Movie Review: Running With The Devil (2019)

Genre: Crime Thriller  

Director: Jason Cabell  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Leslie Bibb, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: A Vancouver-based crime boss (Barry Pepper) complains to his Seattle-based supplier (Nicolas Cage) that recent cocaine shipments have been tampered with. The supplier takes a break from his day job as a cook and embarks on a trip to trace a shipment from a farmer's field in Colombia, through Mexico, and into the United States. The Cook's associate "the Man" (Laurence Fishburne) has slipped from middle-man to addict, contaminating the drugs and aiming to go into business on his own. His sidekick (Adam Goldberg) is picked up by an FBI agent (Leslie Bibb), and she is soon on the trail of the Cook and the Man.

What Works Well: Writer and director Jason Cabell invests in an informational follow-the-dots structure where one drug shipment is the centre of attention. From a farmer in Colombia to various mules and scuzzy middle-men navigating border crossings, the drugs change hands and gain in value, fueling an international industry. Meanwhile, victims of the tainted supply drop dead in the suburbs and alleyways of Seattle and Vancouver. Without stretching, Nicolas Cage and Laurence add a gloss of acting talent.

What Does Not Work As Well: The product is the story, and the people are afterthoughts. The intentional absence of names and the incessant jumping between sub-stories ensure none of the characters register as anything other than designated roles, resulting in dry soullessness. The choppy episodes include some incomprehensible distractions (including a few bewildering ambushes), and a couple of late-in-the-day twists are both implausible and unimpressive.

Key Quote:

The Cook (to his wife): The are some...administrative issues I have to attend to.

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Movie Review: Longlegs (2024)

Genre: Suspense Horror  

Director: Osgood Perkins  

Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: In Oregon, studious FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) displays psychic abilities. She is assigned the complex case of an at-large serial killer known only as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), who is believed to have caused the murder of multiple families. Lee is soon contacted by Longlegs and decodes his messages, but as she delves deeper into the case, her strained relationship with her religious mother Ruth (Alicia Witt) takes on new meaning.

What Works Well: The dreary Pacific Northwest aesthetic provides a foreboding setting of secluded farmhouses where bad things happen to seemingly normal families for no apparent reason. The sinister mood is augmented by Maika Monroe's restless, on-the-edge performance, her FBI agent carrying at least as much doubt as confidence. Nicolas Cage is free to unleash his inner unpredictable insanity under a ton of outer makeup, his unhinged dialogue and unprompted singing responsible for a good few unsettling moments.

What Does Not Work As Well: Writer and director Osgood Perkins is better at generating ideas than developing them. Many narrative openings like Lee's clairvoyant powers, Longleg's coded messages, the common birth dates, possessed dolls, and satanic dominion over weak minds are tantalizingly dangled but then fade through either neglect or rushed non-explanations. The caliber of rudimentary evil on display is more suited to a mad clown than the devil.

Key Quote:

Ruth (to her daughter Lee): Are you still saying your prayers? Our prayers protect us from the devil.

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Movie Review: Honeymoon In Vegas (1992)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Andrew Bergman  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, James Caan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pat Morita    

Running Time: 96 minutes  

Synopsis: Four years after promising his dying mother (Anne Bancroft) that he will never marry, New York-based private investigator Jack Singer (Nicolas Cage) has studiously managed to avoid commitment. But when his girlfriend Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) issues an ultimatum, he agrees to marry her in Las Vegas. Professional poker player Tommy Korman (James Caan) falls in love with Betsy at first sight because she reminds him of his dead wife. He dupes Jack into losing $65,000 at a private poker game, and demands Betsy's company for the weekend as payment. Tommy and Betsy jet off to Hawaii, with Jack in hot pursuit to try to save his relationship.

What Works Well: The collective talent of Nicolas Cage, James Caan, and Sarah Jessica Parker is sufficient to maintain a base level of engagement. The Las Vegas and Hawaii settings offer decent eye candy, punctuated by the neat involvement of flying Elvis impersonators.

What Does Not Work As Well: Writer and director Andrew Bergman sacrifices character cohesion to serve the whims of a mostly moribund and always contrived script. Tommy oscillates between charming, clumsy, and mean; Betsy falls in and out of love every other scene; and Jack snaps from commitment phobe to desperate-to-commit in a heartbeat. Most of the laughs are ho-hum, and the obsession with Elvis impersonators grows stale. Pat Morita makes a welcome appearance as a taxi driver in Hawaii, but deserved a bigger role.

Key Quote:

Jack: People get married, and then they do the most hideous, unbelievable things to each other.



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Movie Review: Knowing (2009)

Genre: Science Fiction Thriller  

Director: Alex Proyas  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne  

Running Time: 121 minutes  

Synopsis: Still grieving the loss of his wife, MIT astrophysicist John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) is raising his young son Caleb on his own. A time capsule from 50 years past is opened at Caleb's school, revealing a mysterious series of numbers written by troubled student Lucinda in the late 1950s. John breaks the code, which accurately predicted major global catastrophes from the past 50 years, with more to come. He connects with Lucinda's daughter Diana (Rose Byrne) and granddaughter Abby, and as calamities continue to occur as per the code, mysterious whispering strangers approach Caleb and Abby.

