Prisoners of the Ghostland

Prisoners of the Ghostland

In the treacherous frontier city of Samurai Town, a ruthless bank robber is sprung from jail by wealthy warlord The Governor, whose adopted granddaughter Bernice has gone missing. The Governor offers the prisoner his freedom in exchange for retrieving the runaway. Strapped into a leather suit that will self-destruct within five days, the bandit sets off on a journey to find the young woman—and his own path to redemption.

  • Released: 2021-08-31
  • Runtime: 103 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Horror, Thrillers
  • Stars: Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Bill Moseley, Nick Cassavetes, Tak Sakaguchi, Yuzuka Nakaya, Young Dais, Lorena Koto, Canon Nawata, Louis Kurihara, Tetsu Watanabe, Yunho, Charles Glover, Cici Zhou, Takato Yonemoto, Shin Shimizu, Matthew Chozick, Constant Voisin, Maya Carraz, Ilsa Levine, Yurino, Chiho Fujii, Christina Virzi, Riko Shibata
  • Director: Sion Sono
 Comments
  • gianmarcoronconi - 6 January 2024
    A wasted opportunity
    This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

    This film is the representation of what happens when you have an avalanche of inventiveness but you have absolutely no idea how to put it effectively on the screen and therefore a chaotic and terrible confusion is generated that drags the spectator but at the same time disorientates him. The fantasy world created by this film is also like the plot, that is, full of many things but so random as to be practically incomprehensible and it is a shame because if there had been more attention to detail and in general to the transposition of the plot the film would have been really valid.
  • componentcoderchacon - 17 July 2023
    It setup a lot of cool things but they never paid off
    It has a lot of wacky crazy stuff show up and really interesting "how did that happen, why is this like this?" moments but moved on from them completely never to be mentioned again. They sprinkled in a few fight scenes and they were fine but then BAM dream sequence right after that ultimately didn't explain, add any depth or even give you something to think about, just here it is. There is so many random parts where we dip into the spirit realm for a few minutes and leave with no new information or how anyone in this world came to power, I was falling asleep near the middle of the film Skip this one unless you really love post-apoc stuff or Cage.
  • kosmasp - 10 July 2022
    Break free
    No pun intended - prisoners do intend at least to break free. It's not like they do succeed most of the time. At least if you consider over the long run. But this is something different, something really different - a movie by Sion Sono that is starring Nicolas Cage - it did sound like a wet dream come true.

    Well if you have high hopes for this, you better tone them down. I already had them watered down by others. And even though I did not want to believe them, I have to admit, after watching this - it is rather weird if I were to put it mildly.

    It still is well done and shot - visually speaking it works. It still has a lot of Nic .. Cageirisms (or whatever you would want to call them). Especially when he holds a speech to rile people up ... while simultaneously cursing them out too.

    If that is enough for you and you don't mind the craziness - you could do worse. But if you do expect a bit more of a movie that has or rather could have been so much more ... well, do not feel too dissapointed ... unfortunately it was bound to happen (no pun intended).
  • FeastMode - 19 May 2022
    Zoolander voice: What is this?
    I used that same headline for my Jiu Jitsu review, another horrendous Nick Cage movie, but it's even more fitting here. I have no idea what this movie is. It's ridiculously weird, and not the good kind of weird. And it's not one or two aspects, it's everything in this movie.

    I repeatedly asked myself, "why am I still watching this?" I can't believe I finished it. The only reason I kept going is to see if Nick Cage does something outrageous and memorable. And I did get a few hilarious Nick Cage moments. But definitely not enough to make it an enjoyable experience.

    Prisoners of the Ghostland is utter nonsense and complete garbage. It reminds me of the few super old movies I've seen from the 50s or 60s. It's a bunch of weird nonsense in hopes that people will interpret it in an artistic way. That won't happen here.

    There were a few parts that were so bad I started to wonder if it was intentional. So I tried watching it as a parody. That didn't work. Then I tried looking at it as a B-movie. Nope. Then a so-bad-it's-good movie. Fail. I tried everything. I understood nothing. I have no idea what they were trying to do.

    I give them props for creativity. But creative nonsense is still nonsense. (1 viewing, 5/18/2022)
  • jmbovan-47-160173 - 28 March 2022
    Wacky Mad Max on hallucinogens
    Trippy and makes no sense film making give this Nicolas Cage film a deep swift kick in the butt. Not as over the top as some of his films, but it has a fun quality to it. Just watch and enjoy, don't try to make sense of it.