Top 3: Nicolas Cage

[Mitch Henessey]

Nicolas Cage constantly receives a ton of hate for his constant barrage of shit films. Cage isn't a bad actor at all, but he has this horrible habit of accepting starring roles in so many awful films. Cage's financial situation isn't that great, so I can understand the need to do as many movies as possible, but some of his choices can provide plenty of facepalming moments. As far as the overwhelming Cage hate goes, I can't say I'm a positive supporter of Cage, because I constantly bash him on a regular basis, and I have been a vocal member of the Cage hate group for quite some time. But I wanted to create a positive Cage thread for once, and I wanted to give some of Cage's more successful and enjoyable films the recognition they deserve.

The idea of this thread is pretty simple. Just list your favorite picks for Nicolas Cage's top three films. The order of the list is up to you (#1-3# or #3-1#), and I'll start with my picks:

#1:

Adaptation is an outstanding film. This film is loaded with some excellent performances from Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, and Brian Cox. The acting in this film is superb, and Adaptation can be a very thought provoking film. The humor is pretty good here, this film can feature some emotional moments, and Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is just brilliant. Chris Cooper won an Oscar for his performance here, and Nicolas Cage would've been a fine choice for the Best Actor award. It was a tough race that year (Daniel Day Lewis was nominated for Gangs Of New York and Adrien Brody won the gold for his performance in The Pianist), but Cage wouldn't have been a bad choice that year, because he was just great in this film.

#2.

Leaving Las Vegas is an emotional and dark film, and you can really feel for Cage's character here. Cage was a broken man, who decides to take a destructive path, that will end his life. Cage eventually forms this odd and troubled relationship with Elisabeth Shue's character, and the hopeless prostitute becomes Cage's companion. The relationship between Cage and Shue can have its sweet and touching moments (mainly towards the very end of the film), but this relationship is also filled with anger and sadness. Leaving Las Vegas can feature some disturbing moments, but this film has characters, who can really care about, and Cage really did earn his Oscar for Best Actor here.

#3.

This film ranks high on my list of the Coen Brothers' favorites. Raising Arizona features a very entertaining and eccentric story, and the great set of unique and oddball characters provide plenty of laughs. The acting in this film is pretty damn good, and Cage is hilarious as the lead man. I can watch this film over and over again, I never get tired of this one, and Raising Arizona is one of the better comedies I've ever seen, because this film can always make me laugh.

 

[The Brain]

I don’t really understand the hate for Cage. I’ve seen a few movies of his that I really liked. I should point out that I’m not a big movie buff. I’ve seen a very small percentage of his movies so I’m not judging him based off anywhere near his full body of work but for the most part I’ve liked what I’ve seen. I’ll mention three movies that you didn’t Mitch.

National Treasure

I recently started a thread on this movie as I enjoyed it very much. I thought a fantasy adventure wrapped in some real history was a unique idea. I really appreciated an action adventure movie that didn’t rely on big explosions and a bunch of violence. This one is fun for all ages.

Matchstick Men

I enjoyed this one a lot too. I’m a big fan of con artist movies and I thought this was well done. It seems a lot of movies are going out of their way to pull off a big surprise ending. Because of that we are usually on the lookout for it so when it comes it’s not much of a surprise at all. I thought this one gave us a good surprise that worked out really well.

Face/Off

This is probably one he gets criticized for because of the unrealistic plot. I get that, but it’s Hollywood so you have to allow yourself to accept the impossible for the sake of the story all the time. I thought Cage did a good job playing the hero and villain as two different characters in the same movie. Bizarre plot but a fun movie anyway.

I just got The Rock from Netflix and I’ll watch that in the next couple days. I’m looking forward to a good one there.

 

[JWGunslinger]

I've given Cage plenty of shit in my day but I must admit that there are a few of his movies that I do love and are not total crap like some of his others.

1) The Rock
Anything with Sean Connery and Ed Harris is going to be awesome, but I must admit I really enjoyed Nic's role in this movie. He plays a chemical specialist for the FBI and has to help with a crisis where a group of renegade American soldiers have taken hostages on Alcatraz and have chemical weapons that would kill everyone in the San Francisco area. He does a good job of play a guy used to working in an office who gets exposed to field work for the first time and has to work with a former inmate at Alcatraz(Connery) to make their way through the old prison and disable the weapons. This in my opinion is the best movie he's been in but his second best performance.

2) Windtalkers
This I believe is Cage's best performance, he plays a Sergeant in the US Marines during World War 2 fighting in the pacific who is assigned a Navajo radio man to protect. It's based off a very cool true story where the US used Navajo code talkers on their radios so that the Japanese would not be able to understand and decypher what they were saying. So Cage is assigned to protect Ben Yazee(Adam Beach) and most importantly protect the code from enemy hands at all costs. It's a very cool flick and one of my favorite WW2 movies, definitely check this one out if you havent seen it.