What Works Well: The march to cataclysm combines supernatural elements with themes of familial loss, religion, grief, and the debate between determinism and randomness. The school's time capsule is a clever introductory anchor, and director Alex Proyas keeps the mystery elements sharp as John grapples with the stunning implications of the deciphered code. The scale of potential disaster is global, but John and Diana's personal losses and individual-scaled suspicions allow the thrills to remain grounded.

What Does Not Work As Well: Two mass casualty events feature in the middle act, and the scenes of destruction succumb to marginal special effects and digital carnage more spectacular than convincing. The rushed late-in-the-final-act plot resolution explains everything and nothing, and a step-back from specifics exposes fundamental weaknesses in logic as the build-up to world-altering events passes mostly unnoticed.

Conclusion: When it comes to the end, to know or not to know is the question.



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Movie Review: Con Air (1997)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: Simon West  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Monica Potter  

Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: Former Army Ranger Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) kills a man in self defence and serves eight years in prison. Granted parole and eager to reunite with his wife Tricia (Monica Potter) and their young daughter, Cameron's final journey to freedom is on a US Marshals flight carrying hardened convicts. Career criminal Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich) leads a violent hijacking, assisted by Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones (Ving Rhames). Cameron has to help guard Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin) and other transportees stay alive while secretly working with Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) to end the ordeal.

What Works Well: Embracing a go big or go home ethos, this is a bold, brash, loud, and often very funny commitment to entertainment. The action is peppered by one-liners delivered with deadpan accuracy by Nicolas Cage, while the quality cast ensures animation in every role. Director Simon West delivers an action set-piece about every ten minutes, and rounds Cameron Poe into enough of a heroic family man to ensure a human heart beats inside the carnage. On the other side of the madness divide, John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi contribute memorable villains.

What Does Not Work As Well: "Over the top" does not begin to describe the flight path of the final 30 minutes. The climax leaves any semblance of reality behind and surrenders to cartoon levels of excess.

Conclusion: The non-stop turbulence is severe, intentional, and wildly enjoyable.



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Movie Review: The Frozen Ground (2013)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Scott Walker  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Vanessa Hudgens, John Cusack, Radha Mitchell, 50 Cent  

Running Time: 105 minutes  

Synopsis: In Anchorage of 1983, prostitute Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens) escapes from the clutches of brutal rapist Robert Hanson (John Cusack). Local officers do not pursue charges, but State Trooper Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) investigates similarities to unsolved disappearance and murder cases of other women across Alaska dating back to the early 1970s, all circumstantially connected to Hanson. Without enough evidence to secure a warrant, Jack tries to convince Cindy to cooperate, but she just wants to disappear into the sex trade. Meanwhile, Hanson hunts down more victims.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, this is a grim procedural emphasizing dogged police work and the struggles of marginalized victims. Director Scott Walker leverages a stark Alaska entering the grips of winter to create an overbearing sense of gloom, whether on remote icefields or within the city's seedy corners. Nicolas Cage loads the weight of invisible suffering onto tired but determined shoulders, and the toll of the investigation on Halcombe's marriage to Allie (Radha Mitchell) adds a layer of emotional exhaustion. John Cusack is chilling as the seemingly soulless antagonist finding fertile hunting grounds in a milieu of strip clubs and prostitution rooms.

What Does Not Work As Well: Within the limited running time, the focus is split three ways between Halcombe, Cindy, and Hanson. All are afforded tantalizing glimpses of intriguing but not fully realized depth. Cindy's repeated capacity to escape into trouble becomes a tiresome distraction.

Conclusion: A suitably cold view of evil preying on society's most vulnerable.



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Movie Review: Pig (2021)

A drama about what matters, Pig uses a stolen animal mystery to deftly explore themes of legacy and grief.

In Oregon, unwashed truffle collector Rob (Nicolas Cage) lives in a shack deep in a forest near Portland. His pet pig helps him find the truffles, and on a weekly basis middle-man Amir (Alex Wolff) comes by for a pick-up. Amir then makes a lot of money distributing the truffles to high-end restaurants in the city.

One night thieves invade Rob's shack and steal his beloved pig, shattering his simple life. He calls upon Amir and they head into Portland to track down the stolen animal. Amir wonders how Rob will navigate the urban setting, but is shocked to learn Rob is actually Robin Feld, once the most revered chef in the city. Rob's former reputation in the fine food industry come to the fore as he doggedly tracks down his missing pig, a search that will involve Amir's father Darius (Adam Arkin).

A quiet story revealed with heart and a pinch of humour, Pig dares to be different. Director and writer Michael Sarnoski creates a traditional quest narrative, but only as a starting point for ticklish explorations of values and seismic reactions to intense loss. Like its protagonist, the film is unique, unexpected, and suitably rough around the edges. The northwest locations add a mood of damp curiosity. 

Several movies have tried and mostly failed to humanize celebrity chef culture. Pig succeeds with disarming ease. Gradually, Sarnoski cuts through the grime and stink surrounding Rob to underline food's fundamental societal role. Memories and painful losses weave through the narrative, common experiences sprouting up in unexpected places, fine food ingredients and the chefs who create artistry emerging as the music accompanying celebrations and tragedies.

Occupying plenty of room in a soulfully resigned performance, Nicolas Cage brings a philosophical tiredness to Rob, wearing caked blood as a badge of indifference to what others may think. Alex Wolff's Amir is the slick observer, believing he has his life in order but about to receive a proper education in culture and family. 

