An Ode To: Nicholas Cage

In my top ten list, I let it slip that I'm a Nicholas Cage fan...I know this is a loaded statement; its like playing Russian Roulette with a full clip (There's no doubt Nicholas Cage has done this several times and has never shot himself). Nicholas Cage is the face of such crappy fare like Season of the Witch, Drive Angry (my favorite bad movie of 2011), National Treasure, National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets, National Treasure 3: The Search for Zachary Taylor's Cane, Wicker Man, The Scourer's Apprentice, Trespass, Ghost Rider, and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (this movie isn't out yet but based on the trailer, it's a mortal lock), The Rock, and many other films that shalt not be named. I'm pretty sure he takes a lot of thought into selecting film roles...and by lots of thought I mean he lines scripts against a wall, takes his Russian Roulette gun, blindfolds himself, shots at the wall and which ever script has the most holes in it is the part he takes. It makes a lot of sense when you don't think about it.

So, the $64,000 question: Why do I admire him? Well, I like him as an actor. I'm a student of the Roger Ebert school of thought on Nicholas Cage, he only knows two speeds: intense and intenser. Most people believe he overacts in his roles but I believe he goes to great lengths to portray his characters. There are two problems most people have with Nicholas Cage: his bad films do not hold up around him and become a showcase for "Crazy" Cage. On top of poor film selection, his behavior is...to put it as nice as I can...eccentric (Dog the Bounty Hunter bailed him out of jail...Dog the Bounty Hunter)! When he's not busy getting bailed out of jail by racist bounty hunters, he's not paying taxes, buying castles with money he should pay his taxes with, reading comics and wearing weird wigs (wait, he does that in his movies, now I'm doing it).

I will concede the bad movies above but as a counter argument, I present good movies like Raising Arizona, Adaptation, World Trade Center, Bad Lieutenant, Kick-Ass, and my two favorite Nicholas Cage films, Face/Off and Leaving Las Vegas. In Face/Off, Cage got to play the good guy and the bad guy. He got to be weird but he also showed the vunerability present in his best roles. It is easy to do this as the good guy but he did it as the bad guy too (Ex: tying his brothers shoes). Nicholas Cage shows a great range of emotion in that movie. My favorite Nicholas Cage movie is Leaving Las Vegas (for which he won an Oscar). In this movie, Cage plays a suicidal screenwriter content to drink himself to death. This movie shows what Cage does at his best; he brings to life to a dark, comedic, and complex character who hangs onto his sanity by the tips of his fingernails. When he receives good direction, he knows when to restrain himself and allow the damaged psyche of his characters to unfold at a slow pace, drawing the audience in as he destroys himself. His bad movies are too dependent on Nicholas Cage being eccentric from the opening to closing credits. I challenge anyone who does not like Nicholas Cage to look at these movies and not tell me these movies could be better without him.

Nicholas Cage reminds me of Allen Iverson; he is one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. Like Cage, Iverson got career accolades (4 scoring titles and a league MVP) and was recognized as someone who put everything he had into what he loved (Iverson played every game like his last), but like Cage, Iverson was difficult to work with and he wanted everything his way or no way at all. Iverson's shooting percentage was terrible for his career, only making 42.5% of his field goals; that's not much better than the percentage of good Cage movies. With this being said, Allen Iverson always had the ability to take over a game; Nicholas Cage has the ability to give a spectacular performance. While it is too late for Allen Iverson to make a comeback, Nicholas Cage can still turn his career around (Robert Downey Jr. did it and no one saw that coming).