Willy's Wonderland (2 Stars)

I rarely make spontaneous purchases when browsing films in a store, unless they're in the bargain bin. However, I saw this film with Nicolas Cage in a shop opposite my cinema, and I couldn't resist it. The price was 7.50 Euros, not quite a bargain bin price, but low enough to tempt me.

In the town of Hayesville there was a family entertainment centre called Willy's Wonderland. Its owner was a serial killer called Jerry Willis, and he hired cannibals as his assistants. After a number of deaths the police wanted to arrest Jerry and his assistants, but they committed suicide in a satanic ritual that transferred their consciousness into the centre's robots. They began to kill people in the town. The town's elders made a deal with the robots. They would bring people as sacrifices into the centre at regular intervals, as long as the robots promised to kill nobody in the town.

Then Nicolas Cage arrives. His character in the film isn't named, and he doesn't speak. Is he mute or just anti-social? It's left open to interpretation. His car tyres are punctured, a deliberate trap, although he doesn't realise it. He doesn't have cash to pay for repair, but he's told that if he cleans Willy's Wonderland overnight his car will be repaired for free. So he has to spend a night with the killer robots.

Does the story sound silly to you so far? Yes, it is. Nicolas Cage puts on a brilliantly intense performance, but not even that is enough to rescue the poor story. His battle against the robots is surreal. Every time he kills a robot he goes back to cleaning the centre, as if nothing has happened. It's just ridiculous. I should stop buying films spontaneously.

Success Rate:  - 11.2

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