A theory on Nic Cage
Jess pointed me to the trailer of his coming movie. The plot: His son's school opens a 50-year time capsule and gives a letter to each person in attendance. Cage, of course, gets the letter with the date and body count of the deadliest tragedies of our time. And, of course, there are still more dates to come. And, of course, the movie looks awesome.
But every Nicolas Cage movie looks awesome in the trailer, a trend that may explain how Cage envisions his movies before signing on. I bet someone tells him the plot and he thinks hard for two and a half minutes before going, "Aw yeah, that'd be pretty good." I'd probably do the same. Imagines map on back of Declaration of Independence.
Jess figured that was maybe how Cage lived all of life. I had to agree.
"Nic, you ever thought about marrying Lisa Marie?" And he drifts off…
Pictures Lisa Marie in a pretty white dress, himself in a black suit with a crazy belt buckle, wedding bells, crowds of admirers, a limo with red Coke cans hanging off the back, fruity drinks on golden beaches, a den with a bar, Viva Las Vegas on the stereo, funny questions from other couples having drinks about Leaving Las Vegas, a thrown glass shatters, a door closes, the house burns as he stands alone on the lawn, he's drunk in a dive, a silent sneering man with mysterious sunglasses grabs him and beats him up, that man turns out to be Elvis, they chase each other with big rigs in the desert, the Vegas strip looms, where the big show opens tonight, a huge casino explodes as seen from the sky, cut to Cage in a red leather elevator with muzak playing a lounge cover of It's Now or Never, as he says to the elevator operator without turning, "You have no idea."
"Hey, I should marry her…"
January 27th, 2009 at 10:12 AM
So Nic Cage falls squarely as a sign a movie will be craptacular. As you correctly point out, looks good in the trailer, but oh wait until you see the movie! There are a few actors that specialize in starring in craptacular movies, Nic Cage is one…care to guess another? A clue – he likes to take his shirt off.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:39 AM
I can see the argument about how his life is impulsively constructed around a flashy trailer and perhaps this is where he gets off-track. The truth, however, is that writers and directors form his movies entirely around his many bon mots, such as "Put the bunny down" or "You're not leaving! There's a madman in there with his hand on a… ON A BUTTON!". Con Air and The Rock in equal measure are expressions that if you begin a movie with a pile of crap and use that as a stepping stone to ever larger piles of crap—crap that beings to crawl and move with life and new intelligence—the audience will eventually surrender to you out of sheer awe. And that is the magic of turning mere crap into something special: a craptacular.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:25 PM
I can't vouch for whether the movie will be good or not, but Alex Proyas has a fairly good track record with I, Robot and Dark City. A good friend of mine edited this latest film… so don't say anything bad about that. They also shot it on the RED camera. I'll be going to see it at any rate.
In other movie news, 2001 NU alum Steph Green was just nominated for an Academy Award for her short film "New Boy". So pick that in your Oscar pool.
January 27th, 2009 at 7:13 PM
Laura: McConaughey? That comparison's never crossed my mind before, but I kind of like it. McConaughey is to romantic comedy disaster as Cage is to drama.
Will, Nate, I'll accept your quasi-defenses for Mr. Cage. I like the man, believe me. I just think he makes certain choices. And to anyone out there who may have doubted my fandom — this post didn't make that clear — here's what I've seen of Cage's work this decade: Family Man, Adapatation, Matchstick Men, National Treasure, and Weather Man. And I would see Gone in Sixty Seconds, Lord of War and National Treasure 2 if those opportunities presented themselves in my life. That's a movie for every completed year of the decade, and I respect that. Mr. Cage, I salute you.
(Favorite: Adaptation, by far. Second: Matchstick Men.)
January 27th, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Nailed it…you're right, McConaughey specializes in the romcom and action thriller of Craptacular (see Failure to Launch and Two for the Money). Like Nic Cage, however, when he chooses really poorly things go REALLY bad (see Reign of Fire and Sahara). Now Sahara holds a special place in my heart b/c there's a boat that sails on sand! Also like Cage, McConaughey has the potential to be a great actor and somehow loses his way a little too often.
And no, the post didn't quite show your fandom…glad that's cleared up. But for us to stay friends, I need your opinion on National Treasure and how it fits into your movie watching habits.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Gave it three stars on Netflix. Missed it in theaters but not for lacking of trying and rooting for it at the box office and talking about it for months. Chet once recommended the movie to someone in the newsroom because of my enthusiasm for it sight unseen. The map, you see, is on the back of the Declaration of Independence. And that is practically the definition of awesome. When you look up "awesome" in the dictionary, this is what you see.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:40 AM
[...] ago pondered why my Nic Cage post got strong reaction. My sense was that we all hold similar dreams: envisioning awesome, knowing life is often not so [...]