Nic Cage (Nic Cage) is convinced he just needs that one role and he'll be back as a big star again. Not that he ever went anywhere, mind you. Then maybe his teenage daughter will understand how much he loves her.
But he also needs money, so he accepts a million bucks to attend Javi's (Pedro Pascal's) birthday party in Majorca. Where we learn Javi may be an international weapons dealer responsible for kidnapping the daughter of a Spanish presidential hopeful, and so the CIA enlists Nic Cage (and the captions kept spelling it "Nick", come on caption writer, get your shit together) to befriend Javi and find out where the girl is hidden.
Which Cage does by suggesting they write a movie together, with a first act of character-driven film, then a paranoid thriller in the second act, and finally, a blockbuster action flick in the third. In other words, the exact thing we're watching on screen.
First act, a man desperate to be the center of attention, constantly seeking validation in the wrong places, unable to meet people on any terms but his own. So happy to meet a man who loves all his films and considers them formative experiences in his life. Javi proclaims Face/Off his favorite movie of all time, and has a mannequin meant to be Cage's character in the film, although it looks more like Scott Bakula trying to be Nic Cage.
Second act, a paranoid thriller, as Cage tries to do CIA stuff without Javi figuring it out, then has to deal with Javi bringing his family there in what is either a subtle power move, or a well-intentioned attempt to resolve Cage's issues with ex-wife and daughter.
Third act, well, it's car chases and shootouts and Cage getting stabbed in the leg but able to run perfectly well minutes later. Should there be some major emotional payoff to him driving a jeep through the gates of the embassy to protect his family from a weapons dealer? Probably, but instead it was turned into an award-winning movie. Even if there's a tacked-on epilogue suggesting he's putting aside his compulsive need to chase the spotlight to truly connect with his daughter, it's after he. . .compulsively chased the spotlight by taking the experience and commodifying it.
It would be different if he had made the movie, it bombed, but he brushes it off and focuses on being a better dad. Or if he declined to make the movie at all. Instead, he gets the success and his family. Eats the cake and has it, too. Bluntly, JCVD did this whole thing a lot better. He would like to act in better films, but there's child support to pay, so he takes the jobs that pay the bills. There's no big hero moment for van Damme in that movie. Because he's an actor who plays a hero, which is not the same thing. He doesn't revitalize his career (although he did seem to get some different opportunities after this movie, but in the film, he doesn't) or have his child run and hug him, saying how proud they are of their dad.
You could argue this movie is meant to at least partially be a comedy, which JCVD was absolutely not. But if we're talking movies about a guy trying to save his career and stumbling into an insane experience that both saves his career and makes him a better person, while being funny, Tropic Thunder is 1,000 times funnier than this movie. That said, I did laugh at the bit with Paddington 2, and the parts where you can feel Pascal setting opportunities for Cage to go full NIC MOTHERFUCKIN' CAGE on a tee. Just encouraging all the excess. Let it out. Chew that scenery until it's barely recognizable as matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment