Even though Nicolas Cage’s voice was odd in Peggy Sue, it is nothing compared to Vampire’s Kiss. A film that uses the vampire as a metaphor for lust and greed, the Cage is unhinged. Not only is the voice weird but so is his hair, his mannerisms, his cadence – his everything. He angrily yells out the alphabet in front of his psychiatrist. He speaks quietly before exploding on the next word for no reason. This film is where the meme comes from – the 2010 era top text bottom text ones. He acts like Jim Carrey being Nicolas Cage. Vampire’s Kiss is the first film that shows who the Cage is. It goes from regular old Nic to a crazed lunatic who we have all come to love. He’s insane for choosing to act the character this way. I don’t know if there is a right way to act the part of a man who believes he has turned into a vampire, but the Cage took some creative licence to say the least. Christian Bale used this as inspiration for Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (IMDB it, trust me).
Never on Tuesday has a 30-second Cage appearance at the ten-minute mark where he drives a nice car while wearing a Gru-like prosthetic, then asks if “everyone is okay” before driving away again. The rest of the film is softcore porn and homophobic to lesbians because if you’re pretty you can’t be a lesbian (sorry Evie). Time to Kill is an Italian war drama set in Ethiopia and when I found the film it was dubbed in Italian. Thanks to Reddit, I found the film with English audio. The Cage makes a chameleon smoke a cigarette. He then rapes a native girl and accidentally kills her shooting at a hyena. He believes he caught leprosy from her and panics. That’s it. His acting is not weird enough to keep you interested. Not essential watching, especially considering the awful content of the movie that was, to say the least, awkward to view. This seems to be the last of the period pieces that the Cage frequently chose to act in throughout the ‘80s. Thank God.
I now move into a new decade with Wild at Heart. I managed to drag Evie back into the Cage due to the film’s promising lineup including the Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe and the fact it was directed by David Lynch. Unfortunately, apart from a good couple of scenes and performances, I found it rather uninteresting at times. Cage did sing Elvis though so that was fun. Evie declared she would not enter the Cage again. We shall see. Sam Soppet, former Critic videographer, was briefly a part of the Cage. He will be back for the Ghost Rider films where he had his “G.O.A.T. streak”. Fire Birds is Nic’s first movie as an action star and it’s fine. It honestly could have been Stallone, Segal or Schwarzenegger and nothing would have changed. In a documentary about David Lynch, Nicolas Cage is interviewed about the Lynch film he was in – Wild at Heart where he says “Love is weird.” Profound. The Lynch saga continues with Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted where Cage is the heartbreaker and then it turns into a Julee Cruise avant-garde concert film which is beautiful even if uneventful. If you love her music you will enjoy this but probably a skip for those who want to be in the Cage. Due to mental health reasons, there needed to be space outside of the Cage.
Caginess: Phone wallpaper changed, Cage impression started (ask about it)
Welfare Check: “I’m reasonably concerned” – Evie
Total Films Watched: 22/137