Nicolas Cage celebrates his own cult status in insane meta-comedy | Movie reviews

It’s almost unthinkable for younger generations, but the man in question (58) was once a serious and acclaimed actor and even won an Oscar for his role as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas (1995). Immediately after, he embraced the action genre (The Rock† Con Air), which at the time was rich in machismo and bombasm. And the more he ‘slipped’ into the b-genre, the more his cult status was embraced.

That can be explained. While overacting went out of style, Cage invariably continued to use the big gesture. The characters he plays are almost all highly flammable types (the ‘Cage rage’). He created a breeding ground for countless internet memes. As bad as the films are, this acting style remains good for a fan base that should not be underestimated.

Director and screenwriter Tom Gormican made a cleverly conceived film about this very phenomenon in which Cage (as Cage) agrees to pay a visit to a billionaire’s birthday party in Mallorca. This Javi is ecstatic, because he is the number one fan, especially when he shows the actor around a room full of memorabilia from his films (think of the golden pistols from Face/Off†

The joke: Javi (played with at least as much sense of exaggeration by Pedro Pascal from the hit series Narcos) may well be a drug dealer and soon Cage ends up in exactly the type of action movie that gave him his current image. The disadvantage is that the humor mainly comes from recognisability. Those who have not or hardly followed Cage in recent decades have little to do here. Fans will love it. It’s a justifiably fat-filled celebration of a man who has almost elevated overacting to an art form.

Directed by: Tom Gormican. Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish and Eli Jane