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Six Films in Which Nicolas Cage Doesn't Give a Fuck

By Matt Prigge

Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted Sep. 3, 2008

Bangkok Dangerous

Fire Birds (1990): Till the late '90s few actors took as many risks as the one born Nicolas Coppola. It took Hollywood the longest time to exploit and beat him down to the sleepy paycheck-taker he is today. The first sign came with this action flick, in which he was snoozing through international intrigue alongside Tommy Lee Jones.

8MM (1999): Oscar-winning and now A-list material, Cage abruptly fell into a somnambulant state for this would-be troubling descent into the world of S&M, courtesy of Joel Schumacher.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999): Not even Marty Scorsese could awaken Cage as an allegedly on-edge paramedic, who lets his partners/co-stars (Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore) do the heavy lifting. Periodically, he and and then-wife Patricia Arquette try to see who can be more dull.

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000): Give The Rock and Con Air some credit: At least they possessed some freaky histrionics from Cage. ("How in the name of Zeus' butthole did you get out of your cell?") But by the time of this wan burst of automotive mayhem, he'd already given up on A-pictures, rotely uttering dialogue in an affectless drone that continues today.

National Treasure (2004): So much for Adaptation's rejuvenative powers, huh? By this point Cage was content to throw his name above the title, writ large, like a warning to those who still, well, treasure his gonzo work in Raising Arizona, Birdy and most especially Valley Girl.

Bangkok Dangerous (2008): Dude didn't even bother trimming his unsightly aging guy mullet from the similarly useless Next. By now he's either wildly over the top (The Wicker Man) or sleepwalking. Call the Coens, Nic.