The Family Man

 The Family Man (2000)

Starring Nicholas Cage, Téa Leoni, Jeremy Piven, Saul Rubinek, and Don Cheadle

Directed by Brett Ratner

Written by David Diamond and David Weissman

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

It Could Happen to You

 It Could Happen to You (1994)

Starring Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Isaac Hayes, Seymour Cassel, and Stanley Tucci

Directed by Andrew Bergman

Written by Jane Anderson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Trapped in Paradise

 Trapped in Paradise (1994)

Starring Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, Dana Carvey, Mädchen Amick, and Richard Jenkins

Directed by George Gallo

Written by George Gallo

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Moonstruck

Moonstruck (1987)

Starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, and Danny Aiello

Directed by Norman Jewison

Written by John Patrick Shanley

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)

Featuring the vocal talents of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Zoë Kravitz, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, and Liev Schreiber

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

Written by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman

***This film is currently streaming via Netflix***

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Snowden

Snowden (2016)

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Timothy Olyphant, Lakeith Stanfield, Joely Richardson, and Nicolas Cage

Directed by Oliver Stone

I think it's admittedly a little difficult to come to the Oliver Stone-directed Snowden without having some outside feelings towards the title character.  Was Edward Snowden an American traitor or a hero?  This film undoubtedly takes the latter stance with Snowden being treated in an almost saint-like manner at times.  The lack of a balanced look at the polarizing figure is slightly disappointing, but looking beyond that, Snowden is a surprisingly engaging and well-made film that kept my attention throughout and provides a good glimpse (albeit a surface one) at one of America's biggest political events of the new century.

Told within a framing device of his interview with documentarian Laura Poitrus (Melissa Leo) whose film Citizenfour brought his story to even more masses, the film opens in 2013 with Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) taking a huge leap and deciding to release private information he possesses that states that the United States government is spying on all Americans via their cell phones and computers.  The release of this information will undoubtedly cause him to be called a traitor, but after nearly ten years working in various government agencies including the NSA and CIA, Snowden feels that his findings should be made public.  The film then flashes back to the decade-younger Snowden as he gets his first job in Washington, D.C., and he meets his significant other Lindsay (Shailene Woodley).  Praised everywhere for his expertise in computers and coding, Snowden goes from job to job within the government, learning bits and pieces about how post-9/11 it was decided that -- for the safety and well-being of the country -- certain privacy laws would be lessened at certain times.

Frankly, no one is more surprised than me that this nearly two-and-a-half hour movie based on politics kept my attention, but kudos to Oliver Stone (who also co-wrote the film) for keeping the film moving at a solid pace and to Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his solid portrayal of the title character.  While Snowden himself is treated with kid gloves and saint-like (there's a particular moment towards the film's conclusion where a resolute and determined Snowden walks out of a dark bunker with a halo of glorious light surrounding him as soaring music swells in the background), I give props to Stone for depicting both the Bush and Obama administration with equal amounts of distrust.  Somehow, though, even though I liked the film, I can't find myself overly praising a whole lot about it and that's due in large part to the depiction of Snowden as too much of a do-gooder.  It doesn't help that during the film's conclusion, Stone has the real Edward Snowden literally "take the place" of Gordon-Levitt, putting the real figure into the spotlight in a way that detracts from the film in a distracting manner.  The politically-driven Stone had every right to create the film he wanted to create, but the lack of a critical eye towards the title character hurts the film a bit in the end and makes it difficult to praise its more-than-adequate cinematic craftwork.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Joe

Joe (2014)

Starring Nicholas Cage, Tye Sheridan, and Gary Poulter

Directed by David Gordon Green

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Nicolas Cage has become such a joke lately that anytime he's in a movie that carries any semblance of merit, it's somewhat shocking.  As the title character, Cage's Joe is a marble-mouthed mumbling ex-con who is trying to get his life together by running a tree-removal company in very rural Texas.  Well-liked by most, Joe still struggles to keep his violent tendencies in check.  When young Gary (Tye Sheridan) meets Joe one afternoon and asks him for a job, Joe obliges and a friendship begins to form between the two.  Gary has struggled with his horrible father Wade (Gary Poulter) beating him, his sister, and his mother and the young boy finds a calmness in the cool attitude of Joe.  When the alcoholic and destitute Wade discovers his son's new friendship, it doesn't sit well and Joe finds himself in the crosshairs of a father who wants to keep his son underneath his thumb.

