The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: A Comedy-Suspense Classic!

I am a huge Nicolas Cage fan, and I'll bet there are plenty of you reading this that are, too.  He has starred in some of my favorite movies, including "Raising Arizona" (1982), "Leaving Las Vegas (for which he won the Best Actor AW in 1995), "Face/Off" (1997), and "Family Man" (2000 – my favorite Christmas Movie), among others.  Of him, the great Roger Ebert once said "Cage is a good actor in good movies, and an almost indispensable actor in bad ones."  He can do comedy, action, or serious drama with equal ease and excellence, and he's always a joy to see light up the screen again. This film, co-written and directed by Tom Gormican, is multi-layered and works well on every level.  It's a comedy-satire, dysfunctional family drama, buddy-film, an action-suspense thriller, as well as taking a revealing look at the conflict between an actor's personal life and his movie-star image, all wrapped up into a compact 105 minutes!  (I never thought I would write this, but this movie might even be too short!) As we enter the world of the film, Nick Cage's career is floundering.  He hasn't had a hit film in years.  His personal life has gone "down-the-tubes," too.  He is divorced from Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and living at a Beverly Hills hotel.  (He owes the hotel $600,000, among his other massive debts.)  The relationship with his 16-year-old daughter Addy (Lily Sheen, the daughter of Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale) is almost nil (although he is trying to improve it). As a way for Cage to pay off some of his debts, he reluctantly accepts a gig to appear for a birthday party which is being held in Majorca, Spain.  The party is being funded by an olive magnate and a Cage super-fan, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal).  Javi and Nick form a fast and intense bond.  Nick soon gets absconded by the CIA, who inform him that Javi is an international illegal arms dealer who has kidnapped a 16-year-old girl.  Nick's intuition and character-reading skills convince him that Javi is a great guy who couldn't possibly be doing these things.  He tells the CIA that they must be mistaken, but they blow him off.  Eventually, they persuade Nick to try to take Javi down and rescue the girl. I won't say any more about the plot, but the movie is very funny and suspenseful.  Cage is terrific, especially  with his self-deprecating humor.  Robin and I haven't laughed so much in a long time.  It's an AWW film, although, being a comedy-action movie, it doesn't have much of a chance.  I would also give Nick the Best Actor AA, since I challenge anyone out there to play Cage better than Cage!  It's a MUST-SEE, and I'd catch it before it leaves the theaters, since, unfortunately, it may not end up being a hit.