Favouring brevity over tedium, the 92 minutes of running time border on abrupt, and Rob's fragmented profundity threatens to sideline other characters' definitions. Amir's father Darius emerges as a counterpoint, and he in particular would have benefited from broader exposition. But while it's served rather hastily, Pig is still a deceptively simple meal to savour.



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Movie Review: Guarding Tess (1994)

A tepid comedy about lonely people seeking human connections, Guarding Tess flounders for a purpose before deflating into an incongruous final act.

In a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Secret Service Agent Doug Chesnic (Nicolas Cage) cannot wait for the end of his three year stint in charge of security for former First Lady Tess Carlisle (Shirley MacLaine). But to his surprise she demands his return for another three years, and he reluctantly agrees. Tess is popular with the public but generally a recluse, although she now starts venturing out more often, including to attend an opera.

But her greatest joy is treating Doug and his team like her personal servants, ordering them to perform menial tasks or sending them into a frenzy by escaping their supervision with her loyal driver Earl (Austin Pendleton). After several showdowns Doug and Tess arrive at a truce, but a shock awaits.

Directed and co-written by Hugh Wilson, Guarding Tess features a flimsy and underdeveloped premise, essentially one idea refusing to evolve. For more than an hour Doug and Tess circle the same drain, as she tests his limits with mean behaviour while he fulminates but then obliges.

Eventually Wilson works his way to Tess expressing oblique references to her regrets as a parent and Doug acknowledging his failed marriage, both wholly inadequate explanations for her haughty nastiness and his docile acquiescence. Then the script chucks away all the human-centred dramedy in favour of a poorly conceived out-of-nowhere kidnapping plot. 

MacLaine and Cage do their best but cannot overcome a witless script floundering between bland humour and amateur psychology about lonely people seeking any relationship they can find. Instead of injecting some spirit, the secondary characters are non-entities. Doug has a team of support agents and Tess has a house full of servants, and not one of them is provided with a personality beyond cartoonish representations.

Guarding Tess is a duty best abandoned.



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Movie Review: It Could Happen To You (1994)

A romantic comedy loosely inspired by true events, It Could Happen To You is amiable enough and benefits from grounded Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda performances.

In New York City, Charlie Lang (Cage) is a kind-hearted police officer, happy to remain a beat cop working the streets with his partner Bo (Wendell Pierce). Charlie is married to the materialistic Muriel (Rosie Perez) who resents Charlie's lack of ambition and their modest Queens apartment.

Yvonne Biasi (Fonda) is a compassionate coffee shop waitress, and she has to declare bankruptcy when her no-good husband Eddie (Stanley Tucci) racks up massive credit card debt. Yvonne and Eddie are separated, but she cannot afford to go through a divorce.

After a quick coffee stop Charlie finds himself short of cash for a tip and promises Yvonne half his lottery ticket. The draw is that night, and the ticket wins $4 million. Although Muriel is furious, Charlie insists on honouring his promise and sharing half with Yvonne. All their lives change forever, and as Muriel starts indulging her every whim, Charlie finds himself increasingly attracted to Yvonne, although the reemergence of Eddie adds further complications.

It Could Happen To You adheres strictly to genre conventions, and adds a layer of genuine sweetness. Charlie and Yvonne are an impeccable fit, both saddled with insufferable spouses, and director Andrew Bergman never introduces even an iota of doubt that the cop and waitress will end up together. With down-to-earth Queens locations, a relaxed tone and an ideal run time of 101 minutes, the film is easy to enjoy.

The couple-to-be are almost too perfect: he helps New Yorkers cross the street and plays ball with the neighbourhood kids every night. She looks after all her regular customers with an outstanding level of bona fide affection. Which raises the question as to how they ended up with their polar-opposite spouses. Muriel is greed personified, hyper-agitated by her man's disinterest in financial wealth. Eddie is nothing but a slimy leach.

Clumsy narration courtesy of an Isaac Hayes character named, of all things, Angel, as well as globs of exposure for the New York Post, are among the other unnecessary distractions.

Where the Jane Anderson script dares to be original is on doubling down on a level of natural goodness and old fashioned charm. Charlie and Yvonne create an irony-free, honesty-rich bubble and gradually work their way towards an authentic love, casting aside the edgy snarkiness often deployed as a humour device. Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda buy into the wholesome personas and add doses of benevolent elegance to the romance.

A lottery win brought two perfectly compatible people together, and the only irony on display is their joint understanding of what true affluence means.

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Movie Review: Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

An intense character study, Leaving Las Vegas explores a friendship at the margins of society, where two knowingly damaged people connect in search of pure companionship.

In Los Angeles, middle-aged Ben (Nicolas Cage) is a full-blown alcoholic. Estranged from his ex-wife and son, he lives a life of nothing but excessive drinking and womanizing. Ben is not surprised when he is fired, and uses his final paycheque to relocate to a sleazy motel room in Las Vegas with every intention of drinking himself to death.

A chance encounter with prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue) evolves into an unlikely friendship. When her Russian pimp Yuri (Julian Sands) meets troubles of his own, Sera invites Ben to move in with her. He accepts on condition that she never asks him to stop drinking. She continues working as an independent prostitute, and their relationship evolves towards genuine caring.

