Directed by: Tom Gormican
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Neil Patrick Harris, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Sharon Horgan, Lily Mo Sheen
Nicolas Cage plays "Nick Cage", a version of himself in the ultra-meta The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Cage relies on his innate ability to put his all into less-than-desirable material, of which he's had a lot of practice lately. Massive Talent has Cage, whose film roles have all but dried up, taking a million-dollar payday from alleged cartel leader Javi Guttierrez (Pascal) to attend his birthday party in Spain. Javi is a superfan who owns numerous Cage collectibles and all but genuflects in front of his hero. How can Cage resist such flattery and such money, even when the CIA intervenes and asks Cage to spy on Javi?
Massive Talent concentrates on Nick's and Javi's mundane bromance while sending up or referencing Cage's more successful movies. Once the Cage hero worship ends, then the movie transforms into what feels like just another Nicolas Cage action picture. The movie never propels itself into anything memorable. The scenes which parody Cage's dual role in Adaptation fall flat, with Cage's imaginary twin screaming, "I'm Nick, freakiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing Cage". That's annoying, not funny. And it happens twice.
Cage's career is among the most peculiar in movie history. He's an Oscar winner with numerous hits to his credit who in the last fifteen years hasn't been as selective with his role choices as he should've been. Massive Talent pokes fun a little at that, but is mostly concerned with idolizing the Nicolas Cage from twenty to thirty years ago. Since we're making references to great Cage movies, it's a shame no one brought up Moonstruck or Peggy Sue Got Married. He had a career before Guarding Tess, you know.
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