3) National Treasure
Yeah I had to put this one on the list, I really do love this movie because they make his knowledge of history and everything they do seem really cool. I enjoyed the second one as well but the first one was definitely the best and I loved the rivalry between Cage and Sean Bean, excellent movie with excellent chemistry between the actors.

 

[King Patrick Star]

My favorites are these two:

Face/Off
This is probably one he gets criticized for because of the unrealistic plot. I get that, but it’s Hollywood so you have to allow yourself to accept the impossible for the sake of the story all the time. I thought Cage did a good job playing the hero and villain as two different characters in the same movie. Bizarre plot but a fun movie anyway.

I liked this movie because I think Cage and Travolta played both Troy and Archer very well. If it was Arnold and Sylvester instead, I don’t think I would have loved this movie as much. Imagine the dialogue between Rambo and Commando.

The Rock
Anything with Sean Connery and Ed Harris is going to be awesome, but I must admit I really enjoyed Nic's role in this movie. He plays a chemical specialist for the FBI and has to help with a crisis where a group of renegade American soldiers have taken hostages on Alcatraz and have chemical weapons that would kill everyone in the San Francisco area. He does a good job of play a guy used to working in an office who gets exposed to field work for the first time and has to work with a former inmate at Alcatraz(Connery) to make their way through the old prison and disable the weapons. This in my opinion is the best movie he's been in but his second best performance.

This was just cool. Vanessa Marcil also adds to this movie…pigtails!!

...and...

Gone In 60 Seconds.
I liked this movie because of the cast and the cars.

 

[jmt225]

1. Rumble Fish - Mind-fuck of a movie. And while Cage's role is relatively small, it's still a big part of the story. Cage played Smokey, one of the main character's friends, and ends up betraying the main character by the end of the film by stealing his girl. Cage played the condescending ladies man to perfection here. But the movie overall is just fantastic. I hated it the first time I saw it, but still couldn't get my mind off it. I decided to give the film another shot a few months down the line and ended up loving it. It's easily now one of my all time favorite films, and since Cage is in it... it's the best movie he's had a role in for me.

2. Leaving Las Vegas - Easily Cage's greatest performance and he was definitely worthy of his Oscar that he received for the role. I've never seen someone portray a drunk better than he did here, and he did it for the entire duration of the film no less. Incredible. It helped too that he had a wonderful co-star to play off of in the highly underrated and extremely gorgeous Elisabeth Shue. This is the movie Cage will always be most remembered for, and deservedly so.

3. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - To sum up this film, it's a trippy, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas take on The Wire. Need I really say more? I'll just add that Cage is terrific in it and it was by far his best performance since Adaptation. Awesome movie.

 

[nightmare]

1. Face\Off- This is by far one of the best action movies in my collection. The dual roles played by both Cage and Travolta were great. Castor Troy is one crazy bastard & Cage played him well & then he had to step up for the Role of Archer. Complete mind fuck of a situation if it happened to you. Just a great movie all around.


2. Lord of War- I love this fucking movie. Cage makes you feel the struggle between gun-runner and family man. The tension on screen during the deals were great, and the dynamic between Cage and Leto made the movie for me. Overall, solid movie- yet underrated by most.


3. The Rock- Probably the first movie of his that I gave a shit about. Damn good action, fantastic cast. Wimpy Stanley Goodspeed paired with the badass John Mason was a great team for the film. This was his first big action movie after a long line of drama & sub par comedy. Great flick.

 

[nicwits]

Good thread. I've always been a fan of Cage. He's really such a diverse actor who can truly play any role really well. On to my list:


1. Face/Off: This movie is by FAR my favorite Cage film. Not only does Cage do a superb job acting, but he's starring opposite Travolta, and they have great chemistry together. Castor Troy will go down as one of the best movie villains of all time, imo.

2. Con-Air: With such a star-studded cast, Cage shines here as the films main protagonist. This role proves that he has a very deep range of acting abilities. People think he doesn't do the accent well in this, but I think otherwise. Cameron Poe is an awesome character, and Cage kills it.

and finally,

3. 8MM: To me, this film is highly underrated. Maybe because its content some may find disturbing, but either way is a great movie. These are the kinds of roles I enjoy watching Cage in. The good guy following clues and puzzles, trying to figure things out. He plays this role very seriously, and it's a good turn away from his "crazy" characters he's known to play.

 

[BooMan]

on Air is the best all-around movie ever, not because it is the greatest in every category, but because it is great in every category.

Con Air has comedy, it has a love story, it has a redemption story, it has action, it has an underdog, it has Cameos galore, it has a great sound track, it has lovable characters, it has villains that one can really hate.

I believe that Con Air has everything one could want in a movie, therefor I nominate it for best all-around movie ever.