The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

(Directed by Tom Gormican, 2022)

It’s just silly. Hell, it’s Goofy. But as a buddy movie, it has some hilarious bits, until it goes into Full Utter Cage Kick-Ass-Action Mode (F.U.C.K.) and peters-out with a whimper.

Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage) is in a slump. His agent has no good news, except he can clear his debts if he agrees to a guest appearance at a birthday party in Mallorca thrown by a rich fan, Javi Gutierrez. That rich fan (the very funny Pedro Pascal), is developing a script for Nic, despite the actor’s declared intention to retire. Javi’s persistence wilts Nic’s resistance, until he is co-opted by the CIA into a scheme to spy on Javi, who (they say) is actually a notorious weapons-smuggler and crime-lord (Gee, the CIA is almost as incompetent and corrupt here as in real life).

So Nic is playing double-roles: the Star collaborating on a nuanced script suffused with cinematic realism, while searching for a kidnapped daughter of a politician. Javi, having shared LSD with Nic to assist with script development (it worked for S.T. Coleridge, didn’t it?), brings out Nic’s estranged wife and their teenaged daughter to help with his ‘issues’, but Nic thinks it is a hostage ploy.  It all resolves in the type of action chase, with fist-i-cuffs and gun play and knife play, that we have come to expect from Nic in action films such as The Rock, Face-Off, Con-Air, and Gone in Sixty Seconds (yawn).

Cage has turned-in some brilliant performances, we understand. We’ve seen at least 2 of these: Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. But while this current piece from his portfolio is easy to watch and occasionally laugh-out-loud-funny, if you want real hilarious insight, check out his lovely, blank-faced, cabaret turn (with assistance from Andy Samberg) on Saturday Night Live in 2012: