The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

If you're are a Gen-Xer like myself, you grew up on Nicolas Cage movies: "Vampire's Kiss," "Moonstruck," "Raising Arizona," "Wild at Heart;" then later, large action blockbusters such as "The Rock," "Con Air," and "Face/Off." Cage won an Academy Award for "Leaving Las Vegas," and has been in other films which have endeared him to audiences like, "The Family Man," and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." The he did some great work in films like "Matchstick Men," "Adaptation," "Lord of War," and "The Weather Man." Then there were rumours of financial troubles and for the last decade plus, Cage has been working like no other actor, churning out film after film, many it seemed, straight-to-video/streaming. I have watched many of them. There is a lot of mediocre stuff, some great stuff ("Joe," "Pig") and some off-the-wall bananas stuff,("Mandy," "Color out of Space"). Cage has never stopped working.

In his latest film, now out in theatres, Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas Cage, an actor in debt needing a hit film. He resorts to take a million dollar gig (to pay off his debts) to show up and be the guest of a wealthy olive oil farmer in Mallorca, Javi (played by Pedro Pascal). Javi is a huge, obsessive Nicolas Cage fan and he would like Nick to read his screenplay. The movie is a riot and Nicolas Cage has fully embraced it like only Nicolas Cage can. Other actors have played fictional versions of themselves before, like Jean-Claude Van Damme did in JCVD and I have always enjoyed those who can poke fun at themselves, but Cage takes it to a new level of self deprecating narcissism which is a joy to behold. Catch this one now in theatres.