By Morgan P Salvo
Wild at Heart, Raising Arizona, Birdy… these are the films that come to mind when I think back when Nicolas Cage was good. Maybe it all started with Captains Corelli’s Mandolin when I realized maybe Cage wasn’t cut out for “mood pieces”. Now all he does is somber monotone renditions in flicks that give me a bad mood. I first noticed it in movies I thought I would like: Snake Eyes, 8mm and Gone in Sixty Seconds (it became clear that I should have left the theater in 30 seconds).
Sure he’s had some money problems but when you are one of the biggest box office stars why keep making crap after crap after crap? Going completely off the edge of “paycheck movies” there seems to always be a Nicolas Cage movie happening somewhere. There’s always one in theaters, on cable, coming soon on DVD, being shot right now or in post-production. Leaving Las Vegas gave him a well deserved academy award but after that the only movies that come to mind nearing redemption are Spike Jonze /Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation and (just barely) Matchstick Men. There’s always an actor who works too hard, like say Michael Caine or Samuel L Jackson. They’re bound to show up in a bad movie once in a while. With Cage they are all bad. But in Caine or Jackson’s case you can see the glint in their eyes of “yes I am doing schlock.” With Cage the eyes have gone dead.
Which brings me to Drive Angry --- Angry is actually pretty good. Everyone (Burke, Fichtner and Heard) are having a field day hamming it up and being super cartoony... yep, everyone but Cage. His take on the somber monotone serious dude does not play out AT ALL with the rest of the movie. If the filmmakers had chosen anyone else (with the exception of Justin Timberlake) this would have been a four star movie. Over the top action, titillating gore, violence, sex, nudity and one scene that incorporates intercourse and gunplay at the same time…very original and very funny. 
Director Patrick Lussier ( My Bloody Valentine) has taken all the things I have been bitching about that was wrong with 3D and made them inventive imaginative and visually stunning. Everything flies at you: bullets, axes, car parts, body parts, flames, blood. You name it, it whizzes right at you. There’s one scene in particular that is true genius; the windshield in the foreground with a bullet hole and a moon refection superimposed with a flashback/surreal dream sequence in the middle and Cage’s glaring face in the background exhibits pure inventive 3D art form brilliance. And like in Bloody Valentine when you’re in the diner, you feel like you are in the freaking diner. Angry is a painstakingly hilarious cheesy homage to 70’s movies with muscle cars and a satanic cult. The throwaway plot is beyond stupid but that’s what makes it so much fun, and it would be an all-out blast if buzz-kill Cage wasn’t in it sauntering around striking poses and acting like he doesn’t know where he is.
I have gone on record that every movie I see Cage in is just more proof that it’s virtually impossible for him to act anymore. My theory as to why/how Cage turned bad is that he goes into certain contraptions before going in front of a camera. One is a “personality extractor” that leaves him befuddled and forlorn. Another device is a “charisma vacuum” that sucks the life out of any feeling he might emote. Last is a “laser-beam acting-talent-eradicator”. One theory I like is that he is like Samson; once his hairline receded he lost his power. Now relying on insanely weird hair hats he pushes onward.
In the last couple of years we’ve been treated or devastated by Cages’ long list of films not to mention the hideous acting. Long ago his wacky hangdog spiel and weird take on things worked (Peggy Sue got Married or Vampire’s Kiss) and his moderately good stabs as action hero— Face Off, Con Air and The Rock seemed like obvious phases. But he never grew out of them. Now Cage churns out B-movie disasters like Bangkok Dangerous, Season of the Witch, Two National Treasure movies, Knowing, The Wicker Man, Ghost Rider and Next (possibly the worst movie ever made with his performance ranking as the worst of all time)
When all is said and done Cage had the ability and still has the face to do interesting work but his extreme lack of talent doesn’t just materialize in his choices of films but also manifests itself in his choice of acting styles.I think the main problem is we all still want to like Nicolas Cage—he just won’t let us.But by all means see Drive Angry, Cage cannot single handedly destroy a movie this good but he tries.
Drive Angry
Starring Nicolas Cage, William Fichtner Amber Heard Billy Burke
Directed by Patrick Lussier
Rated R
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