Let’s be honest about it, Nicolas Cage has made an awful lot of stinkers.
Try as we did, we could never forgot the sheer horror, the horror of National Treasure, The Wicker Man, Knowing, Bangkok Dangerous and (shudder) Ghost Rider.
It’s all a bit disappointing when you consider how versatile Cage is and how he’s one of those actors you can’t tear your eyes from when he’s on screen.
As he turns 51, we pick six of his best performances…
Raising Arizona
An early Coen Brothers classic and arguably that put Cage on the map. Similar in tone to O Brother, Where Art Thou? it’s as madcap as they come, and as 80s as bedamned.
The Rock
One of the few action films that he got gloriously right before years of forgettable, adrenalin fuelled buffoonery in the likes of 8MM and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, this saw Cage star opposite Sean Connery in, quite possibly, the only good Michael Bay film.
This is the bit where we run for cover.
Adaptation
The Charlie Kaufmanest film that ever Charlie Kaufmaned, this stars Cage as twin screenwriters Charlie and Donald Kaufman in a wickedly funny Hollywood satire with added botany.
Unlike so many of his cheaper efforts, this film defies categorisation and is all the better for it.
Kick-Ass
A supporting role, but he steals it as Big Daddy, crime fighting father to the wonderfully obscene Hit Girl. It’s only when we look back at the trailer that we realise how much we f***ing loved this film, and Cage’s role in it.
Joe
Released last year and currently available to stream on Netflix, how can we not pick our namesake-on-celluloid? This crept under the radar but it’s a well told, subtle story of an ex-con who takes a troubled young man and his alcoholic father under his wing.
With tragic results, of course.
http://youtu.be/3WPLVEUx5AU
Leaving Las Vegas
Wow. This writer had the, ehm, pleasure of rewatching this recently and couldn’t even look at a pint of stout for a week. The most realistic, bone breaking embodiment of an alcoholic ever committed to the screen rightly won Cage the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1995.
More terrifying that any horror film.
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