Mr. Strangecage:Or, How I Learned to Stop Bitchingand Love Nicolas Cage

First off, I don't know anything about the origin of that picture. (Yes, he was once going to play Superman for Tim Burton, but I suspect this was Photoshopped.) I just found it on the internet and it seemed funny and ludicrous and appropriate for this post.

Throughout the '80's and '90's, I was a Nicolas Cage fan. I jumped on board early with the likes of Valley Girl, Rumble Fish, and The Cotton Club, where his performance as a crazed hitman tells of things to come. He cut a bizarre yet memorable career path that included Birdy, Raising Arizona, and Wild at Heart, where his personal love for all things Elvis got to play out bigtime. Then, he seemed to stall out in the early '90's - (don't) see, Amos & Andrew, Guarding Tess, and Honeymoon in Vegas. Like many, I was confounded and a bit miffed when - after winning an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas - he seemed to grab his career and willfully jump off a cliff.

After The Rock or Con Air - I can't recall which - Sean Penn referred to him as a "sellout hack" or some such. I must confess that I agreed - and continued to do so for nearly a decade. With the exceptions of Adaptation and The Weather Man, I found nothing appealing about his work, though I did occasionally check out some films, hoping against hope for a spark of the former eclectic star. It wasn't until late last year that I finally got it: Nicolas Cage is the William Shatner of our time.

Well, maybe not Shatner. But, Nic can sure chew some scenery like ol' Bill. My point is that Cage has morphed into the ultimate B-movie actor. Actually, I could argue he's always been that, it just took quite a while for some folks to catch on - myself included.

This perspective began to take hold of me when I went to see The Wicker Man last Fall. I am a huge fan of the original and knew it would be butchered and atrocious, and that's specifically why I went. This was on the heels of the over-hyped piece-of-crap that was Snakes on a Plane. I wanted to see a real B-movie, not a poseur, and felt that The Wicker Man just might fit the bill. And, boy, was I dead on. It was so bad that it actually made my ten best list for 2006. I laughed hysterically through lines like "Step away from the bike!" and "Killing me won't bring back your honey!" Did I mention the sight of Cage running around in a bear suit? And this is all played seriously.

With the start of 2007, I opted to test my theory. Ghost Rider fit dead-on. A really bad superhero flick, starring Cage and Eva Mendes' chest. The effects were ho-hum, but Cage sold it - he was clearly having a blast, and that's what made the movie for me. Today I went to seal the deal with Next, where he plays a guy who can see two minutes into his own future and make changes as needed. I ran into one problem: Next is actually a pretty good movie. Yes, the multinational baddies are one-dimensional and poor Julianne Moore just seems pissed that she's even there, but there's some inventive and entertaining stuff going on. It's not an A-movie, but it's not quite a B-movie either. Maybe call it a B+movie.

What this all comes around to is that I feel people like Sean Penn and me were too hard on Nic Cage. He's just a big geek - he named his son Kal-El, for chrissakes! - who wants to play fun parts in fun movies. (See also, Grindhouse below.) He doesn't care about accolades or being an actor's actor. He just wants to have a good time and hopes you'll get a kick out of it, too. With this in mind, I'm happy to say I can look forward to his forthcoming films yet again.