Next (2007)

Next is another of those movies that have been on my watchlist since the dawn of times because of Julianne Moore but kept putting off because it's a Nicolas Cage flick, and I have to be in the right mood and mentally prepared to deal with the insanity of them. 

This one follows Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage), a small-time magician who can see a few minutes into the future. There's an exception though as he once had a vision of a beautiful woman (Jessica Biel) walking into a diner at 8 and he makes it his mission to be there and meet her. In the meantime, a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles so the FBI, led by Agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), tries to capture Cris and convince him to help them prevent the attack. 

Just in case you were afraid there was not enough going on, there's also a subplot about the terrorist group wanting to capture Cris because the FBI wants to capture him and therefore he gotta be some secret weapon of the Feds'. It makes sense, right? Well, no, it doesn't. The plot is just a ridiculous mess, with holes the size of moon craters, unsurprising twists and a romance because, you know, it's Hollywood. That said, Next tends to keep you entertained. 

And it sure does have a lot to do with Nicolas Cage being the lead. While his character is awful, a one-dimensional creepy dude, Cage gives yet another of his unintentionally funny performances —or maybe it's intentional, who knows, this is the guy who bought an octopus to improve his acting, after all—, a blend of unconvincing, weird and often out of place expressions, melodrama and cheesiness. And the way this guy delivers his lines, absolutely hilarious.

Paramount Pictures 

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is not as fun as Cage to watch. Julianne Moore looks completely disinterested, bored out of her mind with her characters, a role that should have been played by a way less talented actress. Jessica Biel is utterly unconvincing as the love interest and the chemistry she has with Cage is so cheesy/soap opera stuff, but I guess nobody cares about that since she's in here only for the eye candy. And Thomas Kretschmann plays a Russian terrorist who speaks with a French accent. So there's that.

In terms of action, Next is a disaster. The action sequences just don't make any sense whatsoever, and when they do make little sense, there's usually some pretty bad and cheesy special effects to ruin them.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

I'm not going to lie, I was not interested in seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at all after seeing the trailer, it just didn't click with me. Then the movie hit theatres everywhere but my country, people were loving it and I decided I'd give it a chance. Too bad my city had screenings only on Christmas and Boxing Day, I was busy with family and stuff, and I missed it. 

This umpteenth movie about your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man follows Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), a teen from Brooklyn struggling with school and friends. One night he sneaks out of his dorm room to visit his uncle, Aron (Mahershala Ali), who brings him to paint graffiti in an abandoned subway station. Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and Spider-Man. There's already a Spider-Man (voiced by Chris Pine) but he's killed by Kingpin (voiced by Liev Schreiber). Luckily, Kingpin's dimension-crossing super-collider brings in Spider-Man from other universes, and Miles must team up with them to stop Kingpin. 

After countless Spider-Man origin movies —okay, there's three of them, but I feel like there's two too much— Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse offers a fresh, compelling take on the Spider-Man origin story with a compelling, fun and engaging plot that takes some interesting and unexpected turns and doesn't waste time with useless subplots —i.e. romance.

That said, the best part about the film is the characters and the way they and their diversities are handled. Every version of Spider-Man, whether it's Miles or Spider-Woman or Spider-Man noir, is fun, likeable and interesting as they all have their own personality that makes each one of them stand out. Mixing the character from different universes is handled so well and the interaction between characters are fun and entertaining. The villain, on the other hand, has the typical Marvel issue, he lacks depth and characterization. All we learn about Kingpin is that he is an enormous evil man. We learn something, very little, about his family, and that's it. Kingpin is such a menacing man and deserves better than this.

The voice cast does a really good job the highlights being Shameik Moore who embodies very well the personality of Miles, Hailee Steinfeld who is simply delightful as Gwen/Spider-Woman, and Mahershala Ali who is perfect as Uncle Aron —and damn his voice is sexy.

Sony Pictures Releasing

 As for the animation, it's gorgeous —it feels like watching a comic book come to life, literally, and it's awesome. It's the styling animation every movie based on a comic book should have. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse also has plenty of humour; however, while it works wonderfully in the first part, as the story moves forward and become more serious, the humour doesn't work as well. Also, the emotional scenes didn't really work for me.

