skjam | Entries tagged with nicolas cage

Lord of War (2005) dir. Andrew Niccol

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) is not the protagonist's real name. He is a Ukranian immigrant (as a child) who grew up in a rough neighborhood infested with gangsters. On day he witnessed a mob hit, and came to the realization that he could make steady money selling weapons to people. But not just a legitimate gun shop, no, the real money was in illegal arms dealing. After his first successful deal, Yuri brought his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) in as a partner.

Yuri's got hustle, a distinct lack of moral qualms, and some amazing luck, so his business prospers. He attempts to connect with a more established gunrunner, Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), but the older man is "respectable" and sees Yuri as too chaotic to be trusted. that doesn't stop Yuri from rising in the trade and becoming quite wealthy, despite Vitaly developing drug addiction, and Yuri attracting the personal attention of government agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke). Yuri's even able to marry the hot model of his boyhood dreams, Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan).

But a life of crime, however lucrative, has its price, and Yuri can't avoid payments forever.

This early 21st Century movie is based on actual events, with enough changed to avoid lawsuits or charges of espionage. Much of the story is darkly comic as Yuri's narration is witty and sometimes contrasts what's happening on screen in a humorous manner. But there's also an uncomfortable undertone and some pointed political commentary. It's pointed out that the United States government itself is the world's largest arms dealer, and too often just as willing to get in bed with the worst dictators as Yuri is. Andre Baptiste Senior (Eamonn Walker), a particularly repulsive warlord (though he says it "lord of war", giving us the title), specifically points to the 2000 Supreme Court decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush as proving that U.S. elections are just as crooked as the ones he holds.

The soundtrack selection is impressive and works well. Nicolas Cage's slightly off acting style makes Yuri a chilling character when you dig beneath the surface. His few boundaries are based around what is best for him staying in business, rather than any form of ethics. At the end of the movie, while Yuri walks free from legal punishment, he's lost everything he wanted in life except his career in arms dealing.

Content note: Lots of gun and other violence, often gory and lethal. We see the results of maiming injuries. Child death. Mention of rape. On-screen extramarital sex and nudity (no genitals), Yuri cheats on his wife. Prostitution. Discussion of racism. Alcohol and drug abuse. A boatload of rough language. This is a hard "R."

This movie is a fascinating but disturbing look at an area of history many people don't want to be reminded of. The politics may be offensive to some viewers. If you've got a strong stomach for this sort of thing and are willing to accept that fictionalization has somewhat distorted the picture, Lord of War is worth seeing...once.

Current Music: "There's No Harm in Wishin'"--Isham Jones

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) dir. Oxide Chun Pang

Joe (Nicolas Cage) is very good at his job. Very professional. He stays anonymous, doesn't ask questions, doesn't get personally involved with people, and erases all traces. This is very important to be a successful international hitman. How did he get into the business? How do his clients hire him? How do his clients even know he exists? Not important. We see him complete an assignment in Prague, then murder his go-between, the one person who's seen his face in this country, with a drug overdose.

Still, the profession's beginning to get to him, and it's time to get out. He's got a contract for four hits in Bangkok, Thailand, and this one last job will net him enough money to retire on. Wait. Dangerous occupation? One last job? Action movie? I think I know where this is going.

After some scouting, Joe picks out local pickpocket and street grifter Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) as his courier to make contact with the client. Kong...means well, but is a bit of a weak link. He gets the hots for Aom (Panward Hemmanee), the exotic dancer who acts as the client's go-between. She's not entirely resistant to his charms. But he also owes money to bad people who mug him. He manages to get away, but the case is damaged and Kong realizes Joe is an assassin, and the very bad man whose picture is inside is the target.

Kong, who despite his entire life to this point is still something of an idealist, asks Joe to train him. Joe knows he should just kill Kong now, but takes pity on the young man and starts treating him as a protege. Joe also starts a relationship with Fon (Charlie Yeung), a deaf-mute pharmacist he meets. It turns out to be harder to keep his professional and personal lives separate than he had hoped.

Meanwhile, mob boss Surat (Nirattisai Kaljareuk), the client, knows that the final hit will be too hot for Joe not to be a liability afterwards, and plans a double cross with the aid of his lieutenant Aran (Dom Hetrakul). Who, if anyone, will be left standing?

This movie is a remake of the Pang Brothers' 1999 Thai film of the same name for the American market. Sadly, I have not seen the original to compare. From descriptions, it appears quite a bit was rearranged, starting with making the lead a hearing and speaking American rather than a deaf-mute Thai man.

Good: Excellent pacing, use of scenery and action sequences. I can see why Oxide is considered an outstanding director.

Nic Cage is mostly well-used in an underacting manner--a man who's largely made himself dead inside in order to be able to do his horrible job at peak performance. But he's fraying at the edges, and the cracks in his emotional armor keep getting wider. We also learn that political assassination isn't normally in his wheelhouse. As discussed in Suddenly, it's easy to kill major politicians, but almost impossible to get away afterwards.

