February 16, 2024 • 27 mins
We try not to sink under “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” as we balance our list of greatest Nicolas Cage co-pilots.
SHOW NOTES
Get visuals, links and show notes from this episode at speakinghuman.com or at MOMApodcast.com.
#Movies #Marketing #Podcast #NicholasCage #Cage #SpeakingHuman #Opinions #Review
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
SHOW NOTES
Get visuals, links and show notes from this episode at speakinghuman.com or at MOMApodcast.com.
#Movies #Marketing #Podcast #NicholasCage #Cage #SpeakingHuman #Opinions #Review
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
In a world where movies rely onmarketing more than ever to connect with audiences,
one podcast aims to make sense ofit all. This is movies and
marketing. Next Saturday Night, where'ssending you that to the future? Go
ahead, make my day? Howabout now you're crazy Dutch bastard. What
(00:27):
we've got here is failure Milgate.Take them a ground. Where's fresh?
All of out? Or we mightas well have good time. I am
an f B I agent. Ontoday's episode, we're talking about Nicholas Cage
(00:47):
co stars. Why why Shad?Because we watched the unbearable weight of massive
talent. I will give a shoutout to Apple for innovative. Oh,
movie watching that was pretty awesome.We tried movies anywhere that did not work
because what did you say? Lionsgateone of the companies that does not support
(01:11):
movies anywhere. Yeah, they needto like get with the times. Man.
People want to watch movies together whenthey're not in the same room,
and movies anywhere is a little betterbecause they don't make you both pay for
it. Yeah, but anyway,that kind of thinking about, is there
anything harder than co starring with amaniac genius such as Nicholas Cage, You're
(01:37):
in an untenable situation. You knowthat, right, and trust us.
We know because we podcast together andwe're both maniac geniuses. Hey, oh,
but I'm so, what do youthink, Man, we just watched
this movie. It's gotten good reviews. I think, what do you think
(01:59):
about overall? What stuck out toyou? I thought I was pleasantly surprised.
I was impressed with it. Ithought it was pretty good. I
mean, I thought I would likeit. I thought I was a person
who was predisposed to like it asa Cage fan. But I also thought
it was better than I expected.I thought the whole thing just kind of
(02:19):
zipped along, gave you laughs,gave you action. It was very meta.
It like laughed at itself and Cagejust in there the whole time,
man doing the work. He's inalmost every scene, and he's just all
out entertainment in this. Yeah.I agree, I it's something else like
to me, it was unique inthat it was a movie about Nicholas Cage
(02:44):
as himself, but then they hadthese like layers within the movie of them
talking about the movie without it reallyacknowledging that they were in the movie.
It was pretty smart. The waythey sort of layered it in, you
know, that was kind of fun. It didn't take itself too seriously.
It was a romp, Oh therewe go. You knew I had to
(03:06):
pull it out. Yeah, therewas some of that, you know,
there was some of that kind ofclever like I said, meta stuff,
There was a lot of that likelayered throughout or like commentary on Cage's career.
You know, the amount of movieshe makes, you got to make
Hollywood movies versus like these smaller moviesand what kind of movies matter and stuff
like that, you know, andwe've seen kind of movies that have done
(03:29):
that stuff before. How this movieworked better as just like pure goofy entertainment.
There was just just enough of thatstuff like to be like, oh,
that's kind of clever, that's kindof smarter. I think enough that
it kind of even pulled Cage inand want to do it. You know.
But I think where it kind ofexcelled was that it was just a
fun movie and there was enough likegoofy scenes that it just kind of went
(03:52):
from one to another. If anything, there were some parts of it that
I would have been like, ah, they could have played up some of
that stuff even a little more.There's something about the fact that it was
Nicholas Cage at the beginning. Youknow, they were playing a part of
him that you know, maybe isnot true to real life, even but
he still took a gamble at likehe's struggling to be a good father.
(04:15):
No, no, come on thathe really feels kind of washed up,
even though he never really says it, you know, like am I relevant
anymore? And he was willing todo that, and he put himself out
there because he's playing himself, right, there's this like element to that being
vulnerable that I feel like he playsthat really well and yet also make out
(04:38):
with an imaginary version of himself thattalks him through situations. I love that
those were probably there were only acouple of scenes where it was like Cage
on Cage, this like younger versionof Cage. Those were actually probably my
favorite scenes of the movie. Ialmost wish I could do like a whole
movie of that where it's like him, that's really him, like speaking to
(05:00):
more of his career and like thisyounger version of himself, this kind of
like what he was at one pointin his career and what he's become now,
which I think is really interesting.But even the conversations they have and
the way they make that younger versionact, I just found it completely hilarious.
Those are probably my favorite scenes inthe movie. Across the board,
though, was pretty well cast,Like everybody who was in there seemed to
(05:24):
be like having a good time,you know, they seemed game for what
was going on here. It wascast perfectly, I think, and everybody
felt invested. Like even the mainbad guy who is the cousin of Hobby
played by Pedro Pascal. Even hiscousin right, was so good. I
(05:44):
don't know what it was. Hewas like, goofy good. The way
he sold that character. I feltlike, even Demi Moore is his you
know, movie star. Yeah,White Justice a nice throw in there.
Spoiler, I guess for people whohaven't seen it. Yeah, spoiler Neil
Patrick Harris as his agent. Itworked. It was a little confusing at
first because I was like, oh, he's playing Neil Patrick Harris, but
(06:06):
then he was he was actually playinga character, which was kind of threw
me off a little bit. That'show I felt at the very beginning,
because he's playing himself, but nobodyelse in the movie is playing himself,
and that's where you have to liketake a second to acclimate to what's happening.
