Movie Review: ‘Monkey Man’

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Let’s get this out of the way, there will be obvious, inevitable comparisons to the John Wick franchise and I love that the filmmakers own it by name checking Wick in the first half hour. Yes, it is an action-thriller with one man going on a killing spree seeking revenge for a death (in this case, it is the death of someone arguably closer than a dog). There is also a dog in this film that has about as much screen time as the dog in John Wick, though I will spoil it up front that the dog in this film does not share the same fate (as far as the audience can tell). However, Monkey Man is far more than a John Wick clone.

Dev Patel (possibly still best known for Slumdog Millionaire, though I enjoyed The Newsroom and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) makes his directorial debut with Monkey Man. He stated at the SXSW premiere that he wanted to give his entry in the action genre “real soul, real trauma, (and) real pain” along with “a little bit of culture” which he most certainly successfully achieved. His character is inspired by his mother’s tales of Hanuman, an actual mythological deity in Hinduism, and the film touches on social and political issues, including police corruption and poverty.

The cinematography and fight choreography are visually stunning. My only complaint would be some of the up close, out-of-focus, and/or shaky cam scenes that are a little jarring; but they were not frequent enough to detract from my overall enjoyment. There are a couple of hilarious comic relief moments that play well because of how out-of-place they seem given all the action, tension, and drama surrounding them. And it has a captivating story to tie everything together.