Though last year was a pretty flawless year for movies, I continue to brace myself for when we hit the gap caused by the dual SAG-AFTRA and Writer’s Guild strikes, probably at the end of this year and almost certainly into 2025. That’s when things are going to get exasperatingly ugly, and every reboot, remake, sequel, and public domain adaptation currently sitting behind a panel of glass marked BREAK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY will be set free. It’s already happening, with the announcement last week of a planned full reboot of the Jurassic World franchise, which initially began as a sequel in the first place.
But we’re still flying high right now, aren’t we, folks? We’re still getting the good good, and you know how I know that? Because of this:
Yeah. That’s nice, right? Let it soak in, and then watch it again.
I’ve watched the trailer for Monkey Man probably ten times, which is impressive considering I only just heard about it three days ago. It just appeared on social media, seemingly out of nowhere, after the movie was reportedly saved from going direct to streaming by Jordan Peele, who, as in the case with Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, will likely get more credit for the actual content of the film than he should.
It’s predominantly the work of Dev Patel, last seen in the gloriously weird (and shamefully overlooked) The Green Knight. Patel, undoubtedly tired of being overlooked for action movie roles, went ahead and created his own vehicle, writing it with Paul Angunawela and John Collee, and directing it himself. Set in Mumbai, starring a predominantly Indian cast, and based on an Indian urban legend, Monkey Man seems very uninterested in adding that touch of whiteness that’s often perceived as necessary to draw in action movie audiences.
Featuring the Jay-Z remix of “Mundian To Bach Ke,” the most insanely earworm-ish piece of music of all time (you’ve heard it, it’s the bhangra song that samples from both Busta Rhymes and the theme to Knight Rider), just the trailer alone makes me wonder why anyone thought this would be best suited for a streaming service now famous for spending many millions of dollars to produce movies and about 30 cents to promote them. Even watching it on my phone (the way God intended), the whoosh of a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat swinging just inches away from someone’s face raised goosebumps on my skin, as did the thunderous sound of Patel in a gorilla mask aggressively pounding his chest, in a shot that should look silly, but somehow doesn’t.
Monkey Man looks so slick and flashy, and so confidently directed that I’m angry it was originally destined to end up in the same garbage pile as The Grey Man (what?) and Heart of Stone (who?), and that isn’t even going to be what ends up happening. Nevertheless, if the past couple of years (let alone the strikes) have taught us anything about the current entertainment industry, it’s that streaming services, despite making money Hanover Fist, seem to be run by people who don’t actually enjoy movies or television very much, and think they’re a dumb waste of time. But hey, the rubes in the suburbs seem to enjoy them, so let’s get in on that action.
A number of baffling decisions have been made in recent years that suggest there’s some sort of Max Bialystock shenanigans taking place, a deliberate attempt to run streaming services into the ground while burning as much cash as possible. Perhaps it’s an elaborate laundering scheme with the Russian mafia, or maybe it’s just a lethal combination of greed and incompetence (which, frankly, is how a lot of decisions seem to be made these days). Regardless, it makes one wonder how many other potentially exciting projects are getting buried under the constant reshuffling of #content, where movies and TV shows are bounced around between one service or another, if they’re not disappeared into the mysterious, ominous sounding “vault” altogether.
But at least Monkey Man will get a shot at living up to that tremendous trailer. Or, it might suck. Either way, at least it’ll get a chance to suck on the big screen, where it was meant to be seen.
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