Just watched it. It borrows from The Thing, Annihilation and even Dead Space (the video game), and turns it into an entertaining flick, although I wouldn't complain if it was around half an hour shorter.
Not a great movie or even scary, but decent enough to score a 7/10
On 123-movies, free streaming site. It wasn't terrible . Some scenes were rather gross which put me off. But if yucky-gooey-slimy is acceptable, go for it. Nicolas Cage did a terrific job.
shareI am really happy that Cage landed this role. He needed this.
I really wish top producers would get over whatever irrational fear they've developed of casting him and would start putting him in better movies. Nic's talent has been mostly wasted for a decade now.
he needed it?
after Mandy?
i think Mandy was really the movie that enabled him to start having a bit of a career resurgeance....unclear whether he's capitalizing on that or not
I know Mandy did well critically and found an audience, but it still seemed like a niche thing that didn't make a big mainstream splash. I mean, if you grabbed 100 random people off the street, I'd be surprised if more than a couple had seen it.
shareAre you sure it's producers and not Cage himself?
I always got the impression that Nicolas Cage just made bad choices with movies. Although, I do think it's augmented by foolish spending habits. I've heard he bought a dinosaur egg and a private island and had to declare bankruptcy, which would make him sign on to some unflattering films in exchange for money.
Then again, it's likeliest that it's a spiral, isn't it? One box office bomb or two, a couple bad reviews, he can't get the A-list stuff anymore, so he takes a couple of quick money-makers, or makes another bad decision... 'round and 'round it goes.
Finally, there's his unique acting style. When it fits with a film, it's golden dynamite. When it's poorly used, it's... well, it's strange enough to be entertaining, but it hardly elevates the film at that point.
Well, I definitely don't think he decided to star in films like 211, The Humanity Bureau and The Runner because he just didn't like the scripts he was being sent for the next David Fincher or Martin Scorsese movie.
If you look at his filmography, there seems to be a distinct point where you can see things going downhill for him. I regard The Sorcerer's Apprentice as the pivot point. That film underperformed and things quickly went to shit after that. (Though I actually like Season of the Witch and think it's underrated.)
Occasionally he'll do an interesting indie like Joe or Color Out of Space, but those rare gems come in between long stretches where the films are forgettable at best and awful at worst.
I do hope he makes a comeback though, because he just might be my favorite actor. I will never forget his amazing run from the mid-90s to the mid-00s, with films like The Rock, Face/Off, National Treasure and the underappreciated Weather Man.
I might put it at The Wicker Man, myself. That one marked him as, potentially, a really bad actor. Before that, he was mostly a "crazy" actor who took big risks. Not that every performance prior was lauded, but just they were accepted as a great, or even brilliant, actor taking risks that sometimes didn't pay off. With TWM, he memed up with "THE BEES!"
After that he did Ghost Rider, which made good money but got bad reviews. Then he does Next, which was lackluster action-sci-fi. He hiccoughs back with the National Treasure sequel, then more crap, then Kick-Ass, and then - as you point out - it's downhill from there.
I put it earlier because I seem to remember his rep being tarnished at least by the point of Bangkok Dangerous. I was starting to notice him being in more and more "pass" movies than "I've got to see that" movies.
Ha-ha! I agree with you on Season of the Witch! It got PANNED and it didn't deserve that; plus, Cage is pretty good in it. I think there was a lot to be fixed in the film, but it's not as bad as its reputation.
I, too, hope he makes a comeback. But, I also kinda hope it's mostly with stuff like Color Out of Space where he gets to be in bat-crap crazy stuff that really shows off his wild style.
I haven't seen Joe yet, but its making your "exceptions" list makes me intrigued. I'd also like to see Willy's Wonderland.
I think you're onto something actually. Maybe we should think of Cage's fall as actually a two-tiered event. Looking at his filmography, and thinking about what you've said, I think you're right that it really began with The Wicker Man. I'm revising my thoughts on this.
Stage 1: He starts making several shitty movies, but his films are still going to theaters. This period begins with The Wicker Man and ends with Drive Angry. There were several forgettable, or straight up bad, movies during that period, such as Wicker Man, Ghost Rider, Next and Bangkok Dangerous.
