The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

 Year:  2022

Director:  Tom Gormican

Screenplay:  Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Neil Patrick Harris

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Action, comedy

Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage is struggling with his career, and is becoming increasingly estranged from his ex-wife (Horgan) and teenage daughter (Lily Sheen).  Reluctantly he accepts a lucrative assignment to travel to an island off Mallorca and appear at the birthday party of a billionaire super-fan, Javi (Pascal).  Shortly after he arrives, however, Cage is contacted by CIA agents Vivian (Haddish) and Martin Etten (Barinholtz) who inform him that Javi is an international arms dealer, who is behind the kidnapping of the teenage daughter of a prominent politician.  The CIA want Cage to act as a spy for them.

Nicolas Cage has had a strange and eclectic career.  Making his name with such films as the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona (1987), Moonstruck (1987) opposite Cher, and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), to action hero turns in The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997) and Face/Off (1997), and an Oscar-nominated performances in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and Adaptation. (2002), and after a series of small, straight-to-video films, he has had something of career resurgence in recent years with cult horror films such as Mandy (2018) and Color Out of Space (2019), and finding critical success with Pig (2021).  Cage has also had a strange form of cult celebrity appearing in numerous internet memes and his face appearing on things such as mugs, clothes and even cushions, due to his eclectic career choices, his often flamboyant style of acting (which Cage himself described as "nouveau shamanistic") and his distinctive look and drawling voice.  In this film Cage doesn't just play a version of himself but also an imaginary version of his younger self, digitally de-aged and credited under his birth name of "Nicolas Kim Coppola", who crops up to give the older Cage advice or insults. Here he reminds us once again that he can still deliver a great performance and has a real gift for comedy.  Here he pokes fun, not only at his own career, but at his public image and even his financial troubles.  Pedro Pascal is funny and charismatic as the possible arms-dealer and Nicolas Cage super-fan, with whom the actor bonds.  Great comedy actors such as Sharon Horgan and Tiffany Haddish are a little underused in the supporting cast, but it is really the Nicolas Cage show.  Neil Patrick Harris also appears in a small role as Cage's agent.  The story turns into a fairly average buddy action film and it runs out of steam a little by the end, but the action scenes are well staged and there are consistent laughs throughout.  The performances elevate the film, and the concept of Nicolas Cage playing himself gives the film an extra dimension of fun.  

Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Game Night

Year of Release:  2018
Directors:  John Frances Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
Screenplay:  Mark Perez
Starring:  Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Jesse Plemons, Michael C. Hall, Kyle Chandler
Running Time:  100 minutes
Genre:  Comedy thriller

Married couple Max (Bateman) and Annie (McAdams) share a deep love of all things competitive and host a weekly game night with their friends.  One night however, Max's vastly more wealthy, charismatic, better looking brother Brooks (Chandler) shows up, much to Max's displeasure, and immediately takes over the game night, infuriating both Max and Annie.  The following week they all have game night at Brooks' huge house.  The game Brooks has arranged is an interactive, mystery game, involving a faked kidnapping.  Shortly thereafter, two masked men break in and snatch Brooks.  As Max, Annie and their friends compete to win the game, they soon realise that this game is all too real.

This is a hugely entertaining comedy-thriller, with plenty of laughs throughout as well as a mystery that piles on twists and turns.  Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, both very talented comic actors, have great chemistry together and they are supported by a strong supporting cast (including Sharon Horgan, of Pulling (2006) and Catastrophe (2015- ) fame) who all get a chance to shine.  The action is well-staged and stylish, for example many of the establishing shots of the locations are made to look like a game board with pieces.  There are several late reveals that seriously strain credibility, which to be fair, there are jokes about in the film itself.  This is not a film that is going to change the world.  It is the kind of movie that is ideal for when you just want something light, that is going to give you a couple of hours of solid entertainment.  Stay until the end of the credits for an additional scene.

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams in Game Night