And then and then you're like,oh, okay, yeah, you
have to get on the wavelength ofwhat they're actually what's going on here,
(06:30):
what they're doing. I feel likethat would be like that for any movie
where a person is playing themselves,because you just immediately think, well,
isn't everybody going to play themselves?No? No, okay, I guess
not. Yeah, So they're likeyour brain's like working in two different directions
in some way. There's also weshould say a lot of you know,
if you're like a cage fan,a lot of shout outs to cage movies
(06:51):
and some more you know, obscurecage movies, like you might remember if
Guarding Tests was like a throwaway cagemovie. I feel like from the early
nineties that I don't know how manypeople actually saw it. Yeah, Shirley
McClain co staring that, yeah.Yeah. So a bunch of movies get
talked about or even shown scenes frothem. So the question is is this
(07:16):
essential cage you know, where wouldyou rank it amongst Cage movies. I
think because Cage is playing Cage andyou know, it's kind of like about
his career and it fits in there, it's probably you know, i'd have
to look at all the movies together, it probably would slide into the top
ten. This is a first viewing, first reaction, so it's not a
(07:40):
stone cold Cage classic. It's it'stoo meta to like be that, you
know, but it's like probably essentialCage because it's Cage playing Cage talking about
himself in some way or like mockinghimself in some way. So I think
I might slid it in there andgenerally just a breezy watch, you know,
good time. Yeah, I thinkbreezy would be a great way to
(08:03):
describe it. I would go asfar as saying that this could probably be
top five Cage movies, maybe becauseit's meta, maybe because it's Cage playing
Cage. It's fun watching him sortof poke fun a little bit at the
way people perceive him because of theway he acts in the way that he
(08:24):
is in movies, and he reallyembraces it. How many actors can take
themselves seriously but also have the senseof humor to like kind of blow themselves
up in that way. But hedoes. Yes. I mean, when
you look at his filmography, there'snobody to quite like him. Slide that
into the top five? Would thatreplace what like ghost Rider I for you?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, theywould definitely. It wouldn't replace Raising
(08:48):
Arizona or The Rock even face Off. I think face Off would have to
be in there. Yeah. No, it doesn't doesn't replace any of those,
but I think it's in the topfive. I think it's a solid
a top five. It might befive. Yeah, yeah, I definitely
would call it a essentral cage becausehow often are you gonna get cage on
cage, cage, playing cage,cage, making out with cage. You
(09:11):
can't ask for more real cage oncage than that. I mean, that's
that's like cage porn right there.Yeah, you just see things don't get
more cagey than that. What's hesaying? Cageesmooch as well? This is
something along those lines. What doyou think is his hair score in this
(09:31):
movie? His hair score has gotto be pretty high. The hair is
looking pretty good, somehow rejuvenated.I don't know. The cage is uh
found the fountain of hair youth andeverything's the grays are gone. The hair
is where there wasn't hair, thereis hair. Yeah, he's uh weird,
(09:52):
right, Yeah, it's just withhis like brilliant acting ability, he's
found a way to act. Hairback gone to his head. His hair
figured out a way to act.Yeah, like act like I'm not an
old person's hair. It botoxed itself. He's had some wild hair though in
the movies. I mean, he'shad some of the weirdest. He's always
(10:13):
had odd hair. He's grown itin some different ways. You know.
He was kind of had the recedinghairline and then he kind of grew it
long. So he's had some alot of interesting hairstyles over the years.
This is kind of the most normalyet abnormal it's looked because you can tell
it's not quite ah natural. Yeah, the hair technology whatever they're doing these
(10:39):
days, they've gotten pretty good atit, you know what I mean.
It doesn't look quite normal, buti'd say, like out of a ten,
I'd say he has like a ten, i mean nine cage hair scorer.
Yeah. The only knock on itis you know, you know the
past, right, Yeah, yeah, exactly, That's the only real knock.
(11:01):
So getting back to you know,the unbearable weight of massive talent.
What do you think Cagius moment?Do you have a cageous moment she can
think of in this movie? You'regoing with Cage kissing Cage. I mean
that is a great moment. Ireally like when he's just screaming Nicholas Cage.
(11:22):
You know he says, I don'tknow whatever. When he's talking to
himself, I think I'm with youon that. I think that's like the
Cageus moment and the Cagiest quote whenhe's like giving himself not necessarily a pep
talk, it's more like the olderself is kind of like, ah,
leave me alone, but he won'tgo away because like an annoying younger version
(11:43):
of himself, and he's like,you're a Hollywood movie star. You are
Nicholas Epping. If we're keeping itclean, Cage, but he like draws
it out in the way only NicholasCage can for like a minute long.
What Nickeol this Cage does so welland what he like really turns up in
this movie is every line delivery islike strange or like you know, off
(12:07):
kilter. Everyell with the bed spreadoff me this morning. Now you're sending
me on like a wild ghost.Yeah. He does that, you know,
quite a few times in this moviewhere they're like, you know,
you've got to deliver this like youwould do in a like a normal action
flick or whatever, and he doesright, Like he like kind of turns
it up just a little bit ina lot of ways. I would say
(12:31):
it's like how we envision a classicwalking moment, his own cadence to everything
right right right. The other quotethat stuck out to me, which was
in a small moment, was justa goofy piece of writing where he was
like, when it's over, I'mdone, Like how dogs on him grill?
(12:54):
Yeah, that's good stuff right there. Yeah, it's nonsensical and yet
but it's cage nonsense. It haslike this profound sensibility to it, you
know, like hot Dog's being done. What does that even mean? I
don't know. Yeah. He alsomentions, uh shamanic instincts. Yeah.
(13:15):
Yeah, there's some really great linesdelivered by his co stars in this movie
too, you know, like,oh, yeah, CEI agent and he's
like, I'm forty four years old, why the fuck would I see crews?