An admitted alcoholic with no intentions of drying out and a prostitute proud of her profession make for an unlikely pair to place at the centre of a would-be romantic drama. And yet director and writer Mike Figgis, adapting John O'Brien's semi-autobiographical book, fearlessly marches his film towards the down-and-out fringes seeking humanity's unifying sparks.

Leaving Las Vegas carries echoes of Midnight Cowboy as it teases out compassion from the filthy corners where human debris accumulates. Despite a neon-bathed Las Vegas featuring prominently as a backdrop, neither Ben nor Sera are here to enjoy the town. Alcohol is the only source of Ben's pleasure, and any room he occupies is soon overflowing with bottles. Sera navigates her profession with a survivor's practiced efficiency, maintaining a steady disposition and even demonstrating a level of empathy towards Yuri.

Ben and Sera reach a core understanding that they can care for each other only if they don't impose conditions of change. Maintaining their self-destructive trajectories is essential to who they are; and the relationship exists strictly on an "as is" basis. Figgis strips out most of their backgrounds, highlighting the immediacy of here and now: it shall not matter to Ben and Sera how they got here, only that they are here, now, and can be companions through the emotional darkness.

And it's vivid immediacy Figgis searches for, often drowning the dialogue with melancholy music. At their stage in life Ben and Sera really have not much of value to say to each other; closeness is what matters.

Nicolas Cage's descent into Ben's abyss is almost physically painful to watch, and ensures the film is always walking to the edge of despair. Elisabeth Shue finds the role of her career, providing Sera with remarkable restraint and quiet acceptance, plus a layer of searching tension just below the surface.

Leaving Las Vegas is the end of frivolous escapism, but departure is softened in the presence of a soulmate.

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Movie Review: National Treasure (2004)

A modern-day treasure-hunt adventure, National Treasure offers slick escapism in a glossy production package.

Mesmerized by stories he heard as a child from from his grandfather (Christopher Plummer), Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) has dedicated his life to finding the fabled treasure of the Knights Templar, despite the cynicism of his father Patrick (Jon Voight). The treasure may now be in the United States shrouded in the mythology of the founding fathers and the secretive Masons. To track down a key clue Ben and his friend Riley (Justin Bartha) obtain funding from the shady Ian Howe (Sean Bean) and uncover the wreck of the ancient ship Charlotte under the North Pole ice.

On board they find clues pointing to an invisible treasure map on the back of the original Declaration of Independence. Ben and Ian disagree on how to proceed, causing a major falling out. Ben connects with Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) of the National Archives, but cannot convince anyone that the Declaration is at risk. Ben and Ian concoct separate plans to steal the highly protected document, setting off a massive chase and the attention of FBI Agent Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel).

An unlikely collaboration between family-friendly Disney Studios and action-loving producer Jerry Bruckheimer, National Treasure is a respectable urban take-off on Indiana Jones-style adventurism. Directed and co-produced by Jon Turteltaub, the film carries the singular objective of providing treasure-hunt style thrills. Logic, physics and common sense mostly stay out of the way, yielding to fun, a well-executed dual heist sequence, energetic chases and descents into impressive cavernous spaces.

Arriving at the perfect time about 18 month after the release of the sensational bestseller The Da Vinci Code, National Treasure borrows many of Dan Brown's better points. The pacing is fast enough to glide over the inherent absurdities, the clues often hide in plain sight and within historically famous artifacts, Ben is an extraordinary on-the-fly puzzle solver, a smart and capable woman joins the chase, and as the end draws near the dangers and close calls amplify. With a strained father-son relationship coming into play between Ben and Patrick, the film also colours in a decent background for its reluctant hero.

Although he lands on the side of marginally colourless, Nicolas Cage maintains control and brings Ben to life as a man fully aware that his life may have been frittered away chasing a myth. Cage is surrounded by a good cast, Sean Bean in particular heartily sinking his teeth into another villainous role.

Lighthearted yet genuine in its intentions, National Treasure never threatens to astound but does follow the right map.

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Movie Review: Next (2007)

A science fiction action thriller, Next offers what could have been an intriguing proposition and proceeds to pulverize it into a predictable pisspot.

Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) is a second-rate Vegas magician performing under the name Frank Cadillac. Cris does have a clairvoyant gift that he prefers to keep secret: he can see two minutes into his own future. After tangling with the security apparatus of a Vegas casino, Cris is approached by FBI Special Agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), who wants to ask for his help to find a stolen Russian nuclear device that has been smuggled into the US.

Cris refuses and goes on the run, but pauses to meet and team up with Liz Cooper (Jessica Biel), a woman he has seen in his visions and who allows him to see further than two minutes into the future. Together they make their way to Flagstaff, with the FBI and the terrorists in hot pursuit.

Directed by Lee Tamahori as an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story, Next tries hard to be a straight-to-DVD bargain bin release, but is unfortunately prevented from finding its true destiny by too many stars in the cast looking for a quick payday. A reasonably glossy production cannot patch up a stinker of a plot that starts with a single idea and quickly disintegrates into a mundane thriller consisting entirely of people chasing people for about 96 minutes.

Next is most memorable for an atrocious ending, which will not be spoiled here, although it deserves to be. What the ending does achieve is almost conceal how horrible the rest of the film is. Next has generic terrorists who never get to explain their plot or their cause; the baddies are just convenient and interchangeable Europeans who want to detonate a nuclear device. Move along, no other explanation is necessary.

And the screenplay does not even attempt to reveal what else anyone is doing to prevent the attack. Agent Ferris provides regular reminders that about 8 million people are about to die, and yet the considerable resources of the FBI appear to be deployed for the single purpose of capturing a two-bit Las Vegas magician. To add further insults to any remaining intelligence, the terrorists decide that chasing and killing Cris Johnson is also worth risking their time and resources. What better way to proceed with a carefully planned terrorist attack than to intentionally be as close as possible to hordes of FBI agents.

Finally, the science fiction elements are made up and revised on the fly. This is a film that establishes a two minute rule about how far Cris can see into his future, a limit that is meticulously repeated by various characters for the benefit of slower audience members. Regardless, Next promptly breaks the premise without explanation upon introducing the Liz Cooper character. By the disastrous end of the film all bets are off and none of the rules seem to matter, Cris now capable of being in multiple places at one time.

Nicolas Cage goes through the motions, Julianne Moore carries an annoyed attitude throughout, and Jessica Biel never appears sure as to what her character is doing in the movie, a question that also stumped the filmmakers. Peter Falk pops up in one scene and cashes out. Next indeed, and quickly.

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Movie Review: Lord Of War (2005)

An exposé drama about the international arms trade, Lord Of War is a highly enjoyable romp through the business of selling the tools of death.

The son of Ukrainian refugees, Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) grew up in a rough Brooklyn neighbourhood and learned from personal experience the value of guns. In the early 1980s Yuri starts his own business as a gun dealer, before teaming up with his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) and quickly expanding into the international trade. Yuri becomes an expert in finding loopholes to break arms embargos, and particularly skilled in locating and reselling abandoned weapons caches around the world. His initial attempts to partner with Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), the world's most renowned weapons dealer, are rebuffed.

Staying one step ahead of dogged and incorruptible Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), Yuri sells weapons in all the world's hotspots including Liberia where dictator André Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker) becomes a favoured client. Yuri also wins the love of glamorous fashion model Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) but Vitaly falls victim to a drug addiction. The fall of the Soviet Union results in a flood of new product on the market, and Yuri uses old family connections in Ukraine to expand his business and join the ranks of elite weapons traders. Weisz now needs Yuri's help, and Valentine remains in hot pursuit.

Written and directed by Andrew Niccol and co-produced by Cage, Lord Of War is an irreverent but sharp-eyed take on the world of independent gun smuggling inspired by real world characters such as Sarkis Soghanalian, Oleg Orlov and Viktor Bout. Touching down in the rubble of some of the world's worst conflict zones, the film pokes away at the double standards of an international system that places sanctions and admonishes dictators while ensuring men like Yuri carry on with the business of supplying rifles for child soldiers.

Although the story is undoubtedly episodic and over-narrated, Niccol finds a groove in the adventures of an antihero who uses every excuse in the book to justify his profession, and has every trick at his disposal to skate past international laws. The film moves briskly and with plenty of panache, Niccol finding memorable set-pieces in places as diverse as the rubble of war-torn Beirut, on the high seas off the shores of South America, in a derelict Monrovia hotel, in Ukrainian warehouses crammed with weaponry, and most effectively on a dusty road in Africa. A forced cargo plane landing results in a real-time lesson in third world armament distribution efficiency and recycling economics.

Meanwhile back home Yuri builds a life of wealth and comfort for his family. Ava and his parents turn a blind eye to the source of all the money until the glare of the obvious becomes impossible to ignore. But just as Vitaly is addicted to cocaine, Yuri is addicted to the thrill of the weapons deal, and with no shortage to the number of buyers, sellers and dirty wars, his services are always in demand. Nicolas Cage delivers a pragmatically laid back central performance built on an advanced intellect thriving in a despicable profession, his dead eyes concealing layers of self-delusion.

Lord Of War is a gut punch to the concept of a world at peace. As the guardians of morality profit from war, killing is Yuri's business, and business is good.

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Movie Review: Snowden (2016)

A biographical thriller dramatizing recent events, Snowden recreates the story of one of America's most famous whistleblowers. The film is never less than competent, but also struggles to add much that is revelatory.

It's 2013, and former CIA employee Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is holed up in a Hong Kong hotel room with documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo). Snowden is in possession of a microchip with thousands of files he stole from the National Security Agency (NSA) revealing the depth of illegal surveillance being perpetrated on the unsuspecting American public under the guise of counter terrorism. In flashback, Snowden's story is revealed. Stymied from joining the special forces due to injury, computer wizard Snowden joins the CIA where his mentor Corbin O’Brian (Rhys Ifans) exposes him to the world of intelligence. He also meets Hank Forrester (Nicolas Cage), a technology wizard from an earlier era now marginalized after a whistleblowing incident.

Snowden starts a relationship with photographer, dancer and model Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), and her more liberal views gradually rub off on him. Assigned to Geneva, Snowden grows disillusioned with the intelligence world after experiencing first hand how global surveillance serves the world of dirty tricks. He continues to work in intelligence as a contractor, to the detriment of his health and relationship. Back at the hotel room, reporters from The Guardian newspaper arrive, including Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson). Snowden wants the newspaper to break the story, but the international manhunt has already started.

Directed by and co-written by Oliver Stone, Snowden is a relatively straightforward story told too soon. As of the film's 2016 release date, Edward Snowden is still a guest of convenience with the Russians and the true impact of his spectacular data theft is perhaps yet to be fully understood. The story of his remarkable hack and subsequent escape played out in real time on television screens and websites across the world in 2013. The wisdom of dramatizing fresh events from three years prior while the implications are still reverberating is fundamentally questionable.

