‘Is that supposed to be me? It’s… grotesque...’
Now, this film, this review, nay this blog, are only for fans of Nicolas Cage. As the man once said, to be tired of Cage is to be tired of life, and so, if you are indeed a lifeless husk who doesn’t find innate joy in the films of Nicolas Cage then you should stop reading now. Heck, stop everything. End it all now. Because you are missing out on so much. So much…
Okay. Let’s try and keep up here. The real life actor Nicholas Cage plays Nick Cage – a version of himself. He also plays a bombastic version of himself that only exists in the character Nick Cage’s addled mind. Now, the character Nick Cage, desperate to return to his blockbuster heyday, takes a huge pay check to show up at the birthday party of Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), not realising that this will result in him – Nick Cage – becoming embroiled in a plot that takes in Mexican gangsters and the CIA. All the while, Cage’s long suffering wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and daughter Addy (Lily Mo Sheen) must try to simply survive whilst existing in the chaotic orbit that is Nick Cage’s life. There is a lot going on here.
Celebrities mocking themselves can be fun (see: Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies or Michael Cera in This is the End), but it can also be unbearably self indulgent and smug (see: everyone else in This is the End). Crucially, writer-director Tom Gormican (with a co-writing credit for Kevin Etten) pitches this just right between cloying self-awareness and hilarious self-parody. Cage has a blast (as ever), but on this occasion he brings the audience right along with him, with Pascal adorable as the Robin to Cage’s Batman.
All joking aside, this is essential viewing for Cage devotees – packed full of Easter eggs and in jokes to keep long time fans happy. This is Cage squared. Cage in excelsis. Drink it in as I did. Just be wary of the bees…