Stage 2: He's mostly a straight-to-video guy now. It's clear the studios have lost faith in him and don't want to spend the money to put his films out for theatrical exhibition. This period really begins with Seeking Justice.
There were some movies that I liked during the Stage 1 period: Season of the Witch, Knowing, Drive Angry and of course Kick Ass all make the cut for me. Bad Lieutenant wasn't bad, but I didn't love it. National Treasure 2 was, for me, a very disappointing sequel, but it's a decent film I guess.
Regarding Season of the Witch, I finally got around to it after several years and was surprised by how much I liked it. It was a lot of fun and a genuinely atmospheric fantasy-horror film. My primary complaint is the lame CGI extravaganza of an ending, but that doesn't kill the whole movie for me. I definitely liked it overall.
You should check out Joe. It's kind of a slow, quiet drama but it's good. Definitely worth a watch for any Cage fan.
Yeah, I think that's it. There's a sort of falter-period where he gets put on probation. When he spends too long there without an Oscar nomination or a blockbuster mega-hit, they drum him down into Stage 2.
Since Seeking Justice, I haven't really seen many of his films, and most of them I'd avoid, unless I was planning to mercilessly mock them with friends (Left Behind). Colour Out of Space is different, and was genuinely great. I haven't seen Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse yet, either, so that one might be perfectly great, too.
My big problem with Season of the Witch was that it never kicked into "high gear". They set it up like the payoff would be these guys trying to figure out if she was a witch or not, but that question was answered fast, to the degree that one starts to wonder why there's any conflict after that. If the film paid more attention to its characters' relationships more, that would help, too. But the main thing, for me, is that there's no ambiguity, so at that point it's just an obstacle course. It was a fun obstacle course, but it lacked that extra dimension to really keep me on my seat.
The CG ending wasn't awesome, but I was okay with it partly because I legitimately didn't know who was going to live and who was going to die.
Here are his Stage 3 films I've seen:
Trespass - Well, half of it at least. I got bored. What I saw was totally forgettable.
The Frozen Ground - Again, half of it. Again, got bored. It wasn't so much a "bad" movie as it was a mediocre one.
The Croods - A fun family film.
Joe - A good movie, as I said.
Outcast - Not a good movie, but also kind of interesting because of its crazy plot, Cage's performance, and seeing what Hayden Christensen has gotten up to in this later stage of his career.
The Runner - Not very good. Boring. Forgettable.
Snowden - His appearance here is brief enough to almost qualify as a cameo, but it's a good movie and one that I think everyone should see. A rare Stage 3 Cage team-up with a great director.
The Humanity Bureau - I got maybe 20 minutes in and that was enough. A genuinely bad movie.
211 - Very generic straight-to-video action film.
Color Out of Space - We've talked about it.
Running With the Devil - This one's not bad. If you just like Cage, and if you like Larry Fishburne, it's probably worth a watch. I didn't want my two hours back.
Primal - LOL. Boring and disappointing, especially considering the fun premise. Pass.
Back to Season of the Witch, I think with an Act III reworking of the script it could've been a genuinely awesome film. But it is what it is. I like it, but I could've loved it.
Have you heard about Cage's upcoming Joe Exotic mini-series? That sounds like a fucking riot.
I've only seen Season of the Witch, The Croods, and Colour Out of Space.
The Croods was forgettable. It was fine, I guess, and serves a purpose as a family-friendly entertainment, but it's just kinda... there.
I'll definitely check out Joe. I also plan to watch Into the Spider-verse; that one sounded cool.
He probably got the small role in Snowden because it was a small role, don't you think?
I also plan to watch Willy's Wonderland, and I hope it lives up to its insane premise. If it goes off the rails, that'd be ideal.
I feel exactly the same way about Season of the Witch: liked it, could've loved it, and most of the problems are in Act III. I might squeak that up to half-way through. But, overall it's good. Have you seen Black Death? They share some similarities in terms of the general "witch-hunting dark ages" setting. Black Death is a very different film, too, in many ways, and I think it capitalized on its premise a lot more than SotW did; I preferred it.