Nevertheless, the story is undeniably provocative and Stone, operating well within his passion and expertise in dramas with broad political dimensions, delivers a decent package. The relationship between Snowden and Mills is the one new area that the film explores well, and the film hits its bright spots conveying Snowden trying to hold the relationship together while wrestling with increasing paranoiac discomfort. His bottled up awareness of the government machine spying on everyone takes an increasingly worrisome toll on his health, as he observes the carefree Mills, like most millennials, sharing her life on the computer, including government-questioning liberal views and uninhibited eroticism.

Less interesting are the scenes in the Hong Kong hotel room. Stone tries to wring tension from Snowden's interaction with Poitras and The Guardian reporters, but it's choppy viewing culminating with a not exactly gripping shouting match between journalists and editors across a laptop connection. The scenes with Snowden's CIA mentors and influencers in the form of Corbin O’Brian and Hank Forrester carry more promise and deserved more screen time.

While the software capabilities at the core of Snowden's growing resentment of the NSA's surveillance programs are briefly presented, this is another film where technology is deemed too complex for anything beyond a cursory description, much like The Theory Of Everything and The Imitation Game.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt carries the film and is fine in the title role, although the personality of Snowden as a pale-faced and introverted techno-geek does not necessarily provide the opportunity for expansive acting. Shailene Woodley gets more freedom to explore the breadth of Mills' emotions, a woman genuinely in love with a man transforming before her eyes into a tortured enigma.

Snowden contains enough of Stone's stylistic touches to maintain interest. But this is a biography that arrives too soon and carries too few surprises to register as a genuinely effective drama.

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Movie Review: Raising Arizona (1987)

A madcap comedy, Raising Arizona aims for a loony vibe and often achieves it. The parenting misadventures of a petty thief and his ex-cop wife are wildly unpredictable and sometimes quite hilarious.

Herbert "Hi" McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) can't drive past a convenience store without thinking of holding it up. Since he never uses live ammunition, he receives a succession of short prison sentences. Every time he is arrested he catches sight of booking officer Edwina, known simply as Ed (Holly Hunter). He finally times it right, proposes and marries her on one of his stints outside the jail cell. Hi and Ed settle down to a life of crime-free domesticity, but soon find out that she cannot conceive, and Ed slumps into an aggravated state of depression.

When the media announce that discount furniture king Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) and his wife Florence have given birth to quintuplets, Hi and Ed decide that the Arizonas have more children than they can handle, and they go ahead and steal one of the infants. They try to create a true family unit, but uncouth prison escapees and brothers Gale and Evelle Snoats (John Goodman and William Forsythe) invite themselves and disrupt the peace. Soon Hi's boss Glen (Sam McMurray), his wife Dot (Frances McDormand) and their brood of unruly children add to the chaos, while heavily armed demon Leonard Smalls (Randall "Tex" Cobb), also known as the lone biker of the apocalypse, starts to track down the missing baby to claim the reward money.

The second film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen after 1984's Blood Simple, Raising Arizona is a dramatic change of gears. The Coens demonstrate versatility by switching from film noir crime to loopy screwball comedy. Set in an unnamed small town near the desert with Hi and Ed aiming to live the idyllic trailer park lifestyle, Raising Arizona is about chasing the American Dream, but in all the wrong directions. The film is fast, funny and features some blistering set-pieces.

Halfway through, the Coen's conjure up a 10 minute sequence of pure farce that deserves a pedestal in the comedy hall of fame. Hi cannot fight the urge to rob a late-night market, but now something of a dad, his target is a free bag of Huggies diapers. What follows is a nutty chase involving a police squad car, gun-toting store clerks, a pack of excited dogs, a simpleton of a pick-up driver, with a furious Ed and her infant in the car burning rubber and wondering whether Hi deserves to be abandoned or rescued.

Other highlights include Glen and Dot's children running riot, while every scene that features motorcyclist Leonard Smalls exudes hysterically mythical evil on two wheels, one step away from dishing out destruction to any living thing.

Raising Arizona's comedy style is in-your-face, emphasized by a whole lot of screaming. This is not sophisticated humour, and while most of it works, it also gets overwhelming. Quite a few scenes involve characters with their mouths open wide and just hollering at maximum lung power. With plenty of people around him given free reign to go over-the-top, Nicolas Cage pulls back and often allows Hi to relax as the most laid back person in the room. Holly Hunter is a bundle of nerves, Ed wondering where the pathway to fulfillment resides, but certain that it involves having a child.

Beneath all the madness is a tale of unlikely love, Hi and Ed acting on an undeniable attraction and desperate to settle down to a simple life and just build a family. Through thick and thin they stand by each other, sort of, and baby Arizona gives them a new purpose and an opportunity to view each other through a fresh lens. Even the ammunition-free robber and the nerdy small town ex-cop deserve their opportunity to pursue happiness.

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Movie Review: Face/Off (1997)

An innovative present-day science fiction thriller, Face/Off packs crackling kinetic energy into the story of a long-running feud between an international terrorist and an FBI agent.

