Pop Culture for Fun

This is a man that in order to escape the fame of his family name (Coppola), took the name of a superhero. Luckily, he didn’t go for the obvious and was more subtle, choosing Luke Cage (his kid wasn’t so lucky, being named after Superman, Kal-el). So, what do you do as an actor trying to prove you’re not in the business just because of uncle Francis Ford? Get roles in good movies, movies directed by the big director – The Cotton Club. Also a romantic comedy with Cher (?!?) and a whackjob role in a fun movie – Raising Arizona. Then keep on acting, whatever roles you get (from David Lynch’s Wild at Heart to the not so great Amos & Andrew together with Samuel L. Jackson) until you get you big change to star in an Oscar winning role – Leaving Las Vegas. After that, you’re pretty much set and can do whatever you want. And what did Nicolas Cage want? Action.

The three facets of Nicolas Cage’s acting

Serious, talented, respected actor

Knowing (also a semi-serious movie starring Cage) he can’t only play action heroes or crazy individuals full time if he wants to maintain his career, Nicolas knows how to keep up interest in his acting chops by starring in more high-profile movies, like Lord of War, Knowing, Matchstick Men and Snake Eyes that give the critics a peek at his potential, while letting him do a little action, or crazy (don’t tell me he didn’t like his uber cool arms dealer scenes in Lord of War, or the phobic con man in Matchstick Men). At the same time he has the connections and the resume to get roles in such movies as Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation(also netting him an Oscar nomination), Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center or Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead. Considering there seems to be a consensus he can act that hasn’t been too hurt by his other endeavors had he stuck to only such roles he probably would’ve had more than one Oscar under his belt.

Crazy oddball freak

Though easily observed in the previously mentioned Matchstick Men and Adaptation, the intensity Nicolas Cage can bring to dementia is probably unparalleled. Give the man the role of a deranged individual and he’ll do wonders with it. The good natured oddball he played in Raising Arizona might have been the moment he realized he can do crazy like no one else and also scare the crap out of anyone while doing it. Look at his role in the fiasco that was Kiss of Death – I’d personally be scared of drug dealer Nick Cage with facial hair and that crazy look in his eyes. He was pretty much insane in Kick-Ass – and I’m just talking about a character that shot his daughter in the chest to teach her about bulletproof jacket pain. Which brings us to his most intense unscrupulous character yet – Terence McDonagh in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans. The unscrupulous, drugged out, scared out of his mind enough to be despaired cop was one fun, full of thrills trip, and I don’t think that’s the peak of his crazy (personally I enjoy the mirror scene in Face/Off).

Action star

And here’s what the man loves most apparently: being the cool guy that doesn’t look at explosions. After winning his Oscar, he followed it with a trio of movies that left everyone surprised to see him in an action movies and also a bit stunned that he could do it (let’s face it, the first thing that comes to mind when looking at him isn’t “action star”). He started off slow, as the (always viable) untrained civilian thrown in the midst of a conflict in The Rock (though a much older Sean Connery kind of stole his thunder) then followed it up with the preposterous, yet extremely fun Con Air, where he kicks John Malkovich’s ass (and gets to do a redneck accent, which he also likes apparently). Last, but not least, he had personality disorder issues opposite John Travolta in Face/Off (which also played into Travolta’s growing need to play bed boys and villains). After that, he was a guy who liked cars more than Angelina Jolie in Gone in Thirty Seconds, a soldier in WW2 in John Woo’s Windtalkers, and a more fun, more American version of Robert Langdon in National treasure. And who can forget, he also played a flaming skull in Ghost Rider, which apparently will get a sequel. An assassin and a Las Vegas magician later and he’s playing a sorcerer and a 14th century knight.
Frankly, although he is a big comic book fan, and by definition he wants to be a superhero, I think he does action movies just to play opposite whatever beauties the marketing department has in mind.

The women of Nicolas Cage’s action movies

Miscellaneous

If there’s one thing he can do, while in action movies or otherwise, is his stiff, brooding persona. Best observed in City of Angels (or any other romantic comedy he does), where he’s supposed to be an angel (the man has range what can I say) or Bangkok Dangerous – here he’s supposed to be the silent, experiences, cool assassin, I just found him uninteresting. Which brings us to another Cage acting method: the running in the wind with long hair, or the flashlight intrigue repetition (aspiring actors take note), which have never let him down (as observed by one Cracked columnist).

Season of the Witch is coming out later this year, he’s already promoting his next movie, Drive Angry, a revenge movie starring next to the lovely Amber Heard and has National Treasure 3 and Ghost Rider 2 in development, so he’ll probably continue to delight (or baffle) us with a host of interesting (or laughable – don’t forget The Wicker Man) characters.