Too? You're just so many goodcomical moments, you know, Yeah,
there were, there were some othergood lines and the other thing.
(13:37):
You know, that leads directly intowhat we're talking about next. Him and
Pedro had some good, really goodback and forth moments, some good scenes
together. Yeah, leading into thatthen, you know, obviously talking about
it the massive talent portion, youknow, co starring with Cages and easy.
Some would say you'd have to havemassive talent to do it. So
(13:58):
we decided I had to look atCage's co stars over the years and examine
who did it best right, Whowere great co stars of Cage over these
decades of working with him, Andso we created a list of top three
(14:20):
Cage co stars. I mean,we obviously have to ask this question because
we just watched this movie. WillPedro Pascal from Massive Talent make the cut?
It's a really good question. Ithink he's close. Do you think
he's there? I think he's probablypretty close. I'm not ready to call
him yet, he's in there.What I like that he did that I
haven't really seen anybody else do.Is he turns it up to the same
(14:46):
level of Cage on Cage. Youknow what I mean? He was like
about kind of like a maniac inthe same way that Cage is with Cage.
Can't remember anybody else really doing that. Yeah, to me, he
felt like he felt truly enamored thathe loved Nicholas Cage. This role that
(15:07):
he played was this guy who isthe head of a cartel who loves Nicholas
Cage and loves his acting in hismovies to the degree where he is so
admiring of this guy that he isgoofy around him right, like he is
like a child who's seeing his superherocome to life right in front of his
(15:31):
eyes. Oh no, I'm sorry, I thought that, did you say?
Oh, never mind. I feltlike he did a really great job.
Yeah, he really did. Heplayed it really well. There's some
parts he's like kind of pound forpound playing it with Cage a lot of
times, which Cage's the tough guyto keep up with. You know.
He was just so much fun towatch, right, look at Cage with
(15:54):
those childlike eyes, and I've alwayslooked up to you and I think you're
the best. There's this connection betweenthem, and you're like a kid with
like a baseball player he looks upto or something yeah. Yeah. And
if you've seen him on like TheMandalorian or you know, some Wonder Woman
eighty four or some other things,he's been in very very different performance.
(16:15):
He's in everything, it seems likelately. But this movie, I have
a new found appreciation for him thatI didn't have before, which I think
is attributed to this movie. Itreally is like the way he performed in
this movie made me really connect emotionally. I was like, man, I
really feel this guy. Whether youlike it or not, you have a
(16:37):
gift, and that gift brings lightand joy to an increasingly dark and broken
world. And to turn your backon that gift is to turn your back
on the entire human race. Andmaybe it was that childlike innocence that he
portrayed. This guy might be mynew favorite actor of this last decade because
he just did such a great jobat it. I think he's close.
(17:00):
I think he's pretty close. Andwe haven't totally talked about this. There's
a long list of Cage co starsbecause he's cages in a ton of movies.
He's just like cranking them out NonStop. Not all memorable, you know,
but I think it's for me.It comes down to like a handful,
and I'll see if you're on kindof the same page or where you're
(17:22):
at, who do you think kindof cracks who's in your top group?
I mean, he's worked with somegreat actors over the years in the history
of what do they call it thesbianism. I just don't know what they call
it that, but they should,they should, and so like when you
see them in the movies with NicholasCage, I think sometimes you don't always
(17:47):
appreciate the fact that these are likeactors who could go down in history is
like some of the greatest actors ofall time probably. Okay, so you're
saying, like just the actor,like who the individual is? Yeah,
I think that's an important component ofchoosing because like, okay, I'll give
a great example, right, ifwe're gonna go down this list, you
(18:08):
know, how do you not pickJohn Malkovich con Air right, like John
Malcovi. It's John Malkovich because healways gives Nicholas Cage performances in his own
way in every movie and con Erris no different, right, I see
where you're making the distinction. WhenI approach this, I was like,
(18:30):
who's pairing with Cage the best.That's the way I was looking at it.
So I was like, but Isee where you're going with that.
So you immediately went with Meg Ryanin City these two are meant to be
together forever. Did you really pickMeg Ryan? I did not pick Meg
(18:51):
Ryan. Oh. I've never seenCity of Ages though, so that could
be why I like Meg Rian.You love meg Ran. I do like
Meg Ryan, but I've never seenCity. You think me that movie?
I know you would think Meg Ryanand Nicholas Cage together. I am shocked
you have never seen that movie?Is it a good shot? Should I
see it? Like? It's nota great movie? Okay, the chemistry
(19:14):
between them is very weird in thatmovie. It seems like an odd Yeah,
it's exactly how you imagine it.Yeah. I didn't mind the movie.
The concept was whatever. Yeah,you still should see it. It's
got meg right, Yeah I should. I should complete my the Meg Ryan
filmography. I think there's a lotof spots I'm missing. So who would
(19:37):
be then on your list? Well, let me tell you. Immediately I
was drawn to I'm like, thisis a definite and then I backed away
from it. Let me tell you, if you see if you agree with
it this logic. I was like, face off Travolta and those two,
you know, we're playing basically likethe flip side of the coin. But
(19:57):
then I started thinking, I'm notreally in the movie together. They're kind
of like impersonating each other. Sothat's why I was like, ah,
does that really count? You knowwhat I mean, They're almost like in
two separate movies. Yeah. See, I actually didn't choose that, but
I feel like John Travolta and NicholasCage that might actually be the best example
(20:18):
of a person you would choose becauseI mean, you know how hard it
is for John Travolta to play NicholasCage and vice versa, and I think
they did a really great job.So maybe that's actually the best testament to
what a great you know, costar could do, Like he impersonated him.
