The Many Faces of Nic Cage

*Disclaimer: This isn’t our usual fare. There is no marketing message. You will not find work-related content. It’s summer. Even penguins need a little mind-numbing fun too! And there’s nothing more fun and mindless than a Nicholas Cage marathon … 

Nicolas Cage is known for over-the-top performances in films that defy the laws of nature, gravity, history, and even entertainment! But somehow, in a recent team meeting, we got on the topic of Cage’s filmography and how we always seem to enjoy his movies. And he’s got a lot of them to enjoy! Nic Cage has 117 acting credits on IMDB, spanning diverse genres from drama to comedy to horror - and that’s just National Treasure! I jest, Cage is brilliant in that movie. 

But seriously, I’ve been a huge fan of Cage since I was a kid watching his impressive run in back-to-back action films between The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, and Snake Eyes. As I got older his dramatic stuff was so good! His comedic timing, also brilliant and I often cite this Luke Buckmaster article about the Nicolas Cage Film Festival (Cage-aThon - yes, really!) in 2018, whenever Nicholas Cage comes up in conversation.

So … when we randomly stumbled across Nic Cage in this particular team meeting, we thought we should challenge ourselves to our own Cage-a-Thon. We’d each watch a Nic Cage movie and write a little review to entertain each other. Here are the stories we shared … 

Alisha Watched Pig: AKA Nick Cage, Daddy Issues, & Cooking Tutorials

The description of Pig - which Nicolas Cage has noted is his favourite film he’s appeared in - reads, “A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.”

Based on the film's blurb (and having recently seen Cage in Mandy, a psychedelic revenge flick, which includes a CHAINSAW fight with undead mercenaries), I anticipated Pig to be John Wick with a porker rather than a puppy. 

I couldn't have been more wrong. 

It turns out Pig is a mix of Ratatouille, blended with the complicated father-son relationship from There Will Be Blood, and a dash of Fight Club for seasoning. 

Seriously, the whole movie I waited for that well-known Nic Cage emotion explosion. There is a whole preparation scene where I thought, oh, this is when they break out the secret stash of guns and bombs, but then Cage carefully, delicately, precisely prepares ... Cornish hens.

If Rory Gilmore could see the restraint of Cage – even as he's being beaten to a pulp in an early scene by a waiter – even she would be impressed!

I’m not giving away any more of the plot, but I will say Pig is richly shot and the dialogue is delicious!

Five stars. Would order again! 

Sid Watched The Rock: AKA Nick Cage, Chemical Weapons, and the Green Glowing Tide Pods of Justice

There are movies that feel like time capsules. Then there’s The Rock (1996), which feels like Michael Bay smuggled an explosion-laced fever dream into a Pentagon recruitment video and somehow convinced Sean Connery and Ed Harris to sign on. And thank the gods he did—because without it, we wouldn't have one of the early jewels in the chaotic crown of Nick Cage.

Let’s start with the tone: The Rock is very much a 1996 action movie. A Michael Bay 1996 action movie. Which is to say, it’s loud, fast, makes questionable decisions, and asks absolutely nothing of your brain except to keep your eyes open. The film kicks off with sad Ed Harris at a grave, begging forgiveness for what he’s about to do—namely, threatening to vaporize a major American city with DIY, sci-fi chemical weapons. Then it sprints into the action. There’s no time for “character development” or “making you care about people.” We’re here for missiles and machismo.

Enter Nick Cage, who plays ... basically Nick Cage with a lab coat. He’s a chemical weapons expert, technically, but mostly he’s there to scream about VX gas and deliver lines like he’s in Ghostbusters, while everyone else is filming Die Hard on an Island. While Connery growls with suave Scottish gravitas and Harris tries to give his war criminal a soul, Cage is out here doing Cage things: twitchy, yelling, weirdly tender, and entirely convinced he’s in a comedy. He was MCU-pilled before it was cool.

Now, Sean Connery, who may or may not be James Bond in witness protection, is apparently the only man to ever escape Alcatraz, which is not a backstory so much as a dare. But Connery sells it. The man could read a menu and make it sound like classified intel.

As for Ed Harris: he’s not really the villain, is he? He’s more like a tragic antihero who picked the world’s most convoluted way to request veterans’ benefits. His plan is to hold 81 hostages on Alcatraz and aim a handful of glow-in-the-dark death marbles at San Francisco until the government coughs up some back pay. Which, honestly, seems like it could have started with a sternly-worded letter. But here we are. Does the government negotiate? Of course not, this is a Michael Bay film where we blow shit up and ask questions later. Instead, they send in the redshirts with Cage and Connery, and if you can believe it, the team gets shredded until it's just our odd couple of heroes left to save the day. And they do! Just in the nick of time, with the help of lots of bullets, fireballs, and pushing guys off roofs.

And the ending? Oh, the ending. Cage emerges from a church holding a roll of film he just stole, because it contains proof of who killed JFK. Because, ya know, why not!? Roll credits. 

Look, The Rock isn’t high cinema. It’s barely middle cinema. But it is a fantastic, sweaty, testosterone-fueled relic of the ’90s that gave us early-stage Cage doing what he does best: being gloriously, inexplicably off. And for that alone, it’s worth watching - with popcorn, and a grain of salt.

Kris Watched Con Air: AKA Nick Cage, A Tin Bird, & Leanne Rimes’ Biggest Hit

Con Air, starring Nicholas Cage as Cameron Poe, is an entertaining action film full of chaos directed by Simon West and released in 1997. Poe is a former Army Ranger hitching a ride home on a prison transport plane after being released from prison after serving time for killing a man with just one punch. His hands are deadly weapons after all. Poe just wants to see his wife and daughter, and as one of the good guys he is outnumbered in the plane full of dangerous convicts and high-security stakes. What could go wrong? Well… a lot.

With long hair blowing in the wind, Poe is a selfless hero, a kind of Jesus-figure who is willing to risk his freedom to protect others. Some scenes are cheesy, but would it really be a Nicholas Cage movie without that? Cage delivers his signature exaggerated, sometimes over-the-top eccentric performance, and his Southern accent is questionable, but adds to the Nicholas Cageness of the film. Steve Buscemi was convincingly unnerving as a serial killer but his thoughtful scenes contrasted the insanity and violence of the other criminals on the plane and the movie delivered a satisfying, but unexpected development for his character. Dave Chapelle brought comic relief to intense scenes, and John Malkovich added to the flair of the movie with his criminally-insane mastermind character. Not to be taken too seriously, it’s a fun Nicholas Cage film with a satisfying ending and an impressive supporting cast.

That’s a Wrap!

So, we said we weren’t going to get into any marketing lessons or business stuff in this blog, but if there is one thing to take away from this rather delightful experience, we would say Nic Cage has taught us to be unapologetically ourselves, to enjoy the over-the-top, to find the joy as much as possible. And of course, there's a Nic Cage film for everyone!