The Nic of time
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT
Cert 15 ★★★★
In cinemas now
At first glance, Nicolas Cage’s packed CV is just a collection of random movies. But, when you throw in five wives and profligate spending habits, a pattern begins to emerge.
Over the past 20 years, Cage has alternated between paying his bills, sating artistic ambitions, and playing up to a cult action movie fanbase.
All these versions of Cage appear in his latest movie, along with a new one – the self-deprecating comic. Here, the winner of the 1996 Best Actor Oscar (Leaving Las Vegas) plays actor Nick Cage, an actor saddled with exactly the same CV as its star.
Nick is overworked and up to his eyeballs in debt but still dreaming of another critically acclaimed performance.
When he fails to land a dream role, the self-branded “nouveau shamanic” actor finally decides to retire. But, in true action movie tradition, he agrees to take one last job to pay off his debts.
Super-rich super-fan Javi (Pedro Pascal) has offered to pay Cage $1 million to appear at his birthday party in Majorca.
But, shortly after arriving, he’s taken to one side by two CIA agents (Tiffany
Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) who suspect Javi is the arms dealer responsible for the kidnapping of a politician’s daughter. Will Nick go undercover and free the girl from Javi’s sprawling mansion?
From here, what begins as a self-aware satire turns into a sweet and extremely silly buddy action comedy. Nick wants to save the kid but gets caught in a bromance with Javi’s movie-mad Spaniard.
Pascal is hilarious, Cage is having a ball and the script is packed with in-jokes aimed at right-thinking film buffs.
There’s also some great physical comedy on show here. But it really got me when
Nick puts his ego aside to come to terms with the greatness of Paddington 2.
A self-aware satire turns into a sweet, extremely silly buddy action comedy