I guess I was thinking more they'renot really playing off each other,
(20:41):
you know, not bouncing off eachother. Somebody though related around the same
time that I thought they did bounceoff for the well, Sean Connery and
the Rock I think that's pretty good. That's pretty good. I feel like
that's an easy pick because Sean ConneryI mean, come on, it goes
down in history is one of thebest. But they also had like,
you know, he was like thisbrutish thief guy, and you know,
(21:06):
Nicholas Cage in that movie is likeplaying like this nerdy scientist. They had
like this really good back and forththat I think kind of made that movie
in a lot of ways, madeit different than your typical action movie.
No, I would agree with that. They were sort of at odds in
that movie. Yeah, Connery wasjust kind of like picking on him.
That's a good choice. I thinkthat's a good choice. What do you
(21:26):
think of Angelina Jolie and Gone insixty seconds? I thought she was not
in that movie that much. Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember
watching it. I thought she waslike kind of weird that I thought she
just didn't have a huge part inthat movie. Robert Duvall in that movie,
ye, yeah, I mean hehad a He's just so good.
(21:49):
I don't know in that movie.I just loved him so much. That
movie a good cast. I mean, it had like a lot of it
had like every a lot of peoplewho came in did like a little bit
of work, you know. Imean, but it was a mostly Cage
kind of leading the whole thing,which is most of Cage's movies. Even
when there's like another kind of starin there, it's most of the time
it's like just Cage and then someother people. I will say this about
(22:14):
Nicholas Cage movies, you know,like if I'm talking about the female co
stars like Angelina Jolie, Tayo Leonifrom The Family Man, which I love
that movie. Great holiday movie bythe way, if you guys want to
check that one out, that wasfantastic movie. I think I don't know
how I feel about his female costars when they are supposed to have romantic
chemistry. Yeah, I never reallyfeel the romantic chemistry between them, but
(22:37):
I like them. Like Angelina JolieIt's Gone to sixty seconds. I liked
her character in that. Tayloni,I felt like she was great in that
movie. But again, I don'tknow how well the chemistry sort of jived
between the two characters. I agreewith that. I thought of probably the
best one I could think of,which I haven't seen a long time,
(23:00):
was Elizabeth Shoe and Leaving Las Vegas. Do you ever see that Cage won
an Oscar for it. They wereboth really good in it. It wasn't
totally romantic, but I mean that'sthe closest I could think of it.
A lot of times, he's justlike so strange. You're like, ah,
is that kind of like is sheuncomfortable? I don't know, or
can they make the female kind ofalmost like the straight man to his wild
(23:21):
man a little bit? I reallydo think that's true because I was thinking
about Holly Hunter plays in Raising Arizona. I love Holly Hunter in that movie,
so good between her and him,the on screen chemistry is fantastic.
Romantic chemistry is a little weird.Yeah, they're good together and that doesn't
(23:41):
really need it all that much inthat movie, But in other movies,
like great example, Meg Ryan,I don't know why that does not work
at all for me, the chemistrybetween those two. I think Holly Hunter
is definitely one for consideration. Anotherone I think I would I think I
would have to put on would beChloe Grace Moretz and kick Ass. I
(24:03):
mean, going back to this movie, I don't know, nobody really talks
about it anymore, and it's kindof like Fallen Off. But at the
time it came out, people werelike, Oh, this is pretty good.
This is kind of like a littlebit of a cage resurgence him and
like his daughter going out as likethis superhero. She was kind of like
this foulmouth girl and he was likethis crazy, crazy father and they were
(24:25):
fighting crime and stuff like that.It like kind of enlivened something in him
that performance, And I think thetwo of them really bounced off each other
pretty well in that movie. No, that's a good one. I like
the chemistry between them. I thinkthat that was a good co star.
I keep coming back to this though, like John Malkovich and con Air John
Cusack, you know, I knowthat they're like they don't have a lot
(24:47):
of like on screen time together JohnCusack, Man, how do you not?
Like you could almost make a case. And I'm open to this for
it being like the cast of conAir because as Big Rains, yeah,
you know what I mean, Likehe has like these little moments with everybody
(25:08):
where, even because I remember evenhim and Cusack at the end of con
Air, they kind of have thismoment where they finally meet after he's kind
of been like talking to him overthe radio and stuff like that. There's
like a connection there. I thinkthe one other one i'd probably throw out
as a potential in this maybe acheat, but it also relates to,
(25:30):
you know, the Unbearable Weight ofmassive talent is in adaptation he played Twin
Brothers. Yeah, he was amazing. It's my favorite Nicolas Cage performance.
But him playing off Cage, playingoff Cage, much like in Unbearable Weight,
(25:52):
is just he's really good. SoI don't know, Cage could be
Cage's best co star in many ways. I don't know if we count that,
but it's in play it to me. Yeah, yeah, just great
actors who have played co stars withNicholas Cage. I think you got more,
you get more than enough. Yeah, I mean, and like we've
(26:15):
talked about before on movies and marketingMoMA, we could continue to have Nicholas
Cage episodes probably for years to come, because he's just got so much in
the Blender. This is just oneof many. Speaking of which, if
you want to see something interesting Renfieldwhere he's playing Dracula, he's got a
(26:37):
really interesting look in this movie.Not to be confused with Vampire's Kiss,
which he did in eighty eight.That's right, Yeah, he's got on
IMDb right now, seven upcoming movieslisted, of course, because he releases
like six movies a year. It'sinsane. Guys like a workhorse man,
the unbearable way to massive talent.What are you gonna do? You gotta
give it to the world. Yeah, you got to just keep going,
(27:00):
never retire. Well, that's itfor this episode of movies and marketing until
next time. We let's fade toblack. I'll be back. He's not
coming back.