While Cage is certainly the "star" here, despite being the title character, Joe doesn't particularly belong to him as a film.  Instead the relationship between Gary and his father Wade is the most striking aspect of the melancholic and somewhat heavy film.  Tye Sheridan was introduced to the cinematic scene with The Tree of Life and Mud -- two films that showed potential in the young actor that really comes to light here.  There's a naturalness to Sheridan that shows promise for his future.

Outshining both Cage and Sheridan, however, is Gary Poulter as the rather terrifying Wade.  This was Poulter's one and only role as the first-time actor died before the film's release.  I'm not sure I've seen a role inhabited in 2014 that felt as lived-in as Poulter's Wade.  Perhaps the reason Wade strikes a chord is that Poulter himself was found by director David Gordon Green living homeless on the streets of Austin, Texas.  When you talk about something feeling natural onscreen, I'm not sure it can get much more "real" than Poulter who struggled throughout his life with alcoholism and eventually died on the streets because of it.  It's really a bravura performance that is frighteningly captured onscreen.

While the film itself is a little drawn out, slowly paced, and focuses too much on Cage's Joe who simply isn't all that compelling, Joe is certainly worth a watch if only for the terrifying relationship between Gary and his father Wade and the performances of Sheridan and the deceased Poulter.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Frozen Ground

The Frozen Ground (2013)

Starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and Vanessa Hudgens

Directed by Scott Walker

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Poor Nicolas Cage.  He (along with perhaps Cuba Gooding, Jr.) has certainly become the butt of jokes about what NOT to do with your career after you've won an Oscar.  Cage has made low budget B-movies his bread and butter over the last five years so much so that people seem to have forgotten that he could actually be taken seriously.  Perhaps The Frozen Ground was Cage's attempt to show that he isn't the joke people thought he was.  While he certainly doesn't embarrass himself here, Cage doesn't exactly redeem himself fully as Alaska State Trooper Jack Halcombe who is investigating a series of murders of young women in Anchorage in the early 1980s.

Admittedly, Cage isn't solely to blame for his lack of restitution.  First time director and screenwriter Scott Walker's virginal chops are evident as he can't quite craft characters and dialog that ring true or feel fully developed.  While he certainly is respectful of the true story upon which this is based, there's a grittiness that's missing despite his attempts to achieve it.  Admittedly, part of the issue is that Vanessa Hudgens simply isn't believable as a prostitute who is the only victim to escape the clutches of serial killer Robert Hansen (John Cusack).  When she dances on a stripper pole or snorts coke, I found myself laughing when I know I shouldn't.  Once again, like Cage, I'm not 100% sure it's her fault.  As an actress, Hudgens fights an uphill battle trying to rid herself of the "Disney image," but with the right script, she may be able to get there (although I'm also not quite sure she has the ability to successfully blossom into a respectable actress either).

Perhaps I'm being a little harsher on The Frozen Ground than I should because the film is certainly watchable with a storyline that consistently builds tension.  The true life aspect of the whole thing adds a disturbing element that gives us a rooting interest in the characters.  Scott Walker hasn't completely struck out with his first film, but he needs to up the ante a bit for any future projects on his horizon.

The RyMickey Rating:  C  

Movie Review - The Croods

The Croods (2013)

Featuring the vocal talents of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, and Clark Duke

Directed by Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

When a movie like The Croods gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature instead of a movie like Monsters University, I can't help but shake my head.  One-note in its story about a father who "can't let go" of his growing daughter, any attempt for heart and emotion here is thwarted by the fact that the writers (who are also the directors) hit us over the head so many times with this notion.  Having heard the Nicolas Cage-voiced Grug tell his daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone) to "be afraid of what's out there beyond our cave" for seemingly five times during the film's first act, I checked out right away.