Yamnarm is also quite good as Kong. He's not a good person, but would like to be. He jumps to the conclusion that Joe only kills bad people, (darkly humorous since we know that Joe fully intends to kill him) and is hopeful that maybe the politician he likes will be the one person in government who isn't completely corrupt.

Yeung is charming as Fon, who needs to use body language, facial expressions and sign language (which is not translated well) to communicate her feelings. The romance gives the director a chance to show off some of the nice touristy parts of Bangkok in addition to the sleazy areas usually seen in Thai action movies.

Less good: Cage and Yeung have no chemistry as a couple, and I found Fon being willing to give Joe the time of day the least believable part of the movie. Aom is basically eye candy, rather than a character in her own right.

Silly thought: Given the complete blankness of his background, one can imagine this Joe being an alternate universe version of the one from Joe; there are certain echoes in their characters.

Content note: Lots of violence, often lethal, sometimes gory (including a severed limb.) Suicide. Extramarital sex (on screen, no genitals), nudity, mention of human trafficking. Physical abuse, implied torture. Drug abuse. Rough language (you can learn some Thai obscenities.) This is a hard "R" so not for younger or sensitive viewers.

Overall: This was apparently a box office bomb, I think rather unjustly. (Nic Cage had a career slump afterwards that may have made this disappear down the memory hole.) The action bits are good, the romance bits don't quite work. Recommended primarily to Nicolas Cage fans, and to action fans (but the hardcore action fans who are okay with subtitles might want to see the original instead.)

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Snow Over Leningrad"--Mikael Tariverdiev

Knowing (2009) dir. Alex Proyas

The time is 2009. MIT astrophysics professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) is trying to raise his son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), who has an auditory processing disorder that his hearing aid helps with, after the tragic death of his wife the previous year. As a result of his grief, John has adopted a nihilistic viewpoint that the universe is entirely random, and nothing has an actual purpose outside itself. (As a good teacher, he's quick to point out that this is his philosophical viewpoint, and not an objective fact.) This has caused him to become estranged from his preacher father (Alan Hopgood) and barely on speaking terms with his sister Grace (Nadia Townsend). His colleague from the Cosmology department Phil Beckman (Ben Mendelsohn) is trying to hook John up with an attractive acquaintance of theirs, but John's become something of a helicopter parent to Caleb and keeps canceling.

As it happens, Caleb's school, William Dawes Elementary, is having its fiftieth anniversary. At a ceremony honoring this, a time capsule with students' drawings from 1959 imagining the far future year of 2009 ia unearthed. Caleb is given the envelope containing the entry of Lucinda (Lara Robinson), who printed out a sequence of apparently random numbers. This is baffling, but later that evening, a seeming coincidence causes John to realize that it's actually the dates and fatality lists of various disasters that were in the future at the time the list was created. (Later on, seemingly "junk" numbers turn out to be location markers.) The numbers are too exact to be random, and three of the dates are still in the future.

Now John must find some way of proving the list is genuine, and attempt to stop the coming disasters! This is not helped by the mysterious Whisper Man (D.G. Maloney) who keeps approaching Caleb, or that Lucinda has since died, and her long-suffering daughter Diana (Rose Byrne) doesn't want to open that wound, despite her daughter Abby (Lara Robinson) making a quick connection with Caleb.

This science fiction disaster movie is haunted by 9/11, which is specifically called out. Not so much because of the terrorism thing, but because American culture was still trying to process what it "meant"; something that would have happened anyway, or something that could have been prevented if only the right people had known?

Good: Some awesome disaster scenes. Especially the first two disasters go the extra mile. Lara Robison is quite good in her double role. Nicolas Cage as always does a good job of seeming unhinged enough that he's undercutting his own attempts at convincing people. The scene with elderly teacher Miss Taylor (Alethea McGrath) is effective.

Less good: Since the universe is deterministic in this story, all of John's actions are ultimately pointless, as is the prophetic set of numbers. Nothing can be changed, the future is set in stone, and John just as well could have stayed home and slept through the events without that being an issue. (Except that he can't because his actions are also predetermined.) The Whisper Men's plans also make near zero sense, but apparently they are (despite knowing the future) trapped into doing exactly the things they end up doing. This makes the movie bleak and miserable. Some viewers may question why they spent two hours of their life on this story.

Content note: People and animals burn to death. Other gory deaths. Children in peril. John has a bit of a drinking problem, though he is easily able to stop drinking alcohol once there's something more important to do.

It's certainly an interesting movie, and I would recommend it to people who are okay with bleakness.

Current Mood: bleak

Joe (2013) dir. David Gordon Green

Joe Ransom (Nicolas Cage) is holding his life together...barely. He runs a small business that kills trees unsuitable for lumber for the local lumber company, employing a day worker crew that works hard for the cash money and appreciates that he doesn't cheat them. Maybe he smokes and drinks too much, but that helps him deal with the explosive temper that previously got him sent to prison. He doesn't keep in contact with his children, and is unaware he's about to be a grandfather. Not being the nosy type, Joe doesn't ask too many questions when a fifteen-year-old boy wanders onto the work site and asks for a job.

