Deliriously dark horror-comedy The Monkey is one of the very best Stephen King adaptations
After nearly 50 years of mixed success in adapting horror-meister Stephen King’s stories, The Monkey gets it right, writes Leigh Paatsch.
From a bonkers but brilliant Stephen King adaptation to a bland Marvel blockbuster, it’s a mixed bag on the big screen this week.
THE MONKEY (MA15+)
Director: Osgood Perkins
Starring: Theo James, Adam Scott, Elijah Wood
★★★★
The horror genre has been enjoying a period of rude health for well over 18 months now, and the trend shows no sign of suddenly tapering off if the arrival of The Monkey is any indication.
In almost 50 years of Stephen King movie adaptations, this deliriously unhinged death-fest is just about the funniest and freshest chiller to ever be associated with the celebrated author. Aggressively amusing, audaciously gory and energetically staged, this killer combo of comedy and carnage will have you laughing hard and looking anywhere but the screen as all hell continues to break loose.
At the eye of this imperfect storm of macabre mayhem you will find nothing more than a wind-up toy monkey. Depending on who turns the key at which time, only one thing is certain: someone nearby is about to die an imaginatively gruesome – and often spectacularly absurd – death. Ownership of the sinister little simian is endured as a lifelong curse by a pair of estranged twin brothers (both played perfectly by Theo James) who have tried every trick in the book to control, contain or even destroy the creepy toy.
Deceptively well-written and impeccably designed, this is one of those maverick movie miracles that should not work anywhere near as brilliantly as it does.
The Monkey is in cinemas now
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (M)
Director: Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox)
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito
★★
Even if you have done the requisite prerelease homework, Captain America: Brave New World still feels like hard work.
This 35th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe marks the fourth solo screen outing for Captain America. However, having seen the previous three won’t be much help when it comes to determining what is (and isn’t) happening in this bloated – yet bland – action blockbuster.
Here’s where that prerelease homework comes in.
First of all, you need to be recalling that late-breaking development in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, where Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) handed over the title of Captain America to his former Falcon offsider Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).
It would also help some if you streamed the 2021 series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which details how Sam came to grips with the sudden promotion.
Oh, and the new Captain America movie also cross-references data you may have picked up from watching a clutch of other Marvel movies like the much-maligned Eternals and the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk.
Should you be showing up to Brave New World without any of this intel, the movie will be going down in your estimation immediately.
To sum up the scrappy synopsis to be navigated here, former Hulk-hating Army man Gen. Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (Harrison Ford replacing the late William Hurt) is now US President.
One of Ross’ most pressing missions is to corner the global market in the intergalactic wonder mineral Adamantium (the same stuff that Wolverine’s claws are made from). Another urgent matter is to survive a sudden assassination attempt by parties seemingly aligned with his own administration.
It isn’t long before Captain Sam, his new Falcon (Danny Ramirez), a kooky collective of villains (Giancarlo Esposito and Tim Blake Nelson) and secret agents (Shira Haas) – plus, later on, a radically transformed Ross – are pinballed here, there and everywhere in what feels like a concerted bid to confound as wide an audience as possible.
Mackie is such an upstanding screen presence that neither he nor the character of Captain America will suffer too much damage to their reputations in the long term.
In the short term, however, it might be best to avoid venturing into this Brave New World unless your devotion to all things Marvel demands you must.
Captain America: Brave New World is in cinemas now
BIRD (M)
★★★½
General release
More Coverage
If the polarising sensation that was 2023’s Saltburn had you thinking Barry Keoghan could be one of the best actors in the business, here’s the proof you’ve been needing. The Irish-born chameleon disappears inside his character in Bird with an abandon and authenticity that you only see in the most elite of performers.
Keoghan plays a bloke called Bug, a fully-tatted desperado doing his best to raise two teenage children while trying to make ends meet in a desolate English squat. One of Bug’s better business ideas is selling the hallucinogenic slime secreted by what he calls “drug toads.” While it would be fair to assume Bug won’t be getting rich any time soon, the fortunes of his rebellious 12-year-old daughter Bailey (Nyikiya Adams) are not so easy to predict.
After embedding her audience deep inside this confronting world, writer-director Andrea Arnold (American Honey, Fish Tank) gradually trains her focus on Bailey. Just as much as Bailey needs a way out of this dark environment, this impulsive yet sensitive kid also needs a friend. A raw rites-of-passage affair that takes an occasional fascinating turn into fantasy in a striking final act.
Originally published as Deliriously dark horror-comedy The Monkey is one of the very best Stephen King adaptations
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