In a world where movies rely onmarketing more than ever to connect with audiences,
one podcast aims to make sense ofit all. This is movies and
marketing. Next Saturday Night, where'ssending you that to the future? Go
ahead, make my day? Howabout now you're crazy Dutch bastard. What
(00:27):
we've got here is failure Milgate.Take them a ground. Where's fresh?
All of out? Or we mightas well have good time. I am
an f B I agent. Ontoday's episode, we're talking about Nicholas Cage
(00:47):
co stars. Why why Shad?Because we watched the unbearable weight of massive
talent. I will give a shoutout to Apple for innovative. Oh,
movie watching that was pretty awesome.We tried movies anywhere that did not work
because what did you say? Lionsgateone of the companies that does not support
(01:11):
movies anywhere. Yeah, they needto like get with the times. Man.
People want to watch movies together whenthey're not in the same room,
and movies anywhere is a little betterbecause they don't make you both pay for
it. Yeah, but anyway,that kind of thinking about, is there
anything harder than co starring with amaniac genius such as Nicholas Cage, You're
(01:37):
in an untenable situation. You knowthat, right, and trust us.
We know because we podcast together andwe're both maniac geniuses. Hey, oh,
but I'm so, what do youthink, Man, we just watched
this movie. It's gotten good reviews. I think, what do you think
(01:59):
about overall? What stuck out toyou? I thought I was pleasantly surprised.
I was impressed with it. Ithought it was pretty good. I
mean, I thought I would likeit. I thought I was a person
who was predisposed to like it asa Cage fan. But I also thought
it was better than I expected.I thought the whole thing just kind of
(02:19):
zipped along, gave you laughs,gave you action. It was very meta.
It like laughed at itself and Cagejust in there the whole time,
man doing the work. He's inalmost every scene, and he's just all
out entertainment in this. Yeah.I agree, I it's something else like
to me, it was unique inthat it was a movie about Nicholas Cage
(02:44):
as himself, but then they hadthese like layers within the movie of them
talking about the movie without it reallyacknowledging that they were in the movie.
It was pretty smart. The waythey sort of layered it in, you
know, that was kind of fun. It didn't take itself too seriously.
It was a romp, Oh therewe go. You knew I had to
(03:06):
pull it out. Yeah, therewas some of that, you know,
there was some of that kind ofclever like I said, meta stuff,
There was a lot of that likelayered throughout or like commentary on Cage's career.
You know, the amount of movieshe makes, you got to make
Hollywood movies versus like these smaller moviesand what kind of movies matter and stuff
like that, you know, andwe've seen kind of movies that have done
(03:29):
that stuff before. How this movieworked better as just like pure goofy entertainment.
There was just just enough of thatstuff like to be like, oh,
that's kind of clever, that's kindof smarter. I think enough that
it kind of even pulled Cage inand want to do it. You know.
But I think where it kind ofexcelled was that it was just a
fun movie and there was enough likegoofy scenes that it just kind of went
(03:52):
from one to another. If anything, there were some parts of it that
I would have been like, ah, they could have played up some of
that stuff even a little more.There's something about the fact that it was
Nicholas Cage at the beginning. Youknow, they were playing a part of
him that you know, maybe isnot true to real life, even but
he still took a gamble at likehe's struggling to be a good father.
(04:15):
No, no, come on thathe really feels kind of washed up,
even though he never really says it, you know, like am I relevant
anymore? And he was willing todo that, and he put himself out
there because he's playing himself, right, there's this like element to that being
vulnerable that I feel like he playsthat really well and yet also make out
(04:38):
with an imaginary version of himself thattalks him through situations. I love that
those were probably there were only acouple of scenes where it was like Cage
on Cage, this like younger versionof Cage. Those were actually probably my
favorite scenes of the movie. Ialmost wish I could do like a whole
movie of that where it's like him, that's really him, like speaking to
(05:00):
more of his career and like thisyounger version of himself, this kind of
like what he was at one pointin his career and what he's become now,
which I think is really interesting.But even the conversations they have and
the way they make that younger versionact, I just found it completely hilarious.
Those are probably my favorite scenes inthe movie. Across the board,
though, was pretty well cast,Like everybody who was in there seemed to
(05:24):
be like having a good time,you know, they seemed game for what
was going on here. It wascast perfectly, I think, and everybody
felt invested. Like even the mainbad guy who is the cousin of Hobby
played by Pedro Pascal. Even hiscousin right, was so good. I
(05:44):
don't know what it was. Hewas like, goofy good. The way
he sold that character. I feltlike, even Demi Moore is his you
know, movie star. Yeah,White Justice a nice throw in there.
Spoiler, I guess for people whohaven't seen it. Yeah, spoiler Neil
Patrick Harris as his agent. Itworked. It was a little confusing at
first because I was like, oh, he's playing Neil Patrick Harris, but
(06:06):
then he was he was actually playinga character, which was kind of threw
me off a little bit. That'show I felt at the very beginning,
because he's playing himself, but nobodyelse in the movie is playing himself,
and that's where you have to liketake a second to acclimate to what's happening.
