Nicholas Cage, Old and New
In the 90's and early 2000's, Nicholas Cage was one of the greatest actors of our time. His devotion to his roles and the brilliance with which he chose his projects made him a personal favorite as well as a highly respected, often underrated Hollywood titan. Some of his best include Red Rock West, Kiss of Death, Con Air, City of Angels, Adaptation, Matchstick Men, Lord of War, and The Weather Man. Strong, confident, intelligent, and an absolute pleasure to watch, Cage not only won a well-deserved Oscar, but became one of Hollywood's most celebrated leading men. I would even go so far as to say he was on par with greats like Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, and Jack Nicholson. Everything was going so well.
The Nicholas Cage of today is a very different character. While still a strong presence enjoyable to watch, his film career has taken a major dive. While his financial situation may be largely to blame, Cage has fallen from titan to a veritable joke of the world of cinema. Despite a few hits in the last decade, he has mostly starred in flops with bad scripts and/or terrible executions. Family Man, Windtalkers, World Trade Center, The Wicker Man, Knowing, the extremely overrated Bad Lieutenant, and G-Force are among the worst. I haven't seen Season of the Witch, Bangkok Dangerous or Trespass, but my faith in them is shaky. Major players have scripts thrown at them constantly, but Cage just seems to have lost the ability to distinguish the worthy from the trash. With his number of bad movies slowly overcoming his number of good ones, Mr. Cage is quickly becoming the next Eddie Murphy. What a waste of talent.
As a devoted Cage fan, it is my hope that this amazing talent slows down and starts making good movies again. Often the greats go years without making a film, waiting for something truly worthy of their abilities to come along. Cage needs to invoke this. Furthermore, it would be better to sell some of his multi-million dollar properties than to continue losing his standing as one of the all-time greats.