Prisoners of the Ghostland
Bitters End | Release Date: September 17, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
22
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
PolygonMatt PatchesFeb 1, 2021
It’s one of the director’s more mainstream efforts. What could easily devolve into a Crank-like exercise in hyperactivity is conducted with a steady hand and an appreciation for the details. Sono wants his audience to luxuriate in the brutal beauty of Boutella wielding a gatling gun. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 29, 2021
Sion Sono’s Prisoners of the Ghostland throws so much extreme weirdness and violence at us that we might overlook the fact that there’s method to its madness: Beneath the craziness and cacophony lies a tender, tragic tale of emotional paralysis and a civilization eating away at itself. Read full review
80
Film ThreatLorry KiktaFeb 2, 2021
I think that Prisoners of the Ghostland belongs in the category that was previously only really reserved for Jodorowsky’s El Topo, and that is the Acid Western. It embodies and revives that category of movie. If you like Westerns, martial arts, Japanese cinema, Nicolas Cage, or anything weird AF, then this is certainly for you. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineDom SinacolaSep 16, 2021
Ghostland is a movie and place borne from nuclear disaster, populated with the denizens of countless B-movies and the spectres of whiplash Hollywood careers. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 1, 2021
It’s not very good except sometimes when it’s fantastic. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellSep 16, 2021
Prisoners of the Ghostland isn't going to be for everyone, but if you're on board with one of the craziest movies you'll see this year, then strap in and prepare for Nicolas Cage at his most unhinged. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 2, 2021
The film is held captive by its myriad influences, but Cage is so high-spirited that you won’t mind being its prisoner. Read full review
70
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaFeb 2, 2021
You know exactly what brand of “weird” to expect from Nicolas Cage and Sion Sono, but what you might not expect is how much the film feels like a death dream about movies. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 1, 2021
Even when nothing else in the film makes sense, the unhinged ethos of its own creation leaves a clue behind with the clarity of a body-chalk outline. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartSep 16, 2021
Prisoners of the Ghostland is equal parts visual delight and narrative head-scratcher. Most of all, it’s a hefty dose of Nicolas Cage set to full-tilt gonzo. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerSep 17, 2021
Prisoners Of The Ghostland is by turns brilliant and rubbish. Cage is in his element, it has visual invention to spare, and the fight scenes are fun, but it’s a shame such imagination is tethered to equally all-over-the-place storytelling. Read full review
60
The GuardianLeslie FelperinSep 16, 2021
The result is predictably excessive, noisy and more than a little exhausting. But mostly in a fun way, as long as you’re not bothered by gratuitous violence, incoherence and a deep streak of silly. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurraySep 16, 2021
Prisoners of the Ghostland is less a movie than an environment — not always hospitable but distinctly bizarre. Read full review
60
Screen RantSarah Bea MilnerSep 16, 2021
Hate it or love it, Prisoners of the Ghostland is as unforgettable as it is expressive and provocative, and isn't that the fundamental purpose of art? Read full review
60
CineVueMartyn ConterioSep 5, 2021
Sono throws everything at the screen – samurai battles, shootouts, Cage shouting and threatening to karate chops the locals – but it rarely provides anything but the sense you’re watching bizarre performance art in place of a good film. Read full review
60
Time OutStephen A. RussellAug 31, 2021
As envisioned by Japanese director Sion Sono, the brains behind blood-drenched show Tokyo Vampire Hotel and flushed turtle-turned kaiju film Love & Peace, it’s a hoot. But Sono fans expecting the combo with Cage to go properly off may be somewhat surprised by a slightly sedate pace. Read full review
60
Total FilmJordan FarleyFeb 2, 2021
Prisoners of the Ghostland exists entirely outside the norms and conventions of moviemaking. Really there’s only one word to describe it: nuts. Read full review
58
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 17, 2021
It is an overstuffed, manic, exhausting piece of instant movie-meme catnip – likely impenetrable to all but the hardest of hardcore genre devotees. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 14, 2021
What keeps Ghostland from flatlining is Sono’s gift for delirious spectacle, along with the movie’s tacit acknowledgment that it’s utterly ridiculous. Read full review
58
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 4, 2021
The question is whether its lol-random approach will appeal to you, or whether its giddy need to throw everything at the wall just flattens into an obnoxious desire to please. Prisoners of the Ghostland knows exactly what it is, but that may not necessarily be a good thing. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RaupFeb 2, 2021
The actual experience of watching this gonzo dystopian samurai western is far from the shock-a-minute journey that one would expect, but even in its more banal sequences, Sono’s imaginative eye peeks through. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comNick AllenSep 17, 2021
No movie with Nicolas Cage, directed by the wonderfully weird Japanese director Sion Sono, should be this taxing, drawn out, and plainly boring. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisSep 16, 2021
Sono’s visuals, sizzlingly realized by the cinematographer Sohei Tanikawa, lack neither brio nor imagination. But the ludicrousness of the plot severs any emotional connection to a story whose apocalyptic stylings (the Ghostland of the title is a nuclear wasteland) gesture toward Japan and America’s painful history. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 15, 2021
And no, it doesn’t make much sense. Surely this is the strangest movie Cage has ever been in, and that’s saying something. But arresting image follows arresting image in Sono’s fevered vision. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 14, 2021
An “Escape From New York”-meets-“Mad Max” ripoff that desperately wants to be a bonkers, midnight drive-in cult classic but doesn’t have the camp value or the memorably off-the-wall storyline to make the cut. Read full review
50
SlashfilmBen PearsonFeb 1, 2021
A maniacal whirlwind of cinematic insanity, it feels equally likely that Prisoners of the Ghostland could become a cult classic or disappear into the fog. Whether its overall inscrutability is a bug or a feature remains to be seen. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 1, 2021
Somehow, it doesn’t actually seem surprising that Cage would partner with Sono. But the creative choices they make together, from an exploding gumball machine to endangered testicles — well, they must be seen to be believed. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 1, 2021
While the film far outshines most of Cage’s recent efforts (he was direct-to-VOD when direct-to-VOD wasn’t cool) in terms of art direction and fearlessly madcap storytelling, the results are nonetheless muddled and messy. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 23, 2021
It’s almost worth watching just for the way that Cage delivers the word “testicle”: it sounds as though all the syllables got caught in a combine harvester and then had to be reassembled, with the accents and emphases in the wrong places. It is, like much of the film, utterly barmy. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 17, 2021
Any film that hands Sofia Boutella a katana can’t be dismissed as an entirely fruitless exercise. It’s the Algerian actress and dancer, rather than Cage, who proves to be Ghostland’s greatest asset. And when your damsel is evidently capable of dealing with her own distress, thank you very much, the rescue mission can’t help but feel a touch redundant. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerSep 16, 2021
Ultimately, Prisoners of the Ghostland is an OK film by a great filmmaker who has made truly great films, most memorable for its cast and the fact Sono finally made an English-language movie. Yet, when what's noteworthy about a film is just that it exists, it's more a vapor than an actual phantom. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 1, 2021
It alternates between too simplistic and incomprehensible, spending much of its time in between those poles in the "I understand, but I don't care" zone. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 2, 2021
The film is a profound disappointment in part because it feels so overdetermined to live up to Sion Sono and Nicholas Cage’s respective brands. Read full review
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