Animation-wise, The Croods is solid in terms of its main character design (although the humans are slightly blocky in nature and aren't anything overly special) and the voice acting is all fine considering the fact that the script is so lukewarm, but the story just falls flat.  After an earthquake boots them out of their safe cave home, the Crood family -- headed by patriarch Grug, his wife Ugga (Catherine Keener), their eldest daughter Eep, son Thunk (Clark Duke), toddler Sandy (who rabidly attacks everything like a dog), and mother-in-law Gran (Cloris Leachman) -- are forced to explore the rest of the Earth.  Their travels eventually lead them to meet a young man named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who convinces most of the Crood family -- excepting Grug --  to follow him into this new fascinating world outside of their cave.  With Guy and Grug at odds with one another, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Grug's rough exterior and his inability to allow his family to take risks will eventually be softened.  It's this constant bickering between Guy and Grug that gets to near-monotonous levels and fails to allow the story to grow beyond its basic premise.

I won't even explore the fact that this film takes place during prehistoric times -- an era that featured a multitude of fascinating creatures -- yet contains a vast array of Dr. Seuss-ian landscapes filled with animals that would be right at home in his books.  Why create fake animals?  Just another one of the story flaws that is a bit mind-boggling to me in its stupidity.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Trespass

Trespass (2011)

Starring Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Liana Liberato, Ben Mendelsohn, Cam Gigandet, and Jordana Spiro

Directed by Joel Schumacher

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

If anything, Trespass shows that just because you're an Oscar winner -- as Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman are -- doesn't mean that you necessarily deserved that honor.  Nicolas Cage as of late is known for his movie disasters -- Season of the Witch, Drive Angry (I watch a lot of crap, but even I know better than to watch stuff like that) -- and Nicole Kidman was dubbed the worst earner in Hollywood a few years ago, so despite the pedigree that an Oscar may bring, it by no means translates to success.  And this Joel Schumacher directed flick is certainly not a success.

In fact, with the exception of a nice turn from Liana Liberato (who starred in the fantastic Trust earlier this year which you really all should stream ASAP), Trespass has nothing going for it.  It's a cheesy hostage flick in which a quartet of bad guys invade a rich guy's home in an attempt to get a lot of money out of him.  There is absolutely nothing original about this one and the hammy acting (including a horrendous turn from Jordana Spiro as a coked-up stripper) doesn't help matters.

Considering the "prestige" of the two big stars, Trespass barely got a theatrical release back in October...there's certainly a reason for that.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass (2010)

Starring Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong, and Nicolas Cage

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

I'm not really a fan of superhero comic book movies.  For the most part, I could take them or leave them...they do nothing for me, but I don't actively oppose the genre either.  Going in a slightly different direction from your typical superhero flick, Kick-Ass details the lives of four ordinary folks who desire to don corny lycra costumes and help their fellow men and women out of trouble.

We first meet Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a geeky high school kid who happens to enjoy comic books.  He wonders why there aren't real-life superheroes who, while they wouldn't hold superpowers, could assist those in need and strike fear into criminals.  He decides to test the waters and become a modern-day superhero named Kick-Ass, whose only superpower is, well, kicking ass (and he hasn't exactly become an expert at that yet).

After gaining some notoriety via a self-created website, Dave decides to assist a girl he has a crush on.  The gal is being followed by a drug addict/dealer and when Dave as Kick-Ass goes to the slums to meet him, he runs into some trouble.  Fortunately, he is assisted by two fellow "superheroes," Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz).  The dad and daughter team manage to kill everyone in the drug dealer's den, saving Kick-Ass in the process.

Unfortunately, the drug dealer worked for the evil crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) who decides to go after these do-gooding vigilantes.  His son Chris (a shockingly un-annoying Christopher Mintz-Plasse) takes on the personality of superhero Red Mist in order to befriend Kick-Ass in hopes of leading his father to the lair of Big Daddy and Hit Girl.

Kick-Ass is a surprisingly effective film.  Director and co-writer Michael Vaughn takes a humorous, tongue-in-cheek look at superhero flicks and does so in a violent manner.  Much talk was made of the violence (specifically the fact that young Chloe Moretz does most of the killing), but the off-the-wall tone of the film presents things in such a cartoonish way that it never feels excessive.  Vaughn (who hasn't directed a whole lot of flicks) certainly has an eye for crafting enjoyable action comedy.  He keeps comic book sensibilities ever-present, but they never felt overpowering which I enjoyed greatly.

Certainly adding to the appeal of the film is the acting of Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass and Mark Strong as the ominous crime boss.  While Nic Cage and Chloe Moretz seemed to ham it up a little more than necessary, I still thought the characters they played were an interesting creation and the backstory that explains their birth as superheroes was particularly well-crafted.

Kick-Ass is the film that Watchmen wanted to be.  I'd watch Kick-Ass again in a heartbeat...Watchmen hasn't fared well as time as gone on.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

Starring Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, and Monica Bellucci

Directed by Jon Turteltaub

Putting "From the director and producer of National Treasure" on your movie poster is not a selling point for me.  Yes, that movie raked in quite a bit of dough and produced a sequel, but it seemed like a low-rent Indiana Jones for this reviewer.  Add to that, "starring Nicolas Cage" often makes me run in the other direction.

Let's just say I was very pleasantly surprised with Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice which has much of what I want in a summer movie -- action, cool special effects, and some light humor.  Throw in a tiny bit of a romance and a shockingly amusing turn from Nic Cage himself and this is a sleeper hit for me (unfortunately, I don't see it doing boffo box office, though).

In 740 AD, sorcerer Merlin and his three assistants are desperately trying to battle Morgana Lafey as she attempts to use her powers to bring ruin to mankind.  While they were successful in trapping Morgana in what is essentially a Russian nesting doll (it's given a much niftier name in the film that has slipped my mind), it is not without casualty.  One of Merlin's assistants, the beautiful Veronica (Belucci) is trapped inside the doll with Morgana while another of his associates, Horvath (Molina), betrays and kills his mentor.  This leaves Balthazar (Cage) as the one good sorcerer left and he spends hundreds of years trapping the evil magicians in successively larger dolls surrounding Morgana.  Merlin's dying wish to Balthazar was that he find a true descendant of Merlin who can carry on the Merlinian bloodline and fight to contain the evil Morgana.

All that is told in a rather silly five minute narrative opening that had me questioning the tone of the film. It seemed to be taking itself unnecessarily seriously and it didn't bode well for things to come.  Fortunately, I was wrong.  Cut to nearly 1300 years later and a young school kid named David finds himself through a twist of fate entering a shop owned by Balthazar.  The sorcerer doesn't quite believe in coincidence and soon discovers that David could very well be Merlin's descendent and, eventually, takes him on as his apprentice.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice isn't a work of art.  There are certainly a few flaws here and there, but it was one heckuva enjoyable two hours.  Nic Cage is really great as the quirky oddball Balthazar and he and young Jay Baruchel make quite a duo.  They play off each other amazingly well and are really what make this film rise above typical summer fare.  Alfred Molina is a pretty sinister villain for a PG-rated fantasy flick.  On a completely different end of the spectrum, the gorgeous Teresa Palmer as David's love interest Becky is actually used to good effect here (there's a scene in particular where physics geek David takes her to his lab that is near perfect in terms of capturing the excitement of that "moment" of falling in love).

The film reminds me of the way I felt when I watched The Neverending Story, Jumanji, Little Monsters (oh, Fred Savage),  or even those "classic" Disney live actioners like Escape to Witch Mountain as a kid. These may not be perfect films, but they carry a sense of nostalgia.  There's nothing (except for maybe some special effects) that make it seem like The Sorcerer's Apprentice couldn't have been made in my 1980s youth.  There's no language, no sex, no overt violence...and while that may not appeal to everyone reading this, the innocence of it all conjured up the nostaligia factor and sometimes that's a fun thing to feel when watching a movie.