FBI Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) has been pursuing terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) for a long time. Six years prior, Castor tried to assassinate Archer, but succeeded only in killing his young son Michael instead. Now Archer appears to have the upper hand: an FBI trap at a small airport results in the apparently mortal wounding of Castor and the capture of his brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola), but not before Castor hints that a massive bomb has been hidden and activated somewhere in Los Angeles. Castor is kept alive at a covert government medical facility.

To trick the imprisoned Pollux into revealing the location of the bomb, a secret plan is hatched: Castor's face will be peeled off and attached to Archer, whose own face will stored for later reattachment. The plan appears to work, Archer (with Castor's face) tricks Pollux into giving away the bomb's location. But all goes awry when Castor wakes up, summons his allies, and attaches Archer's face onto his head. Castor (with Archer's face) takes over Archer's job and household, including sleeping with Archer's wife Eve (Joan Allen). Archer has to find a way to reclaim his identity, rescue his family, save his life and destroy the rampaging Castor.

Director John Woo not only conjures up an imaginative science fiction adventure, but also creates one of the most thrilling action films of the late 1990s. Written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary,Face/Off is understandably silly when it comes to the science, but the premise is put to good use. Woo uses the face exchange between mortal enemies as a starting point for a non-stop fun ride featuring no end of chases, bullet-drenched shoot-outs and general mayhem, all stylistically filmed with balletic elegance. This is an action film where all the action scenes are lovingly constructed with artistic choreography, the horizontal leap-and-shoot a favourite tactic, only surpassed by the higher difficulty level of the horizontal leap-twist-and-shoot.

At a length of 139 minutes, Face/Off is pretty long for what is fundamentally a two-person duel. Woo stretches out his action scenes with the care of a creator unable to trim his lovingly-conceived achievement. While understandable given the quality on display, the film almost becomes too much of a good thing, and also means that Archer and Castor emerge as really horrible marksmen. They take hundreds of shots at each other throughout the movie, and neither the ace FBI agent nor the renowned terrorist cover themselves in glory when it comes to accuracy.

John Travolta and Nicolas Cage each get two characters to sink their teeth into, and both actors have rarely been better. When the actors switch roles and have to pretend to be their characters' worst nightmare, they excel in contrasting manners. Cage (as Archer with Castor's face) has to hide his horror and disgust at taking on the appearance of the man who killed his son. Travolta (as Castor with Archer's face) is barely able to conceal the delight of a heartless terrorist now able to further torment the family of his nemesis.

Joan Allen as the long suffering wife provides able support, and Gina Gershon has a smallish but pivotal role as a member of Castor's entourage who provides an unlikely opportunity for Archer to regain his identity. Dominique Swain rounds out the cast as Jamie, Archer's rebellious daughter who has to deal with her dad's stunning behavioural transformation.

The climax, when it comes, is a classic mano-a-mano confrontation featuring a wild motor boat chase, several massive explosions, and an assortment of truly stunning stunts. Face/Off is a face-off with epic ambitions to achieve the spectacular, and covers itself in the glory of two worthy rivals refusing to yield even when they see the world through new eyes.

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Movie Review: World Trade Center (2006)

A survival story set beneath the collapsed towers and based on real events, World Trade Center salutes the human spirit but struggles in its second half to build a cinematic experience out of a mostly static personal tragedy.

On the morning of September 11, 2001 in New York City, Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Peña) are among a large group of emergency responders dispatched to the World Trade Center after planes piloted by terrorists strike the twin towers. In the plaza level, McLoughlin is preparing his men to help in the rescue efforts when the South Tower collapses. In an instant McLoughlin orders his men to take refuge near the elevator shaft. He survives along with Jimeno, although both are trapped by the rubble and rendered immobile.

Officer Dominick Pezzulo (Jay Hernandez) also survives and is able to extricate himself, but is unable to free Jimeno and is then killed when the North Tower collapses. Both badly hurt, McLoughlin and Jimeno have to keep themselves alive by raising each others' spirits, while their wives Donna McLoughlin (Maria Bello) and Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and families are consumed by worry and the lack of information.

World Trade Center is a respectful film, director Oliver Stone steering well clear of his tendencies for controversies and conspiracies, and creating an ultimately simple story of courage and rescue. The film also avoids, to a large degree, any spectacular images of airplanes striking buildings, limiting the terrorism acts to small television screens as witnessed by most of the world at the time. The performances match the tone, Cage and Peña creating distinct personalities and teasing out the men's human side as they reveal more personal details of their lives to each other as their ordeal drags on. Bello and Gyllenhaal do all that is asked of them, police wives struck with the panic of the worst possible fears coming true.

The limitations of the film's experience are set by the inherent nature of the story. Once the buildings fall, there is little forward momentum, and World Trade Center is essentially caught in the same rubble as the two officers. There is only so much drama that can be generated from men fighting to stay awake and alive while their families anxiously await any news. Stone has to drag out this phase for close to an hour, and the film suffers from it. In contrast, once the rescue starts, it feels rushed and muddled, Stone and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey unable to coherently reconstruct the arduous work of freeing and pulling out the two men from the tightest of confines.

What the film does do well is present the unfathomably disastrous attacks from the perspective of two men doing their job, getting caught up in the chaos, uncertainty and confusion of events that no one was prepared for, and finding themselves trapped under the rubble of two collapsed buildings and in excruciating pain. A claustrophobic sense of desperation becomes the enemy, the men's only link to the outside world a shaft of light above Jimeno.

