NIC FREAKINGGGGG CAGEEEEE!
While I’ve not seen every Nicolas Cage movie, I’ve seen enough to get most of the jokes. There are a lot of them, not all of the humor lands but I genuinely smiled inside and out non-stop. Laughed out loud multiple times (more than I didn’t), and couldn’t believe how original it felt. Breath of fresh air. Can’t believe this actually exists. Occasionally it’s a bit too self-indulgent. Won’t spoil anything, but you’ll know when it happens.
But the biggest surprise? The emotion. It’s heartfelt, wholesome and moving. It’s shocking to me that essentially a parody Hollywood satire has the such an intentional message about the importance of family. It’s not the only contender for this year, but darn if it isn’t compelling when no one expected it to be.
When it shifts tones a couple times and turns into different movies, I both loved and struggled with that. I enjoyed it more as a crazy buddy comedy, and sort of always wished it would get back to that. So while some parts were more interesting than others, I had so much fun that I don’t really care.
This could have very well been a more accessible PG-13 movie if not for the incessant and unnecessary foul language. My only drawback. To an extent, yes people speak in this manner often, but at what point do writers really feel the need to add so many expletives? Some could be improvised on set, but it’s lazy too let that be such a driving factor in selling the stakes or emotion of a scene. Let the story do that naturally, otherwise it just loses the impact and becomes tiresome.
One part character drama, one part comedy, one part action movie – just like Nic’s career all summed up beautifully. Genuinely hope we get a sequel or something like this with another actor. I just love the idea so much and there’s many more it could work for. But is there any other actor that can be this self-aware and meta about oneself?
If not, maybe they could incorporate Nicolas Cage into the sequel, guiding some other actor through his own recent experience. Can you imagine if they made it with John Travolta, who – in this scenario – has been pressured into (the already announced in real life actually) sequel to Face/Off and Nic Cage has to help him stop it? Would be brilliant!
All in all, just a great time at the movies. Also, Pedro Pascal is a (wait for it) national treasure. Ha!
4.5 out of 5 stars
Read this review on Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/2N4N71