Nicolas Cage

Let’s get this out of the way up front: No, Nicolas Cage does not go “Full Cage” in The Trust. He goes about half-Full Cage, or maybe half-Empty Cage — your Cage mileage may vary. For the record, this reviewer finds it to be the former in this somewhat sharp, darkly comedic little thriller from directors Ben and Alex Brewer, with the former making his feature directing debut. Cage returns to the Las Vegas he once famously left, joined by Elijah Wood for a simple but mostly effective heist flick.

At this point in his long and illustrious career, Nicolas Cage has become more of a force of nature than mere actor. He’s like the weather: always in the process of making movies, with no rhyme or reason dictating which ones will be good, which ones will be bad, and which ones will be bad in a way that makes you feel good. Sometimes it rains, sometimes the sun shines, and while we can try as we may to predict the forecast, you can never tell how much fun a Nicolas Cage picture will be until you’re watching it.

Earlier this week, Nicolas Cage signed on to star in Vengeance: A Love Story, a film that — at the time — sounded like the most Cage-appropriate movie ever, and that title’s not even the half of it. Now comes word of another film that could give Vengeance a run for its money, as Cage is reuniting with his Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance director for Mom and Dad, a movie in which he will try to kill his own children.

“Nicolas Cage has signed on to star in a literary adaptation from a highly esteemed contemporary writer.” And for that one, brief sentence, we were transported back to a time where the Cage was a respected and sought-after actor, offered competitive roles with substance to them and even awards potential. Because while it is true that Cage will appear in an adaptation of a novella by living legend Joyce Carol Oates, any detail beyond that outs this as the typical Nic Cage project that it truly is. The project at hand is, if anything, the Nic Cage version of a prestige movie.

Good headlines have one weird thing. (“Man Bites Dog.”) Great headlines have two weird things operating in conjunction with one another to create an even weirder effect. (“Man In Catsuit Bites Dog.”) But a new report today combining the being of pure light we have dubbed Nicolas Cage with a stolen dinosaur skull and the government of the sparsely populated Asian landmass Mongolia is on an entirely

Imagine, if you will: a warrior man appears on screen with long, rustic hair and an adequate beard, resplendent but rugged in a coat of shining silver armor. His name is Aragorn, and as he draws back his bow to launch an arrow, the camera comes about so we can see his face. It’s Nicolas Cage. In a Lord of the Rings movie. Record scratch. That sounds almost as insane as the characters Cage often plays, but according to the actor, it almost happened.

Nicolas Cage makes a lot of movies. His IMDb page lists 15 roles since 2011, with another 10 more in various stages of production and development for the rest of 2015 and 2016. Dinosaur bones, haunted houses, and giant pyramid tombstones in New Orleans don’t come cheap.

Superman Lives is one of those great projects that might have been, like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune or Richard Stanley’s The Island of Dr. Moreau — like both of those films, Superman Lives now has its very own documentary examining the film that never was and the speculation surrounding it. A new clip from The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? features never before seen footage of Nicolas Cage’s costume test in which the actor wears a version of the Superman suit.

“One nation, under surveillance, with liberty and justice for all.” Damn, that’s a good tagline.

Every once in a while, Nicolas Cage surprises us by taking his career seriously. In between those films, he goes Full Cage in a series of campy action B-movies because it takes a lot of paychecks to afford taking the better roles, you know? Or something like that. Anyway, Cage has seemingly just lined up one of those occasional good roles, re-teaming with Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis for the upcoming thriller Exit 147.