REVIEW #347 Monkey Man (2024)

A man earns a meagre living in an underground fight club but with his eyes set on revenge he slowly works his way through a notorious criminal enterprise.

Dev Patel has created a really strong action movie with impressive set pieces and choreography, eye-catching  cinematography and an emotional motive for the protagonist that’s underpinned by an insight into the culture of India. I’ve heard about the struggles Patel had when making this movie and it was incredibly close to not being picked up by a studio but thankfully Universal stepped in and purchased the action flick for $10m. The trailer highlights the wonderful action but what it doesn’t do is indicate the wonderful cultural influences that are so heavily imprinted in the film. From Indian beliefs and folklore to the large trans community that is present in India too. Now before people start calling the film ‘woke’ this is probably one of the best films I’ve seen handle trans characters, it’s executed brilliantly and has a wonderful bit of exposition around the beliefs that feed into being a trans person in India. Dev Patel shines and leads the film well, executing the choreography perfectly but also the more emotional notes of his character too. Monkey Man does give in to the genres tropes, the get knocked down, limp away and suddenly we play the training sequence before the protagonist returns as strong as ever! But despite its cliche nature, it was really enjoyable to watch. I love action, but this is a film for everyone even if you’re not a fan of the genre because really there are only two extended action sequences and the rest is fleshing out the character and his backstory! So I’d definitely recommend getting out there to watch it if you can.

Overall (8/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan