So recently Nick Cage has been getting a well earned rep for being a horrible actor who tends to overdo all of his roles. Which I don’t want to deny, but I still say that he is a 50/50 actor for me since he on occasion will surprise me with some good acting/roles. And with the release of Alex Proyas’ newest film starring Nicolas Cage [which I plan to see tonight] I felt like sharing the best and the worst of Nick Cage’s career that I’ve been able to see so far.

BEST /WORST

FIVE – National Treasure/Gone in 60 Seconds

National Treasure does include some of Mr. Cage’s cheesy acting but this is probably the only film where it fits the part. I see National Treasure a poor man’s Indiana Jones movie and it’s all about the adventure and how big they can make the puzzles, which I enjoyed so much. I’d also place the sequel to this movie in here as a tie for the number 5 best of Nick Cage.

Gone in 60 Seconds worked for me when it was first released in 2000, and I was 14 and all I wanted to see were sexual innuendos from Angelina Jolie and pretty cars being driven at high speeds. However, as I grew older and realized that movies are better than crap like that and noticed all the forced acting and horrendous plot I classed this film in with the crap that is The Fast and The Furious.

FOUR – Lord of War/City of Angels

Lord of War was possibly one of Cage’s best roles of the last 10 years. He plays a charismatic [this is the key factor for a good Cage film nowadays] gunrunner with a good sense of humour/wit that comes with it. I also loved how the movie tried, even though others have done better, to comment on the war profiteering in the world and how it probably will never stop due to who needs who and how the world is run.

City of Angels on the other hand was an abysmal film about how an Angle falls in love with a woman after watching her for years and decides to become mortal to try and be with her. The movie is plagued with terrible acting, especially from Meg Ryan, and painful to watch forced scenes that are there only to try and jerk the tears from your dry eyes. I hate movies like this. I mean tear jerkers can be great, and so can the romantic ones, but they need better ideas/build-ups than what we are given here.

THREE – The Rock/Next

The Rock is an amazingly fun trashy Michael Bay action film. Who can’t say they didn’t watch this movie and enjoy every time Cage & Connery had a scene together – i.e. 80% of the film – because Cage was playing the nerd turned badass and Connery was the real deal. And when Connery laid down the law with the line “Your ‘best’! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.” this shit is on.  I know I occasionally hate on Michael Bay movies, but damn he knows how to make a great action film every now and again.

Next on the other hand made me realize how bad Cage can really be. This guy finally made me realize that people do this for the money more than they do it for its artistic value. Like the only reason I was able to sit through the full running time of the movie was because I got to stare at Jessica Beil. The movie would’ve been so much more satisfying if I was able to look into the future myself, watch myself watch the movie and realize what a bad idea it was to watch the movie and then decide not to watch it.

TWO – Raising Arizona/Ghost Rider

Raising Arizona is directed by the Coen Brothers who are just amazing when it comes to comedic films, except their most recent which I am not a fan of Burn After Reading. I found the quirkiness of the cinematography and a lot of the characters made the movie an unforgettable watch. I loved especially John Goodman’s cameo role in the film.

Ghost Rider took comic book movies back a decade and a half for me. Some of the worst developed, least interesting villains ever. Every battle between a villain and the ghost rider is so short and so impossibly boring fights since the Ghost Rider is obviously more powerful than the enemies. The movie could’ve been vastly improved by itself by being 114 minutes shorter [i.e. the entire runtime].

ONE – Adaptation/Bangkok Dangerous

Adaptation was my introduction to a Charlie Kaufman screenplay to film awesomeness. Before this film I always called Nicolas Cage the fun and charismatic actor – as can be seen from my selections for the BEST half the top 5 – and not much more. However, this movie showed that he has some range and I loved him in it. He even played his own identical brother in the movie – which to this date I’m not sure whether is supposed to be real or imaginary – and I can’t get enough of this amazingly weird and over-analyzable style of story-telling.

Bangkok Dangerous is Nicolas Cage’s worst film of all time. He shows absolutely no facial reaction to anything and refuses to immerse himself into any scenario in the film. I believed that he just sat there and waited for the director to shout THAT’S A WRAP, like how every other person waits for the clock to say 5 and for you to get on your way home. I also hated the useless love interest that served no purpose but only to complete the annoying movie formula.

Well there you have my take on Mr. Cage and his career, vote for what you think is his BEST and WORST movie of all time in the poll below and make sure to comment your thoughts if you agree/disagree with me.

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