Gary (Tye Sheridan) drifted into town with his family a short while back. His father Wade (Gary Poulter) is an abusive alcoholic who keeps Gary, his mother and his mute sister together mostly out of having nowhere else to go.

Wade also joins the work crew, but quickly alienates the other laborers while doing none of the actual work. Joe fires Wade and Gary, but allows Gary to come back on his own, because the boy does a man's work for a man's pay. Joe and Gary bond, and Joe becomes increasingly displeased with the way Wade treats his son.

Local asshole Willie-Russell (Ronnie Gene Blevins) has a grudge against Joe, and then Gary, and takes several steps to make the situation worse, culminating in a lethal showdown.

This movie was shot near Austin, Texas and takes place in an impoverished rural area. Decaying buildings and garbage-strewn landscapes contrast with the better parts of the outdoors. This isn't a place for people to get ahead in life; survival is not guaranteed either.

Joe's relationship with the police is complicated. The sheriff is a childhood friend and tries to look out for Joe, but being hassled by cops is one of Joe's temper triggers, and his time in prison was from a tussle he'd had with them years before, so the deputies are not inclined to give him slack. Thus, when criminal things are happening, Joe prefers to either ignore them or handle it himself.

Gary is a remarkably good kid considering his circumstances, and just maybe he will do okay, but there's a lot of heartache to get to the end of the movie.

The movie takes its own sweet time getting to the explanations for things, and for quite a way in it's not clear where exactly the story is going.

Content note: gun and hand to hand violence, some lethal. We get to see Joe tending to his own gunshot wound. Wade beats and belittles Gary, and it's implied he abuses the rest of the family as well. Alsohol and tobacco abuse. Attempted rape. Nudity, on screen sex (no genitals). A dog dies. This is exceptionally rough stuff and even many high school students may not be ready for it.

Nicolas Cage does a good job of portraying a man who is desperately trying to be subdued, to live and let live, but is very close to snapping violently--and then does. It's not one of his memeable roles, but if you enjoy him in serious dramatic roles, this one is worth checking out.

Drive Angry (2011) dir. Patrick Lussier

John Milton (Nicolas Cage) was a bad person who committed many crimes. It's no surprise he ended locked up for many years. During those years, his daughter grew up, joined a cult, left the cult, got married, had a child, and then was murdered by the cult and her child taken to be sacrificed. When Milton found out about this, it made him angry enough to break out of his prison, even stealing the warden's gun on the way out. But because the prison was Hell and the warden is Satan, the tracker sent to retrieve Milton is no ordinary man, but The Accountant (William Fitchner), a being with supernatural abilities of his own.

Early in his search for Jonah King (Billy Burke), the cult leader, Milton runs into Piper (Amber Heard), a waitress who's just quit her job due to (among other things) sexual harassment, and is having an ugly breakup with her two-timing boyfriend. Needing a change, she's easily recruited for use of her Dodge Charger to get to Louisiana where the cult is planning to have the ritual. The cult and the police turn out to be just as much hostile to Piper as they are to Milton, so she's now in it for keeps.

This R-rated action horror movie was shot in 3-D, and it really shows from time to time with objects flying at the camera. Unfortunately, the version I watched was a 2-D print. The special effects and explosions still look very nice.

Mr. Cage plays Milton in an understated fashion--this is a character who has literally been through Hell and doesn't need to chew the scenery to make a point. Mr. Burke as the main villain gets to do the histrionics. The Accountant is pretty chill for his job description, and gets many of the best one-liners. Ms. Heard's portrayal of Piper is kind of obnoxious, but you can see where she's coming from given the men she encounters. (Piper punches above her weight for an "ordinary waitress", so she has to be stymied either by much stronger men or multiple opponents.)

David Morse joins the movie relatively late as Webster, Milton's sole known friend, who gives the movie a chance to fill in some backstory and explain a little of Milton's personality.

Good: Lots of action, pretty explosions, car chases, a very special firearm known as the Godkiller, some interesting theological implications. The Accountant is cool. Use of music is nifty.

Less Good: it clearly loses a bit when seen in 2-D. Also, the theological implications should not be thought about too hard, because the writers didn't do so.

Political: The police are either useless or trying to kill the protagonists whenever they show up. In fairness, they are unaware of what's really going on or actively misled in most instances. Plus we see that local police forces are easily infiltrated by domestic terrorists.

Content note: Lots of violence, sometimes gory. Male (not including Mr. Cage) and female nudity, onscreen sex. Rape, physical abuse, torture. Frequent crude language. This movie earns its R.

Overall: This movie sank at the box office, which is a shame, because it's a lot of fun for fans of violent action who can handle the content issues mentioned. I think it will do well with the sort of folks who enjoy making snarky remarks while watching films.