And then and then you're like,oh, okay, yeah, you
have to get on the wavelength ofwhat they're actually what's going on here,
(06:30):
what they're doing. I feel likethat would be like that for any movie
where a person is playing themselves,because you just immediately think, well,
isn't everybody going to play themselves?No? No, okay, I guess
not. Yeah, So they're likeyour brain's like working in two different directions
in some way. There's also weshould say a lot of you know,
if you're like a cage fan,a lot of shout outs to cage movies
(06:51):
and some more you know, obscurecage movies, like you might remember if
Guarding Tests was like a throwaway cagemovie. I feel like from the early
nineties that I don't know how manypeople actually saw it. Yeah, Shirley
McClain co staring that, yeah.Yeah. So a bunch of movies get
talked about or even shown scenes frothem. So the question is is this
(07:16):
essential cage you know, where wouldyou rank it amongst Cage movies. I
think because Cage is playing Cage andyou know, it's kind of like about
his career and it fits in there, it's probably you know, i'd have
to look at all the movies together, it probably would slide into the top
ten. This is a first viewing, first reaction, so it's not a
(07:40):
stone cold Cage classic. It's it'stoo meta to like be that, you
know, but it's like probably essentialCage because it's Cage playing Cage talking about
himself in some way or like mockinghimself in some way. So I think
I might slid it in there andgenerally just a breezy watch, you know,
good time. Yeah, I thinkbreezy would be a great way to
(08:03):
describe it. I would go asfar as saying that this could probably be
top five Cage movies, maybe becauseit's meta, maybe because it's Cage playing
Cage. It's fun watching him sortof poke fun a little bit at the
way people perceive him because of theway he acts in the way that he
(08:24):
is in movies, and he reallyembraces it. How many actors can take
themselves seriously but also have the senseof humor to like kind of blow themselves
up in that way. But hedoes. Yes. I mean, when
you look at his filmography, there'snobody to quite like him. Slide that
into the top five? Would thatreplace what like ghost Rider I for you?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, theywould definitely. It wouldn't replace Raising
(08:48):
Arizona or The Rock even face Off. I think face Off would have to
be in there. Yeah. No, it doesn't doesn't replace any of those,
but I think it's in the topfive. I think it's a solid
a top five. It might befive. Yeah, yeah, I definitely
would call it a essentral cage becausehow often are you gonna get cage on
cage, cage, playing cage,cage, making out with cage. You
(09:11):
can't ask for more real cage oncage than that. I mean, that's
that's like cage porn right there.Yeah, you just see things don't get
more cagey than that. What's hesaying? Cageesmooch as well? This is
something along those lines. What doyou think is his hair score in this
(09:31):
movie? His hair score has gotto be pretty high. The hair is
looking pretty good, somehow rejuvenated.I don't know. The cage is uh
found the fountain of hair youth andeverything's the grays are gone. The hair
is where there wasn't hair, thereis hair. Yeah, he's uh weird,
(09:52):
right, Yeah, it's just withhis like brilliant acting ability, he's
found a way to act. Hairback gone to his head. His hair
figured out a way to act.Yeah, like act like I'm not an
old person's hair. It botoxed itself. He's had some wild hair though in
the movies. I mean, he'shad some of the weirdest. He's always
(10:13):
had odd hair. He's grown itin some different ways. You know.
He was kind of had the recedinghairline and then he kind of grew it
long. So he's had some alot of interesting hairstyles over the years.
This is kind of the most normalyet abnormal it's looked because you can tell
it's not quite ah natural. Yeah, the hair technology whatever they're doing these
(10:39):
days, they've gotten pretty good atit, you know what I mean.
It doesn't look quite normal, buti'd say, like out of a ten,
I'd say he has like a ten, i mean nine cage hair scorer.
Yeah. The only knock on itis you know, you know the
past, right, Yeah, yeah, exactly, That's the only real knock.
(11:01):
So getting back to you know,the unbearable weight of massive talent.
What do you think Cagius moment?Do you have a cageous moment she can
think of in this movie? You'regoing with Cage kissing Cage. I mean
that is a great moment. Ireally like when he's just screaming Nicholas Cage.
(11:22):
You know he says, I don'tknow whatever. When he's talking to
himself, I think I'm with youon that. I think that's like the
Cageus moment and the Cagiest quote whenhe's like giving himself not necessarily a pep
talk, it's more like the olderself is kind of like, ah,
leave me alone, but he won'tgo away because like an annoying younger version
(11:43):
of himself, and he's like,you're a Hollywood movie star. You are
Nicholas Epping. If we're keeping itclean, Cage, but he like draws
it out in the way only NicholasCage can for like a minute long.
What Nickeol this Cage does so welland what he like really turns up in
this movie is every line delivery islike strange or like you know, off
(12:07):
kilter. Everyell with the bed spreadoff me this morning. Now you're sending
me on like a wild ghost.Yeah. He does that, you know,
quite a few times in this moviewhere they're like, you know,
you've got to deliver this like youwould do in a like a normal action
flick or whatever, and he doesright, Like he like kind of turns
it up just a little bit ina lot of ways. I would say
(12:31):
it's like how we envision a classicwalking moment, his own cadence to everything
right right right. The other quotethat stuck out to me, which was
in a small moment, was justa goofy piece of writing where he was
like, when it's over, I'mdone, Like how dogs on him grill?
(12:54):
Yeah, that's good stuff right there. Yeah, it's nonsensical and yet
but it's cage nonsense. It haslike this profound sensibility to it, you
know, like hot Dog's being done. What does that even mean? I
don't know. Yeah. He alsomentions, uh shamanic instincts. Yeah.
(13:15):
Yeah, there's some really great linesdelivered by his co stars in this movie
too, you know, like,oh, yeah, CEI agent and he's
like, I'm forty four years old, why the fuck would I see crews?
Too? You're just so many goodcomical moments, you know, Yeah,
there were, there were some othergood lines and the other thing.
(13:37):
You know, that leads directly intowhat we're talking about next. Him and
Pedro had some good, really goodback and forth moments, some good scenes
together. Yeah, leading into thatthen, you know, obviously talking about
it the massive talent portion, youknow, co starring with Cages and easy.
