As Ryan Scott of MovieWeb has stated it seems to be a good time for demented animatronic funhouse characters since honestly there’s been a few of them as of late and it sounds as though there are plans for more. From the Banana Splits movie to the idea of making a Five Nights at Freddy’s to Child’s Play and now Wally’s Wonderland it would seem that crazy, insane plots about killer machines is just the ‘in’ thing at the moment. That’s okay, so long as you get an actor that can act just as crazy and make it work, and of course Nicolas Cage fits that bill pretty well. He’s been plenty crazy in a good number of his movies and he’s been mellow as well so to be fair there’s not a lot of in-between with this guy. But the fact that he’s playing a janitor in this creepy theme park in which the animatronic characters start coming to life and has to somehow make it out alive seems like it’s going to work to his advantage since it would mean that he can just go nuts and not worry too much about it since that’s what’s needed to make the movie work.
You might be wondering where Cage has been for a while since quite honestly it seems as though he dropped off the map for a while and became something of a stranger to the big screen. He’s been around however and has been working pretty steadily as if you log onto Netflix you can see some of his movies that have gone directly to video and others that have resurfaced after a time. He’s been a busy guy, but for one reason or another he’s been kept from the big screen and his reputation has gone down quite a bit in the last several years. It’s kind of saddening to admit this really since growing up he was one of the biggest stars around and could command the attention of audiences without much effort. As he got older however and started taking on different roles that didn’t really seem to suit him his popularity started to wane it feels like, and Gone in 60 Seconds, as much fun as it was if you didn’t think too much, was heavily criticized by a lot of people since it did leave a lot of questions behind. From that point on it kind of became a downward spiral as he continued to work but didn’t seem to make much headway. In fact he kind of had to work since he developed a bad habit of spending more than he could afford, and at one point it would seem the only thing he was going to be allowed to keep would be the tomb he purchased in New Orleans.
Watching Cage go nuts on screen is kind of an odd experience since it’s like watching a dummy being forced to smile and widen its eyes as much as possible, but more horrifying since you realize that the guy pulling this face is doing it of his own free will. A lot of actors can flip out on screen and become absolutely terrifying, but Cage does so in a manner that’s unique and is kind of cringe-worthy to watch since you can’t tell if he’s method acting or if he’s just trying too hard. For some movies it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to do this but in others it’s still pretty creepy even though people know to expect it. He’s gone nuts in so many movies at this point that it should be commonplace to see him do it again, but every time he does it is still an experience that a lot of people can’t help but be unnerved by. So why not give him a movie in which it will be needed and actually appreciated? Wally’s Wonderland has been likened to a cross between Pale rider and Killer Klowns from Outer Space, which is a weird mixture to be certain. It also indicates however that the movie is going to feature the calmer side of Cage as well since watching him running around going nuts all movie would be kind of strange. Jake Rossen of Mental Floss has a few things to say about Cage that might be interesting.
So far it would seem that the finer details haven’t been divulged but you can imagine that there’s going to be more to this than a janitor being chased around by murderous robots. That premise though is kind of interesting since the janitor in these types of movies usually seems to be one of the ill-fated morons that ends up getting whacked by the monster for one reason or another. To see the janitor actually take a stand and fight back will be interesting. But it will also be intriguing to see what else the movie has to offer when all is said and done.
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