Sucker Punch

Talk about a specific target audience! This PG-13 rated modern-day Gothic tale is custom designed for the 13- to 30-year-old male. I can see exactly what would be appealing about it and appreciate how smart they are to stick to that design.

A pretty young girl (18'ish) is locked in a mental asylum by her abusive stepfather and is to undergo a lobotomy within a week. As she retreats into her own imagination, she develops a fantastical plan for escape, not only for her, but for five of her fellow inmates, who are all under 25 and seem to be used for some sort of smoker/cabaret/dance act for males. Suffice it to say, a good portion of the time they wear bustiers and high heels, with LOTS of eye makeup...smile...

D'ya'wanna see who is in this?

• Emily Browning ("Ned Kelly") is Baby Doll, the lead victim.
• Abbie Cornish ("Limitless") is a fellow inmate.
• Carla Gugino ("Elektra Luxx") is the asylum psychiatrist...and choreographer (!)
• Jena Malone ("Pride and Prejudice") is another member of the asylum "posse."
• Vanessa Hudgens ("Beastly") is another, more cowardly, inmate.
• John Hamm ("Mad Men") does trans-orbital lobotomies....
  

The production design is imaginative and true to the comic book format we expect, as are the generous offerings of martial arts and blowie uppie stuff (no profanity). The fight choreography is fun and just to make sure this thing is really ramped up, those spunky girls fight Nazis, zombies and fire-breathing dragons, along with over-weight cooks and thuggish asylum orderlies.

This Gothic story is no Jane Eyre, even though they are both orphans, because our Grrrrls wear leather dominatrix outfits when they fight!