Some would say you'd have to havemassive talent to do it. So
(13:58):
we decided I had to look atCage's co stars over the years and examine
who did it best right, Whowere great co stars of Cage over these
decades of working with him, Andso we created a list of top three
(14:20):
Cage co stars. I mean,we obviously have to ask this question because
we just watched this movie. WillPedro Pascal from Massive Talent make the cut?
It's a really good question. Ithink he's close. Do you think
he's there? I think he's probablypretty close. I'm not ready to call
him yet, he's in there.What I like that he did that I
haven't really seen anybody else do.Is he turns it up to the same
(14:46):
level of Cage on Cage. Youknow what I mean? He was like
about kind of like a maniac inthe same way that Cage is with Cage.
Can't remember anybody else really doing that. Yeah, to me, he
felt like he felt truly enamored thathe loved Nicholas Cage. This role that
(15:07):
he played was this guy who isthe head of a cartel who loves Nicholas
Cage and loves his acting in hismovies to the degree where he is so
admiring of this guy that he isgoofy around him right, like he is
like a child who's seeing his superherocome to life right in front of his
(15:31):
eyes. Oh no, I'm sorry, I thought that, did you say?
Oh, never mind. I feltlike he did a really great job.
Yeah, he really did. Heplayed it really well. There's some
parts he's like kind of pound forpound playing it with Cage a lot of
times, which Cage's the tough guyto keep up with. You know.
He was just so much fun towatch, right, look at Cage with
(15:54):
those childlike eyes, and I've alwayslooked up to you and I think you're
the best. There's this connection betweenthem, and you're like a kid with
like a baseball player he looks upto or something yeah. Yeah. And
if you've seen him on like TheMandalorian or you know, some Wonder Woman
eighty four or some other things,he's been in very very different performance.
(16:15):
He's in everything, it seems likelately. But this movie, I have
a new found appreciation for him thatI didn't have before, which I think
is attributed to this movie. Itreally is like the way he performed in
this movie made me really connect emotionally. I was like, man, I
really feel this guy. Whether youlike it or not, you have a
(16:37):
gift, and that gift brings lightand joy to an increasingly dark and broken
world. And to turn your backon that gift is to turn your back
on the entire human race. Andmaybe it was that childlike innocence that he
portrayed. This guy might be mynew favorite actor of this last decade because
he just did such a great jobat it. I think he's close.
(17:00):
I think he's pretty close. Andwe haven't totally talked about this. There's
a long list of Cage co starsbecause he's cages in a ton of movies.
He's just like cranking them out NonStop. Not all memorable, you know,
but I think it's for me.It comes down to like a handful,
and I'll see if you're on kindof the same page or where you're
(17:22):
at, who do you think kindof cracks who's in your top group?
I mean, he's worked with somegreat actors over the years in the history
of what do they call it thesbianism. I just don't know what they call
it that, but they should,they should, and so like when you
see them in the movies with NicholasCage, I think sometimes you don't always
(17:47):
appreciate the fact that these are likeactors who could go down in history is
like some of the greatest actors ofall time probably. Okay, so you're
saying, like just the actor,like who the individual is? Yeah,
I think that's an important component ofchoosing because like, okay, I'll give
a great example, right, ifwe're gonna go down this list, you
(18:08):
know, how do you not pickJohn Malkovich con Air right, like John
Malcovi. It's John Malkovich because healways gives Nicholas Cage performances in his own
way in every movie and con Erris no different, right, I see
where you're making the distinction. WhenI approach this, I was like,
(18:30):
who's pairing with Cage the best.That's the way I was looking at it.
So I was like, but Isee where you're going with that.
So you immediately went with Meg Ryanin City these two are meant to be
together forever. Did you really pickMeg Ryan? I did not pick Meg
(18:51):
Ryan. Oh. I've never seenCity of Ages though, so that could
be why I like Meg Rian.You love meg Ran. I do like
Meg Ryan, but I've never seenCity. You think me that movie?
I know you would think Meg Ryanand Nicholas Cage together. I am shocked
you have never seen that movie?Is it a good shot? Should I
see it? Like? It's nota great movie? Okay, the chemistry
(19:14):
between them is very weird in thatmovie. It seems like an odd Yeah,
it's exactly how you imagine it.Yeah. I didn't mind the movie.
The concept was whatever. Yeah,you still should see it. It's
got meg right, Yeah I should. I should complete my the Meg Ryan
filmography. I think there's a lotof spots I'm missing. So who would
(19:37):
be then on your list? Well, let me tell you. Immediately I
was drawn to I'm like, thisis a definite and then I backed away
from it. Let me tell you, if you see if you agree with
it this logic. I was like, face off Travolta and those two,
you know, we're playing basically likethe flip side of the coin. But
(19:57):
then I started thinking, I'm notreally in the movie together. They're kind
of like impersonating each other. Sothat's why I was like, ah,
does that really count? You knowwhat I mean, They're almost like in
two separate movies. Yeah. See, I actually didn't choose that, but
I feel like John Travolta and NicholasCage that might actually be the best example
(20:18):
of a person you would choose becauseI mean, you know how hard it
is for John Travolta to play NicholasCage and vice versa, and I think
they did a really great job.So maybe that's actually the best testament to
what a great you know, costar could do, Like he impersonated him.
I guess I was thinking more they'renot really playing off each other,
(20:41):
you know, not bouncing off eachother. Somebody though related around the same
time that I thought they did bounceoff for the well, Sean Connery and
the Rock I think that's pretty good. That's pretty good. I feel like
that's an easy pick because Sean ConneryI mean, come on, it goes
down in history is one of thebest. But they also had like,
you know, he was like thisbrutish thief guy, and you know,
(21:06):
Nicholas Cage in that movie is likeplaying like this nerdy scientist. They had
like this really good back and forththat I think kind of made that movie
in a lot of ways, madeit different than your typical action movie.
