theplaylist.net February 1, 2021 Prisoners of the Ghostland" is not very good except sometimes when it’s fantastic, with all of its enthusiastically incoherent violence.
Shuffling across styles and oddball cultural references, "Prisoners" is a cheeky picture whose melodramatic grandeur is undercut by the story...
Detroit News September 16, 2021 A self-conscious shoulder shrug of an in-joke that isn’t designed to be taken seriously by anyone. Mission accomplished.
The Guardian September 19, 2021 Utterly barmy.
Austin Chronicle February 1, 2021 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 he fina...
Sono’s films certainly aren’t known for following a straight line from A to B, but this time around, there’s barely any inte...
The Guardian September 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...
Los Angeles Times September 16, 2021 Even devotees of midnight movies may get a little worn out by the time this very slight story ends in yet another epic fight sequence, lit in...
Sono has effectively guaranteed that we’ll always have something interesting to look at, even as the brain struggles for meaning.
Slant Magazine February 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...
Book & Film Globe February 10, 2021 A hot mess of throwback tropes, leaning heavily on an Escape from New York setup and evocative of Mad Max’s junkyard fashions and Terry Gilli...
RogerEbert.com February 1, 2021 It’s certainly never dull. How could it be really?
Destined to be quickly forgotten, it would need to play a hardcore genre festival to find an appreciative audience of any size.
Bloody Disgusting February 1, 2021 There’s no weak link among the cast or crew; it’s all a preference of taste and tone. Either way, Sono’s first English langu...
New York Post September 17, 2021 If you’re planning to enjoy this film, don’t ask too many questions. Just embrace the spectacle, a mishmash of genres and a riot o...
Inverse September 20, 2021 What’s most missing in all this mayhem, though, is the vision of an auteur actively engaged with the meaning of the euphorically gonzo tablea...
New York Times September 16, 2021 Sono’s visuals, sizzlingly realized by the cinematographer Sohei Tanikawa, lack neither brio nor imagination. But the ludicrousness of the pl...
Chicago Sun-Times September 17, 2021 Prisoners of the Ghostland isn’t campy enough to be camp.
RogerEbert.com September 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.
AV Club September 15, 2021 There’s not quite enough… inspired lunacy to plug the film’s gaping narrative holes or compensate for its thinly drawn characters, but...
Empire Magazine September 17, 2021 Prisoners OfTheGhostland is by turns brilliant andrubbish.Cage is in his element, it has visual invention to spare, and the fight scenes are fun, b...
Globe and Mail September 17, 2021 Prisoners of the Ghostland seems to scream its gonzo bona fides at the top of its lungs. But the only thing that we can hear is a hoarse, dry...
Any movie that features lines like "You look like Tom Cruise in that samurai movie no one watched" deserves a high five.
indieWire February 1, 2021 "Prisoners of the Ghostland" might lose you during some of its less emotionally lucid moments, but even in the Hero’s confusion Cage always s...
Daily Telegraph September 16, 2021 Perhaps in its ideal form it wouldn’t exist as a film at all, but simply as a free-floating description of one, to be circulated am...
Times (UK) September 17, 2021 [A] crass, post-apocalyptic Z-list atrocity.
Little White Lies February 3, 2021 It is an excellent introduction to the director for anyone who hasn’t dipped into his filmography. And Cage? It’s another solid, snarli...
Independent September 17, 2021 Sono may indulge in madness, but it’s not madness without reason.