and a half, with a long, dull, dragging interlude, before a savage, brutal finale, where Patel channels The Raid films style to shattering effect.
If Patel had been a little more focused and less over indulgent, he could have delivered a masterful directorial debut. As it is, while delivered with flair and successful in places, it serves as a lesson to learn from. Maybe with Monkey Man 2. **