My wife and I have a designated movie night each week that takes precedence over any plans that we make. The theme of the movie switches month to month, and April 2024’s theme was Nicholas Cage movies.
not that we needed a reason, but we watched Cage’s new movie Dream Scenario from A24 at the end of March and it became a top 5 Nicholas Cage movie for me. Seriously, such a good performance and also an enthralling original story. It made us start ranking our favorite Nic Cage movies, and it also made us wonder what other movies of his we may have missed out on.
Movies watched: National Treasure (1 & 2), Face/Off, Pig, and Left Behind.
National Treasure
We started with National Treasure, which was a natural choice particularly because Alexis had never seen it before (I know, right?).
She kept saying she wished there wasn’t a rich white guy chasing the main character at every turn, and it made me realize how universally relatable this movie is because don’t we all?
Cage took this role seriously. I remember watching National Treasure as a kid and admiring Cage’s Ben Gates–not because he was a history buffer but rather for his passion for justice. I always viewed this movie as a genuine hero story, and I still love watching it for that reason.
National Treasure 2
We circled back to the National Treasure sequel before the month ended, and although Alexis didn’t like it as much, I had forgotten how much I love it. It’s nowhere near as good as the first one, but I’m convinced Cage funded this sequel himself because his performance was a lot more enjoyable than the first one.
Cage went to some great lengths to get some good screams in, and the facial expressions came in full force.
The stakes were a lot higher, but it was a lot sillier than its predecessor. That made it feel like just a fun silly time as opposed to a mystery that keeps you intrigued. But watching Cage in his element–screaming and flailing his arms around and imitating his idol Elvis Presley’s expressions much more than usual–was my favorite type of Nic Cage flick.
Face/Off
Another over-the-top performance from Cage was in Face/Off, in which he and John Travolta both acted their absolute asses off in the most hilarious way possible.
Please, if you’re a fan of The Office, go watch Face/Off and then watch the “Threat Level Midnight” episode. You won’t regret it.
The funny part is that this feels like just as much of a parody as “Threat Level Midnight” was. It’s the definition of “just make it awesome.” You can see the lines on the guys as they’re flying through the air, and the slow-motion gunfire adds a good 10 minutes to the film’s runtime.
Alexis said that face/off was hard to follow because there was no indication that anyone would have their face taken off until about halfway through the movie and i think she’s totally right. the biggest reason why this movie felt so silly is because it had absolutely no structure or sense of direction. It really lacked identity.
(insert palpatine ironic meme). ((Yes i meant to leave this here))
don’t get me wrong; we still had a blast watching this one. Despite not knowing what would happen next, the constant shouting matches and shooting showdowns between Cage and Travolta were more than enough to keep us entertained.
Left Behind
In fact, A lot of the fun in all of these movies came from the action and Nic Cage’s range. Remove both of those elements and you get Left Behind.
For those who haven’t seen it (we own it on Blu-ray and somehow neither of us had watched it), the premise of Left Behind is essentially what it would look like if the biblical Rapture happens in the middle of a plane ride.
I dig the basis on which this story was built, but there were too many convenient strings holding together and progressing the story for it to not be distracting. Bummer because I think this story could be told much more creatively.
I think it’s a hard tale to tell well because there’s no good way to end it, but this one didn’t have much structure to even help us understand what had to be resolved.
Every character was as different as possible, probably to convey that the people left behind would come from all walks of life. And they brought some serious baggage, which was unpacked in the strangest way.
The most confusing part (and probably my favorite) was when Jordin Sparks randomly pulled a gun and started acting schizophrenic. It ended up being her only purpose in the film because they never circled back to her story at all, which made it even better.
Pig
My favorite movie of the batch was Pig, which is crazy because Nic Cage is the only reason I ever would’ve put this movie on.
The story in pig plays well, and the combination of small cast + anonymity of a lot of the side characters gives the movie a great intimate feel.
I think I can see director Michael Sarnoski’s vision so clearly in this. It’s not perfect by any means, but it resonated with me so strongly. A man escaping his past while also trying to keep it alive is rich material, and I love the direction he took with it.
The antagonist was well-written, too. I liked how he mirrored the main role, and I think the common ground aspect was the coolest part for me. Really thoroughly thought-out character arch.
Even the sound editing and variety in pig’s camerawork allowed me to feel nic cage’s emotions when they began to bubble over. Loved that.
Nic Cage plays a tortured soul really, really well. His age compliments this even better–he was awesome in Dream Scenario and I think it’s a really similar vibe here.
