What’s the best way to approach a new Nicolas Cage film these days? The actor provides an answer of sorts in his latest, Jiu Jitsu . Despite prime placement on the poster, he barely shows his face until the film’s 40-minute mark. He adds a bizarre, menacing undertone to dialogue like: “Get off my piano!” He’s both edgy and uncaring. “No one ever gets what I mean!” is another of his oddly barked lines.
So be like Cage and go in like you just don’t give a damn. You may not love Jiu Jitsu , but with that attitude, you probably won’t loathe it either.
Despite that poster placement, Cage is not the star of the film. Neither is Tony Jaa, staring out of the poster alongside Cage as though begging viewers to recall his breakout hit, 2003’s Ong-Bak .
No, the hero of Jiu Jitsu is Gabonese-Canadian martial artist Alain Moussi, starring as Jake. The opening scene finds him fleeing a Predator -like alien whose weapon of choice is an inexhaustible supply of throwing stars.
Later, he wakes up in a U.S. military base (Cyprus playing Burma), where the worst interrogator ever (Marie Avgeropoulos) is unable to get anything out of him. He can’t even remember his name, although he does recall how to fight. Muscle memory I guess.
Thankfully, sub-par acting doesn’t put the alien fighter off
Jake’s fighting prowess is fortunate, because director Dimitri Logothetis fills about 80% of the movie’s 102 minutes with swordplay, gunplay and all manner of other dangerous play, the worst of which is cameraplay. In one segment, every actor wears a Steadicam, which keeps them centre-frame while the background wobbles around them. Jaa faces off against numerous assailants in a scene that involves one unbroken take and zero unbroken arms.
Moussi has a similar battle, although in this one the camera starts from his point of view (you’re literally watching his arms reach out and hit people) before switching to a third-person perspective and then, at a kick from a bad guy, into first-person again, as though he was somehow pushed back into the camera. It’s – let’s just say it’s uniquely jarring.
When Cage finally arrives he explains that the alien we saw in the opening scene is the oddly named Brax, who comes to Earth every six years, fights a bunch of people, then heads home. A shimmering comet announces his arrival, although I don’t remember seeing it before and I’m several times six years old.
Anyway, Jake is recruited to be one of the fighters. It’s implied that Brax taught humans how to jiu jitsu centuries ago, and that if he doesn’t find the fight challenging enough he’ll lay waste to the planet. Though thankfully sub-par acting doesn’t put him off.
With its corny dialogue and so-so effects – Brax’s face is hidden beneath a glowing blue mask, but the occasional glimpse of his features reminded me of some of the early footage from Cats – Jiu Jitsu might have found a cult following, if only it had been released 24 or 30 or 36 years ago. In 2021 it feels out of time and place, another Nicolas Cage vehicle stuck in the mud, spinning its wheels.
Jiu Jitsu is available on demand on Jan. 26.
1.5 stars out of 5
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2021