No, I would agree with that. They were sort of at odds in
that movie. Yeah, Connery wasjust kind of like picking on him.
That's a good choice. I thinkthat's a good choice. What do you
(21:26):
think of Angelina Jolie and Gone insixty seconds? I thought she was not
in that movie that much. Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember
watching it. I thought she waslike kind of weird that I thought she
just didn't have a huge part inthat movie. Robert Duvall in that movie,
ye, yeah, I mean hehad a He's just so good.
(21:49):
I don't know in that movie.I just loved him so much. That
movie a good cast. I mean, it had like a lot of it
had like every a lot of peoplewho came in did like a little bit
of work, you know. Imean, but it was a mostly Cage
kind of leading the whole thing,which is most of Cage's movies. Even
when there's like another kind of starin there, it's most of the time
it's like just Cage and then someother people. I will say this about
(22:14):
Nicholas Cage movies, you know,like if I'm talking about the female co
stars like Angelina Jolie, Tayo Leonifrom The Family Man, which I love
that movie. Great holiday movie bythe way, if you guys want to
check that one out, that wasfantastic movie. I think I don't know
how I feel about his female costars when they are supposed to have romantic
chemistry. Yeah, I never reallyfeel the romantic chemistry between them, but
(22:37):
I like them. Like Angelina JolieIt's Gone to sixty seconds. I liked
her character in that. Tayloni,I felt like she was great in that
movie. But again, I don'tknow how well the chemistry sort of jived
between the two characters. I agreewith that. I thought of probably the
best one I could think of,which I haven't seen a long time,
(23:00):
was Elizabeth Shoe and Leaving Las Vegas. Do you ever see that Cage won
an Oscar for it. They wereboth really good in it. It wasn't
totally romantic, but I mean that'sthe closest I could think of it.
A lot of times, he's justlike so strange. You're like, ah,
is that kind of like is sheuncomfortable? I don't know, or
can they make the female kind ofalmost like the straight man to his wild
(23:21):
man a little bit? I reallydo think that's true because I was thinking
about Holly Hunter plays in Raising Arizona. I love Holly Hunter in that movie,
so good between her and him,the on screen chemistry is fantastic.
Romantic chemistry is a little weird.Yeah, they're good together and that doesn't
(23:41):
really need it all that much inthat movie, But in other movies,
like great example, Meg Ryan,I don't know why that does not work
at all for me, the chemistrybetween those two. I think Holly Hunter
is definitely one for consideration. Anotherone I think I would I think I
would have to put on would beChloe Grace Moretz and kick Ass. I
(24:03):
mean, going back to this movie, I don't know, nobody really talks
about it anymore, and it's kindof like Fallen Off. But at the
time it came out, people werelike, Oh, this is pretty good.
This is kind of like a littlebit of a cage resurgence him and
like his daughter going out as likethis superhero. She was kind of like
this foulmouth girl and he was likethis crazy, crazy father and they were
(24:25):
fighting crime and stuff like that.It like kind of enlivened something in him
that performance, And I think thetwo of them really bounced off each other
pretty well in that movie. No, that's a good one. I like
the chemistry between them. I thinkthat that was a good co star.
I keep coming back to this though, like John Malkovich and con Air John
Cusack, you know, I knowthat they're like they don't have a lot
(24:47):
of like on screen time together JohnCusack, Man, how do you not?
Like you could almost make a case. And I'm open to this for
it being like the cast of conAir because as Big Rains, yeah,
you know what I mean, Likehe has like these little moments with everybody
(25:08):
where, even because I remember evenhim and Cusack at the end of con
Air, they kind of have thismoment where they finally meet after he's kind
of been like talking to him overthe radio and stuff like that. There's
like a connection there. I thinkthe one other one i'd probably throw out
as a potential in this maybe acheat, but it also relates to,
(25:30):
you know, the Unbearable Weight ofmassive talent is in adaptation he played Twin
Brothers. Yeah, he was amazing. It's my favorite Nicolas Cage performance.
But him playing off Cage, playingoff Cage, much like in Unbearable Weight,
(25:52):
is just he's really good. SoI don't know, Cage could be
Cage's best co star in many ways. I don't know if we count that,
but it's in play it to me. Yeah, yeah, just great
actors who have played co stars withNicholas Cage. I think you got more,
you get more than enough. Yeah, I mean, and like we've
(26:15):
talked about before on movies and marketingMoMA, we could continue to have Nicholas
Cage episodes probably for years to come, because he's just got so much in
the Blender. This is just oneof many. Speaking of which, if
you want to see something interesting Renfieldwhere he's playing Dracula, he's got a
(26:37):
really interesting look in this movie.Not to be confused with Vampire's Kiss,
which he did in eighty eight.That's right, Yeah, he's got on
IMDb right now, seven upcoming movieslisted, of course, because he releases
like six movies a year. It'sinsane. Guys like a workhorse man,
the unbearable way to massive talent.What are you gonna do? You gotta
give it to the world. Yeah, you got to just keep going,
(27:00):
never retire. Well, that's itfor this episode of movies and marketing until
next time. We let's fade toblack. I'll be back. He's not
coming back.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie is America's hardest working grassroots activist who has your inside scoop on the biggest news of the day and what's really going on behind the headlines. The founder of Turning Point USA and one of social media's most engaged personalities, Charlie is on the front lines of America’s culture war, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students on over 3,500 college and high school campuses across the country, bringing you your daily dose of clarity in a sea of chaos all from his signature no-holds-barred, unapologetically conservative, freedom-loving point of view. You can also watch Charlie Kirk on Salem News Channel