This weekend, Channel 5, one of our TV stations had a disaster movie weekend and amongst their chosen features was the network premiere of 2014 film Left Behind. A film, of what seems to be a never-ending list starring Nicolas Cage!
Due to his well-known issues with the Tax Man, he seems to have a film come out every 4-6 months to pay the bills, some of which you may have seen Stolen; Trespass; Tokarev; Justice; Outcast; Dying of the Light; The Frozen Ground and the aforementioned Left Behind, a film about the rapture which sees God taking all the children and believers to heaven (also within the cast included Back to the Future’s Lea Thompson as Nic’s wife and from the original (and in our opinion, the best) Fright Night, Charley Brewster himself, William Ragsdale as Nic’s co-pilot on plane seeming heading for doom.
Of that list of films, I’ve seen quite a few, Stolen involved Nic’s daughter being kidnapped (stolen) and he goes to get her back in the same vain of Taken, Trespass had him held to ransom in his own home this time with his wife, played by Nicole Kidman and the Frozen Ground, based on true events sees Nic’s Alaskan State Trooper on the trail of a serial killer played by John Cusack no less!
He has also made some not so enjoyable efforts, Bangkok Dangerous (seriously just watch the original), the awful sequel to Ghost Rider and Season of the Witch to name just 3 of them!
Of course, the sad thing is when he does put in a great performance, it gets over-shadowed by these other titles, Joe being the most recent.
This of course is a star who has made some absolute epic films in his time with his heyday probably being 1995 to 1997 starting with his Oscar winning turn in Leaving Las Vegas then action superstar in The Rock, Con Air and John Woo’s Face/Off.
He’s worked with many of the best directors you can think of, his Uncle’s Francis Ford Coppola’s RumbleFish; Alan Parker’s Birdy; The Coen Brothers Raising Arizona; Brian DePalma’s Snake Eyes; Joel Schumacher’s 8mm; Gore Verbinski’s The Weather Man; Spike Jonze’s Adaptation; Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center and of course David Lynch with Wild at Heart, impressive you must agree?
I have always found no matter how bad the film, he is always worth watching, from the action films such as the National Treasure Franchise right down to RomCom’s such as Honeymoon in Vegas to even playing a scheming mole in G-Force so it is sad to think the last time I saw him in a cinema was way back in 2011 when I saw Drive Angry 3D (his last big hit was 2013 animated feature the Croods) and I have to go back to 2010 for Kick Ass being the last film of his I actually purchased to be part of my home movie collection.
I personally hope he can get a film that reignites his career, maybe with a TV role as is the norm these days for actors or a big screen outing with maybe a Quentin Tarantino or someone as in fashion, but this does not look to change soon, only this week Pay the Ghost is the latest of his straight to DVD titles ending up on our shelves and he already has 5 films in production for 2016 (one of which being USS Indianapolis based on the events Quint recalls in Jaws so we’ll be looking out for that one)
So what’s your favourite Nicolas Cage film; Who would you love to see him work with; Would you love a sequel to one of his many hits, we’d love to hear from you
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