Con Air (1997)

It's been almost four years ago since I first heard of Con Air —I remember it so well because it was a popular pick for one of my first weeks of Thursday Movie Picks and I joined the series in 2015— but I never gave it a try because, being honest, Nicolas Cage is not my cup of tea. 

The story follows United States Army Ranger Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) who, after serving eight years in prison for manslaughter, is getting out on parole and goes home to his wife (Monica Potter) and the daughter (Landry Allbright) he has never met. Unfortunately, Poe has to share a plane with some dangerous criminals and when the prisoners, led by Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich), take control of the plane, he must find a way to stop them while playing along.

Needless to say, the plot to Con Air is beyond far-fetched and it gets to a point where it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever as it alternated between plot holes and "what the fuck" moments. There's also a subplot involving the most badass of the criminals, one Garland Greene, played by Steve Buscemi, that goes pretty much nowhere. However, it's all so over-the-top, the fast-paced plot ends up being somewhat engaging and entertaining.

The characters too are pretty badly written. They are indeed incredibly thin with their lack of characterization and development —I can't even remember these guys' names— and they all are over-the-top; however, it's the way they are introduced to us the worst thing about them —we are given a quick, sloppy description of each criminal which makes each of them look like very dangerous fellas when they actually aren't that dangerous.

And don't even get me started on the dialogue which is some of the most dreadful and idiotic my ears have ever heard. However, the actors, specifically Nicolas Cage, have a way of delivering their lines that the dumb dialogue ends up being funny. Not as funny as Cage's hilarious southern accent though —apparently, he travelled to Alabama to "perfect" his accent. I guess he travelled to an inhabited place. Or he was high and travelled with his mind only— or Cage's long hair blown by the wind. There are also a few good-ish performances in there, from John Malkovich who is brilliant as the evil Cyrus the Virus, and Steve Buscemi who makes a very creepy criminal —I wish he had more screen time.

Buena Vista Pictures

The action is also tremendously over-the-top —from explosions to fighting to guns fire, everything is overdone and exaggerated, all the time. The special effects aren't particularly good either. The songs never, I repeat, never fits their scene —okay, this is not entirely true as the song in the ending fits very well— and they have quite a comical effect because of this, not to mention how cheesy some of them are. 

All of that being said, Con Air is a lot of fun to wach.

Mandy (2018)

When I first heard people saying how great Nicolas Cage's latest movie, Mandy, was, I thought they were kidding. Then I checked on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, I saw it had a good rating on both sites so I checked it out. 

Set in 1983, Mandy tells the story of a loving couple, Red (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), who lives in a cabin in the woods. Red is a lumberjack; Mandy is an artist who works at a nearby gas station. They lead a happy, quiet life until one day the crazy leader (Linus Roache) of a cult lays eyes on Mandy and conjures a group of motorcycle-riding demons to kidnap her, leading to Red spiralling into a madness-fueled revenge. 

Unfortunately, words are not enough to describe how fucked up Mandy's plot is. Frankly, I'm not even sure I understood half of what was going on in the film. I'm not even sure the film has a story, to be honest. But it didn't bother me at all, at least not at first. I indeed found the first half of the film very interesting and absorbing. However, when the revenge kicked in, I gradually began to lose my interest. I just didn't care for the characters' fate.

Which makes total sense considering how I felt or rather nor felt about the characters. Despite the fact that Panos Cosmatos took a good amount of time to introduce the characters --and I loved the introductions--, I just didn't feel empathy or sympathy for the characters. I did feel sorry for Red at some point but it was just for a moment.

The cast, however, really impressed me. Nicolas Cage gives one of the best performances of his career, arguably the best in recent years. He occasionally overacts and says his lines in a very strange way, but his portrayal of Red, a man who descends into madness, is insanely good; Andrea Riseborough is amazing as Mandy --and I loved the Wendy Torrance-look Cosmatos gave her; Linus Roache gives a great performance as the creepy leader of the cult, a very deranged, evil man.

RLJE Films

The most striking aspect of Mandy is the visuals. The film heavily relies on them and it pays off as they are stunning. The flashy, vivid colours, the amazing camera work, the incredible attention to details --whether it's costumes or locations--, the effects, the gore, they all are on point and make of Mandy a feast for the eyes. To enhance the incredibly beautiful visual experience there's a phenomenal, psychedelic score by the late  Jóhann Jóhansson.

Ultimately, Mandy was not as good as I expected, as I found the writing to be quite poor and the second part, the revenge, too dragged, but it still made for quite an unsettling and unique experience. This is definitely a Nicolas Cage movie I do not regret seeing.

Looking Glass (2018)

After wasting 5 minutes to decide which movie to watch, my choice fell on one of the several movies Nicolas Cage has done this year so far, Looking Glass, because it was listed as a thriller and it has Robin Tunney as I was interested in seeing her other than playing Theresa Lisbon in CBS's The Mentalist. 

After losing their child, a couple, Ray (Nicolas Cage) and Maggie (Robin Tunney), buys an old motel in the desert looking for a new beginning. While exploring the motel, Ray discovers a two-way mirror that allows him to see what is happening in one of the rooms --things such as prostitute sex and lesbian encounters-- and he starts spying the occupants. Until he witnesses a murder and finds himself in a cat-and-mouse game.

While the plot isn't nearly as terrible as it is in 211, another of Nicolas Cage's movies released this year, and it is quite imaginative, the final result is just as disappointing. There's a lot going on in the film and yet, at the same thing, absolutely nothing happens. Also, it never becomes compelling, not even for a second, as it lacks any sort of tension and suspense. 

The characters are just as uncompelling. Every single character is thin and unlikeable, especially Nicolas Cage's peeping Tom Ray and his wife Maggie. We are supposed to feel sympathy towards them because they lost their child but it's impossible given the poor writing and the fact that the daughter basically died because of them. As for the murderer, it's not that hard to guess who he/she is. 

The acting, however, is probably the aspect of Looking Glass that shocked me the most. Nicolas Cage is in some sort of passive mode from start to finish and delivers yet another flat performance. He does try to do something though, and so does Robin Tunney, but they were just meant to fail given the poor material. The rest of the cast gives amateurish performances, to say the least. 

Momentum Pictures

At last, there's the tone of the film. Other than the fact that the pacing is all wrong, so slow that challenges you to keep your eyes open even if watched in the morning after a good night sleep (which was my case), it looks like the filmmakers didn't know what kind of film they wanted to make. For this reason, for about two-thirds of its running time Looking Glass is a tedious drama, for the remaining one-third, it tries to be a thriller. It fails as both. 

Damn, I almost forgot to mention the utterly cringy opening titles. They are edited so poorly that I almost stopped watching the film because of them. I should have done that, now that I think about it.

 

New in April: Going to 11?

Some interesting titles are making their streaming debuts on Netflix this month, along with a number of impressive standouts. Let's start with the high points, shall we?

STANDING TALL
The Big Lebowski (1998) - What else is there to say, but..."The Dude abides"?
Bound (1996) - A steamy neo-noir from the directors of The Matrix, back when they still knew how to put together a taut, well-constructed entertainment
Natural Born Killers (1994) - Oliver Stone's nasty, tasty slice of '90s nihilism, with Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis making Bonnie and Clyde look like Hepburn & Tracy, from a script by Quentin Tarantino
Three Kings (1999) - David O. Russell, better known today for Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, cooked up this dark Gulf War comedy that's one part Treasure of the Sierra Madre, one part Catch 22
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - Even though I own two different DVD editions of this film (one of which is long out of print), I'm very happy to see this seminal rockumentary now online�a comedy that truly goes to 11

There are also a batch of notable titles showing up later in the month, including the much-anticipated first season of Netflix's Daredevil, the off-its-rocker Crank (2006), the latest mind puzzle from Jean-Luc Godard, Goodbye to Language (2014), and a couple of highly regarded new horror films, The Babadook and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. I'm looking forward to all of these (except maybe the Godard, which I saw in a theater�in 3D�and which might be tough to watch again, especially in 2D). Premiere dates listed at the bottom of the page.

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New in February: Taking It Slow

This has definitely been one of the slower months I've seen in terms of new releases. More than a third of the new titles were returning ones, while, with the exception of Houseboat (1958), there were no classics added in February, not even with 1980 as a cutoff. For comparison, this time last year Netflix added 10 classic titles, including an excellent group of 1970s films. Given all the recent deletions of older catalog titles�both feature films and BBC shows�that's not a good sign, and seems to further cement Instant's continuing emphasis on original content and new TV shows.

But let's look at the good news: among those TV shows are the second season of Bates Motel (2014), the full 2010-2013 run of the sexy/violent Spartacus, and the first five�some would say best�seasons of all-time classic M*A*S*H (comprising the years 1972 to 1978). The latter is a pretty nice coup, I must say, since it's been a long, long time since a lot of us have had the chance to revisit that landmark show. For those who have never seen it, I'm happy to report it still holds up in most ways�as long as you can get past some of the first season's casual sexism (a holdover from the original movie) and learn to ignore the superfluous laugh track CBS forced on the show's creators (to make sure audiences knew it was, you know, a comedy). No telling if Netflix will add the remaining six seasons, the last three of which are a bit spotty, but for now these episodes from the Frank Burns era should keep fans of the 4077th giggling through their surgical masks.

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January Expiration Watch: D�j� Vu All Over Again (2014)

Another month's end, another round of expiring titles, some leaving for the first time, others zipping past on a lazy Susan of cinematic temptation. Here comes Coppola...there goes Coppola...no, wait, he's back, and... Darn, gone again. Is that Buckaroo Banzai appearing on the horizon? By gum, I think it is. Oh, never mind�there he goes, zooming off in that crazy jet car, tossing fellow '80s stalwart Flesh + Blood into the back seat then extending one arm to snag Last Tango in Paris before crashing through a wall into the 8th dimension of streaming limbo. Rutger and Marlon, we hardly knew ye! But you'll be back, right? Pretty please?

Along with Coppola and Last Tango's Bertolucci, the seemingly obligatory monthly loss of movies by big-name directors continues, with a few titles more well-known than others. The most significant would be Robert Zemeckis' equally praised and reviled Forrest Gump (1994), Robert Redford's Ordinary People (1980)�which I'll never forgive for stealing the Best Picture Oscar from Raging Bull�Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), and Fred Zinnemann's classic, High Noon (1952), starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. None of these needs me to sell its virtues (or faults) before it's gone on February 1�unlike Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune (1999), a pleasant, small-town crime comedy that was one of the director's better films during a lull in creative highs between Short Cuts (1993) and Gosford Park (2001). Four generations of actresses�Patricia Neal, Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, and Liv Tyler�are up to shady doings as a family of eccentrics with their reputations at stake when one of them takes her own life.
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Expiration Watch: What's New Is Old

Netflix giveth, and Netflix taketh away. Passing into Instant exile�if not downright oblivion�are a number of significant titles, including a couple of Oscar winners and a handful of movies previously spotlighted here. Taking the hit are such stalwart directors as Howard Hawks, John Carpenter, Barry Levinson and Mike Figgis, as well as stars Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, Dustin Hoffman, Ashley Judd, Burt Reynolds and Nicolas Cage. Not to mention James Caan and those pesky Bond films...

Speaking of Caan, it seems the original Rollerball�reviewed here as a new title only last week�was simply on a one-month streaming loan. As of August 31 at midnight, it will once again be skating off into the distance. Thanks for the tease, Netflix.

Also on loan were those eternally recurring James Bond films, which arrived on 8/1 and will be departing on 9/2. At this rate I suppose we can hope for another return in the near future? I've only been tracking these titles since April, so I'm not sure how regularly such shenanigans occur.

Other titles previously recommended are the dark, fictionalized(?) biopic of game show producer/assassin Chuck Barris, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (review)�written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by George Clooney�and the wonderful coming-of-age comedy, Slums of Beverly Hills (review), with Natasha Lyonne as a brashly curious teen growing up with her nomadic family in 1970s Los Angeles. (10/1 Update: Confessions is now back!)

That brings us to this month's new expiring entries, starting with a couple of notable Oscar winners.

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Quick Post: New DRIVE ANGRY Teaser Trailer!!!

Check this out guys! This is going to be a fun, FUN movie...



DRIVE ANGRY centers on a vengeful father (Nicolas Cage) who hunts down the people who brutally killed his daughter and kidnapped her baby. As the chase gets bloodier by the mile, his rescue spins out of control, leaving bodies strewn along highways.

Director: Patrick Lussier
Writer: Todd Farmer
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Cast: Nicolas Cage, William Fichtner, Amber Heard

Release: February 11, 2011