You know, the thing about Cage in Season of the Witch is that he didn't "modernize" it. I remember watching Dragonslayer, and it's a good or even great sword & sorcery picture, but Peter MacNicol felt "modern" and was a bit of a thorn in the film's paw, as it were.
I haven't heard of Joe Exotic. I'll look it up.
Cage worked with Oliver Stone on World Trade Center, and I guess they got along well enough that Stone invited him to work on Snowden. I would think then that Stone appreciates his talents. I just wish he had given Nic a bigger role.
I saw Black Death but did not end up enjoying it much. It was just too bleak, especially with the story ending the way it does. Some people may be into that but it's not my kind of movie.
That's an interesting observation about Cage not modernizing his performance. I guess you're right about that. I actually haven't seen the film now in quite a while. I should re-watch it.
I also want to see Willy's Wonderland. Amazingly it has a Fresh rating on RT. Hopefully it lives up to the promise of its wacky premise. I'm not paying $19.99 to rent it but I'll definitely check it out once it hits Redbox.
As for Joe Exotic, did you never see Tiger King on Netflix?
I find that the modernization thing is sometimes performance, but sometimes it's presence and I'm not sure how much some people (even great actors) can affect that. Some actors just carry a modern sensibility with them and it's hard for them to push through it, others cut through. Matthew Broderick in Ladyhawke, for instance, always feels (to me, anyway) like he's in the wrong era. Al Pacino, oddly enough, nails it in stuff like Looking for Richard.
If it's fresh on RT, that's promising. I take RT with a grain of salt, but if something with Nic Cage and that premise were anything but entertaining, it'd be so easy for them to just lambaste it.
Uh, no, I didn't watch Tiger King.
I just watched it. I knew the story and saw the 2011 German version of the film. I was curious about how they would adapt it to modern times. I think Richard Stanley did a good job. I'm glad to see him directing again. The movie felt like a throwback to 80s and 90s horror films, which was great for me.
shareMhmm, definitely got the 80s/90s vibe from the way it was filmed and paced.
It's not groundbreaking but I definitely enjoyed it for what it was.
It was creepy enough to tap into that Lovecraftian horror-vibe, but nowhere near as grotesque as a typical Brian Yuzna or Gordan Stewart flick; I still feel that duo seems to have an uncanny ability to bring Lovecraft's other-dimensional monstrosities to life like no other filmmakers.
Bro. . .
Let me tell you about this movie: It's weird. It's a strange film. But I'm glad I watched it.
Cage at a few points goes Full Cage, and it's glorious. The only downside to that is that occasionally he feels like he's in a different movie from everyone else, as he gets really fucking goofy for moments at a time.
There is some really cool visual stuff in the film. And also some really disturbing visual stuff.
If you're not aware, there's a whole story behind the director: He made an indie sci-fi film in 1990 called Hardware that turned into something of a cult classic. He then made a couple of other small films before being hired on to direct The Island of Dr. Moreau. But Moreau went way sideways and he was fired and John Frankenheimer was brought in to finish the film. The whole story was told in a documentary called, "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau."
He's basically been off the grid for 25 years and now is back with this film.
Color Out of Space is a little slow to get moving, and it's also just a strange trip, but I would recommend it. It's an interesting film and it proves that Stanley really does have talent as a director. And it's cool to see Nic Cage in something that actually has been getting good reviews and that isn't just some throwaway piece of entertainment.
This echoes a lot of my feelings about the film. It's strange and wild, a little goofy at times, but overall well worth watching.
It feels unique to me because it doesn't go for a typical ending to a movie of this type (that's Lovecraft's influence/storytelling style, of course).
Parts were horrifying. I usually describe it as "upsetting".
Cage's style worked here, I thought, partly because of the oddness of the story, which means that when he goes odd, I thought it connected with the material.
I have seen it, thought it was good 7/10
shareBored me to death. Richard Stanley lost his mojo. Bust everybody should watch Dust Devil (uncut) and Hardware. Great movies!
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