Release Date – 3/25/11
A young girl is mourning the loss of her mother. Her stepfather is infuriated that he wasn’t left anything in the last will and testament so he decides to take out his anger on the two daughters. The younger sister is killed but the girl defends herself against the stepfather. He hatches a scheme where he blames the girl for the younger sister’s death and gets her sent to the Lennox House for the Mentally Insane. Before his lies are discovered, he pays off an orderly to rush her into a lobotomy. Right when the operation is about to happen, we are warped to a different world where the girl is in a brothel hatching a plan for escape. The movie started on the right track; the opening scene was great. But it goes off into no-man’s land. I don’t really know what the point of it was. The visuals were there and it was really cool to look at but that’s about it. I wasn’t too disappointed though because the early reviews put my expectations low.
Emily Browning plays Baby Doll. We never get her real name, only the name given to her in this fantasy world. She’s constantly a big sour puss through the whole movie, but I guess I would be too if I was in her situation. We are under the impression that she was lobotomized and we’re now inside her brain, which is putting together a wild dream world. BUT… that’s not the only fantasy. Inside her fantasy world she is forced to dance for men at a brothel. But the way they show her dancing is to swap to another fantasy world where she’s fighting giant mutant Samurais, steam powered zombie Germans (not Nazis), robots, dragons and monsters. In this world, she’s searching for items that will help her escape. Along with Baby Doll are the other dancers at the brothel, Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). All very attractive young ladies, but the acting was just so-so. Carl Gugino plays the doctor/head of the brothel. Oscar Isaac plays the corrupt orderly/owner of the brothel. Scott Glenn plays a wise man that shows up in the battle fantasies to help the girls. Again, nothing great on the acting front here.
I don’t really know how to explain the movie. You really have to see it to understand it. Music plays a large role in the story but its not a musical. No character sings a song. But modern remakes of popular songs are transitions into battle scenes. Its supposed to represent a hypnotic dance that Baby Doll is doing. The dance helps them steal the items from people in the brothel. It also activates the double fantasy world where they’re on a journey, whooping ass to get to the item in each “world”. The green screen is pretty much throughout the whole movie, just like 300. And the fights are styled in typical Zack Snyder, who directed and co-wrote, fashion with lots of swaps between slow motion and regular speed, just like 300. So basically this movie is partially 300 but with hot chicks instead of half naked dudes. Its just too much going on and not making a lot of sense. Not to mention, the mini-twist at the end doesn’t even matter. And I’m not even sure I get it. Sucker Punch may have been a disappointment if I didn’t read any early reviews, but since it was getting trashed I set myself up for the worst. And its definitely not the worst. But that doesn’t mean its all that great either.
IMDB – 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 21%
Movie Wiseguys – 5.5/10