They keep each other alive through sheer companionship, clinging to precious life when all around them spells death. Silently, the film forces the question about how many others faced the same fate and were not saved. The impromptu actions of Marines Dave Karnes and Jason Thomas led to the fortuitous rescue of McLoughlin and Jimeno; many others, equally trapped, likely waited in vain before perishing. The impact of the film comes from the realization that for 2,977 families other than the relatives of McLoughlin and Jimeno, the days after September 11 ended very differently, the frantic search for answers met with nothing but silence and ultimately, the most grim of confirmations.

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Movie Review: Trespass (2011)

A stale family hostage drama, Trespass is a brain-dead exercise in rehashing old ideas with a large dose of ineptitude.

Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage) is self-employed as an independent middle-man in the diamond trade business, operating in the more shadowy corners of the industry. He lives in a large custom-designed house, but his marriage to Sarah (Nicole Kidman) is dying due to lack of attention. Their teenaged daughter Avery (Liana Liberato) is fully into the rebellion stage.

One dark night, with Avery having sneaked out of the house to attend a house party, the Millers are invaded by a noisy armed gang consisting of leader Elias (Ben Mendelsohn), his brother Jonah (Cam Gigandet), Elias' girlfriend Petal (Jordana Spiro) and the brutish Ty (Dash Mihok). Elias demands that Kyle hand over the diamonds stashed in his safe. Kyle refuses and starts stalling, allowing for cracks to emerge among the home invaders. And it soon becomes apparent that Jonah was the technician who installed the Millers' complex alarm system, and his hunky wiring work may have attracted the roving eye of the lonely Sarah.

Trespass invests 10 minutes in establishing the Miller family dynamic, the next 10 minutes firing the opening salvo of the home invasion, and then disintegrates into nonsense. The script by Karl Gajdusek has a torrid time trying to extend the drama to 90 minutes, and most of the movie consists of angry people screaming loudly while pointing guns at the heads of scared victims.

On numerous occasions the guns change hands, and the Millers have many opportunities to run and call for help, but of course the film always contrives a way to prolong the hostage agony for another round of hissing, cussing and shouting. Director Joel Schumacher, working hard to erase memories of his better films, never comes close to creating any sort of tension or excitement.

The home invaders soon turn into a band of dysfunctional idiots, with internal arguments, drug addictions, botched previous jobs, jealousies and double-crosses all coming to the fore. Jonah's infatuation with Sarah places him on the wrong team and at odds with his brother, adding to the loud arguments erupting throughout the Miller household.

Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman embarrass themselves with this schlock, both mailing in routine wide-eyed victim roles. It is left to youngster Liana Liberato to deliver the most engaging performance as the pouty and headstrong Avery.

Trespass crosses all the wrong lines, heading in a misguided direction.

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Movie Review: The Rock (1996)

A simplistic action film, The Rock piles on the thrills in a story of rogue soldiers threatening San Francisco with chemical weapons, but despite a good cast the film lacks soul and sophistication.

Highly respected and battle hardened General Frank Hummel (Ed Harris) is disgruntled at the lack of proper recognition afforded to Marines who die while on covert missions. He recruits a group of soldiers to break into a military facility and steal several rockets equipped with deadly VX gas. Hummel and his men then storm and occupy Alcatraz, formerly a top security federal prison and now a tourist attraction. They hold tourists as hostages, point the rockets at San Francisco, and Hummel demands a $100 million ransom.

As the negotiations bog down, a Navy Seal team is recruited to infiltrate Alcatraz through the sewer system and end the threat. FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) is added to the team, as is the mysterious John Mason (Sean Connery), a prisoner in his 60s held by the US government for more than 30 years and the only man to have successfully escaped from Alcatraz. With Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn) in charge the Navy Seals run into a lot of trouble, and it is left up to Goodspeed and Mason to rescue the situation. Goodspeed, who has no combat experience, soon comes to learn that there is a lot more to Mason than initially meets the eye.

Director Michael Bay's second feature film after Bad Boys (1995), The Rock is a routine high-concept action thriller in a big rush to find the next noisy set-piece at the expense of logic, plot, and characters. While the firefights and explosions are handled proficiently and with reasonably good tension, the film is a missed opportunity to do so much more with an excellent cast.

The script takes itself far too seriously and is not up to the task of developing rounded people. Instead Connery, Cage and Harris are reduced to pre-packaged and empty characters. Connery does come off best and tries to hold the film together, and occasionally the glint in his eye is enough to overcome the rather juvenile events unfolding around him. A lame attempt to give Cage a pregnant girlfriend (Vanessa Marcil) to worry about is almost forgotten amidst all the mayhem. Most often The Rock resembles a routine video game adaptation where the heroes have to run, jump, hide, crawl, shoot and overcome ridiculous odds to achieve the next objective, and then repeat.

As far as action thrillers that demand minimal mental engagement go, it's all professionally executed and Bay puts the $75 million budget to good use. The three lead actors are always watchable despite the material, and dutifully execute their assigned roles of hero-gone-rogue (Harris), technician-thrust-into-combat (Cage) and resourceful-prisoner-with-dark-past (Connery). They dodge all the necessary projectiles until the grand finale approaches, complete with an incinerate-everything countdown threat. The Rock is solid entertainment, but as mindlessly dense on the inside as it is spectacular on the surface.

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