I, for one, am actually looking forward to seeing this one again.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Knowing (2009)

Starring Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne
Directed by Alex Proyos

There's quite a bit wrong with this movie. Two pretty awful performances from a comatose Nicolas Cage and an awkwardly angry and anxious Rose Byrne. Some poor special effects. But, for some unknown reason, this movie works much better than it has any right to.

The premise is fairly simple. Fifty years ago, a young elementary school girl wrote down a series of numbers on a piece of paper that were placed in a time capsule. Jump to now and the capsule is being opened. Nicolas Cage is a professor and his son happens to bring home this page of numbers. Cage soon discovers that the numbers foretold of hundreds of disasters that have occurred in the past fifty years. And, unfortunately, there are three disasters left on that piece of paper...and the worst was of course saved for last.

Like I said above, Nic Cage is awful here, although he's actually overshadowed in absurdity by Rose Byrne as the daughter of the crazy number lady from fifty years ago. Byrne, who I think is so good in the tv show Damages, is laughably bad...she's required to scream and yell and it was simply torturous to hear. And the two child actors that play a major role here were nothing great either.

Yet, the story and the way everything unfolds in this movie won me over. The religious overtones that come into play aren't shied away from and, in the last scene, one can't help but think of a famous story from the Bible (I don't want to give anything away).

I've got to say that I was quite surprised about this one. I've had it sitting at home for nearly four months now from Netflix and I've been dreading watching it (sure, I could've sent it back, but I find it difficult to do that without watching it, I guess). Yes, it reminds me of a silly 1950s/60s sci fi movie, but it works despite its many, many issues.

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - G-Force 3D (2009)

Starring Bill Nighy, Will Arnett, and Zach Galifianakis

Featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Penélope Cruz, Jon Favreau, Tracy Morgan, and Steve Buscemi

Written by The Wibberleys

Directed by Hoyt Yeatman

What happens when your movie, which for the first 60 minutes is ridiculously dumb and can completely be summed up in a single sentence [FBI-trained guinea pigs try to stop an "evil villain" from taking over the world], throws you an ending out of left field that actually makes sense and somehow makes the movie end on a good note? How do you rate this movie which, while still insanely childish, actually created an intelligent ending?

And then, how do you rate the movie when its 3D aspects are the best 3D you've seen at your local cineplex? How much emphasis gets placed on the surprisingly good 3D effects?

That's the conundrum I'm in right now. G-Force isn't a good movie -- I think there were five "bathroom humor" jokes within the span of five minutes and nothing will turn me off of a movie quicker than ill-placed fart jokes. However, despite the fact that the ending was guessed by someone about 45 minutes in, the "twist" is actually pretty damn ingenious...especially for a kid's movie. While the nifty ending doesn't negate the rest of the awfulness, it certainly raises the bar a little bit.

Also, like I mentioned above, the 3D effects were actually quite good. Admittedly, we changed up our seating position for this 3D movie, choosing to sit in the front rather than in the back which may have made a significant impact in how the effects worked. That being said, the producers/directors decided to do something I hadn't seen in a 3D flick before...when you watch the movie, it's as if you're watching something in a widescreen format on your television. There are black bars at the top and bottom of the film. Periodically, throughout the movie, things will pop out above and below into the black bars, creating a 3D-ish effect. It actually worked really well and, in my opinion, was rather an ingenious way of creating the 3D effect. This is the first 3D movie I wouldn't have been disappointed in had I paid for it.

Still, despite the neat ending and good 3D, the flick was below average. Guinea pigs making pop culture references are not my idea of humor (Ha! That guinea pig made a Macguyver and Jamba Juice joke! Hilarity!). So, I still find myself in the conundrum of how to rate this. I'm going to go with the grade below because I truly did enjoy the ending and, like I said above, there's something to be said for this being the best 3D I've seen in a theatrical release yet.

The RyMickey Rating: C