Oh Nicolas Cage, where did you go wrong? How did you become the butt of so many jokes on the state of contemporary cinema? It seems as though whenever some cynical, naïve movie-goer, unfamiliar with the money to be made in international movie markets and the studios’ love of reliably shitty and profitable franchises, bemoans the downfall of American cinema (due to a lack of originality and the always present sequel of a reboot of a remake of a movie based off a book), Cage’s name invariably comes up. It’s hard to know exactly what happened to his career, or why he has been shying away from dramas for which he usually garnered praise (the esteemed Roger Ebert has defended Cage even after train wrecks such as Knowing). 1996-1997 may have arguably been the start of Nic’s decline into action-hero parody, but his three roles in The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off were actually respectable. Granted, I have no idea why he chose to leverage his newfound power coming off of the widely acclaimed Leaving Las Vegas (for which Cage received, gasp, an Oscar!) by grabbing three consecutive action roles. But that doesn’t change the fact that these movies were actually ‘good’, at least in terms of who their perceived audience was. I can think of nothing more enjoyable for mindless pleasure than sitting down on my couch with a couple Hot Pockets and watching Nic and Sean Connery spit pithy dialogue at each other while gunning down rogue marines.
It seems Cage’s last good year was 2005, which saw him strongly play protagonists in Lord of War and The Weather Man. One could cite his roles in the 2006 film World Trade Center (which I admit I have not seen) and 2010’s Kick-Ass as admirable – certainly most critics would agree that Cage did a fine job in these parts. But the body of work he has put out since 2005, starting with the laughably over-acted Wicker Man through Ghost Rider, G-Force (yes, that animated film about the gerbils), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and finally on to his most recent masterpiece, Drive Angry, the 2011 film about a criminal broken out of hell to seek revenge on a satanic cult leader (I’m simplifying the plot a little, but who cares, that’s definitely not the movie’s strong point).
Cage is clearly a good actor, capable of performing well in serious roles and contributing to the parts of cinema that will last longer than a few months. So the question is, when will Nicolas Cage return to making good (or at least respectable) movies? Maybe when he stops buying $275,000 dinosaur heads and can afford to. Until then, get excited for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, due out next year.
