Nicolas-Cage Movie Reviews

Before Nicholas Cage became more famous then he already was, he decided to play a supporting role in this film about a con man's son who must now reinvest his life's work with his uncle after an unfortunate accident with his father.

Biehn stars as the son who's role in the ill-fated con forces him to seek work elsewhere. He finds shelter with his similar scheming uncle, yet must fend off his uncle's main henchman, played eccentrically by a strikingly un-muscular Cage.

The film builds up to a con similar to the one that failed with Biehn, but along the way, we are blessed with a con artist's potpourri of side adventures more befitting of an "Alice in Wonderland" tale.

Sadly, the payoff, while surprising, isn't very satisfying. Still, there are many reasons to watch this B-movie. Just don't expect a sequel...or a good ending.

This is probably Nic's goofiest movie ever. Nothing is real - not his accent, not his nose, or even his hair. You would hardly recognize him! And I'd tend to think that was exactly his intention - to completely build a character out of nothing, with no ties to him as a person whatsoever.

The plot is pretty cool, the movie has a weird edge to it. So if you like alternative types of movies this one is definitely worth seeing. Co-production with Nicolas' brother Christopher and some other smaller roles for more family members :-).

This movie is not a comedy, but with Nicholas Cage giving the most hilarious performance of his life, it turns out to be quite an aisle-rolling experience. I mean, he goes from one accent to another, he's snorting coke, chewing chiklets, and best of all he takes his aggression out on innocent clotheshangers. It's a classic, believe me. I only wish more people would have seen this, like say members of the Academy before they handed him that award. It's funny, but only worth watching for Cage. James Coburn and Michael Biehn add to the hilarity somewhat, playing strongly off of Cage's "Hotheaded" Eddie.

After seeing this movie I was COMPLETELY upset at how thoroughly the directer managed to ruin a beautiful story. This movie does not come remotely close to doing justice to the book itself. This story is so "Hollywood-ized" they add sex where it is completely unnecessary, romanticize a story about life, war, and TRUE LOVE, and the screenwriters completely change the story line around! I was most offended when one of the most noble characters of the book, Carlo Guercio, was competely downplayed to the point where I had no emotion towards the movie character at all. The book, Corelli's Mandolin, is a beautifully written story that made me laugh and cry all at the same time. I felt smarter just reading it because De Bernieres uses a plethora of vocabulary words that rarely appear in everyday conversation. The story is about life itself, and it is full of lessons that a person can apply to make themself a better person. DONT SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! READ THE BOOK! I guarantee, it is completely worth the time.

I can guarantee that there's always someone reading the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I'd also bet that everyone who's read it would not believe they could make it into a film. I also thought that, but wasn't dissapointed in the least bit. Set on the island of Cephalonia, Mandolan tells the love story between Pelagia (Penny Cruz) and Captain Antonio Corelli (Cage), set against the unfolding story of WW2. It changes elements of the book (as it had to), but for the good and is shot intelligently, sympathetically and beautifully, with some marvellous performances - John Hurt being a notable. OK, so it doesn't tell the book word for word and it distorts some of the original history, but it looks wonderful, is engaging and very emotional. Go see, even if you do think, 'They'll never make it as well as the book.'

I doubt it will be an Oscar winner, but it is definately one of the best film's I've seen this summer (which is not saying much actually).

Too often lately, movies fail to capture your heart or involve your emotions while keeping your full attention. What you will find here is a truly beautiful romance amidst a time of conflict during World War II that is so dreadful; one cannot imagine the human spirit can survive; yet it does.

Penelope Cruz (Pelagia) is simply stunning and delicate and contrasts with Nicolas Cage (Antonio) who I was equally impressed with, although his accent was at times shaky here and there. Penelope has a depth about her that Nicolas Cage seems to share. Their chemistry is not intense, but it is loving. His aggressiveness is just as attractive as her delicate spirit.

To find a movie with such depth and beauty was to me magic in itself. You will love the setting on the Greek island of Cephallonia. The story begins with exotic scenes and a romance developing between the fisherman Mandras and a doctor's daughter, Pelagia. Together they swim in the crystal clear waters of the Ionian sea, free to love, free to be themselves. Pelagia lives with her father, Dr. Iannus, who is a caring physician. He believes his daughter will one day be a doctor and wishes for her to marry someone who is her equal.

Although the island has been ravaged by furious earthquakes in the past, it seems for a time, the island is providing a refuge for the inhabitants. Until 1941 when war comes to the shores of Cephallonia and the idyllic setting is destroyed.

Mandras joins the Greek army and heads off to fight the Italians, not knowing that the real fight of his life is going to be to keep Pelagia's love. Pelagia writes to Mandras, but when she doesn't receive a letter back, she starts to wonder if she really ever loved him.

The mandolin-playing Captain Antonio Corelli arrives with flair and immediately has Pelagia's attention, but not in a positive way. Unfortunately, she is already engaged to Mandras (Christian Bale). At first she is appalled by Antonio's attitude towards life, but soon learns that his love for life and music itself is what has in fact attracted her to him.

She seems to be fighting her attraction to him in so many ways, and seems to fail miserably, especially when he plays the Mandolin. It seems that as he plays, he is also making her aware of her own deep desires. He awakens passions she has never felt as deeply before.

This story has a true balance of male/female appeal. It is a pity they cheapened a beautiful story with a few scenes. When will they learn that displaying the characters in such vulnerable situations and in a gratuitous way, does nothing for the story? Sigh...

Otherwise: Emotionally Fulfilling in every way! Highly Recommended for Romantics and for viewing with someone you love.

This story will capture your heart
in the same way all forbidden
romances do.

After seeing this movie I was COMPLETELY upset at how thoroughly the directer managed to ruin a beautiful story. This movie does not come remotely close to doing justice to the book itself. This story is so "Hollywood-ized" they add sex where it is completely unnecessary, romanticize a story about life, war, and TRUE LOVE, and the screenwriters completely change the story line around! I was most offended when one of the most noble characters of the book, Carlo Guercio, was competely downplayed to the point where I had no emotion towards the movie character at all. The book, Corelli's Mandolin, is a beautifully written story that made me laugh and cry all at the same time. I felt smarter just reading it because De Bernieres uses a plethora of vocabulary words that rarely appear in everyday conversation. The story is about life itself, and it is full of lessons that a person can apply to make themself a better person. DONT SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! READ THE BOOK! I guarantee, it is completely worth the time.

This was by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Nicholas Cage usually does a great job, but his attempt at an Italian accent in this movie is just horrific. Penelope Cruz gave her usual terrible performance.

Save your time and money and stare at the wall.

This is a very heart warming movie. Nicolas Cage's accent sounds funny though. Penela Cruz is fantastic in this movie. I usually don't like war movies and lovie-dovie movies, but this movie is quite good. The settings and location where this is made is very beautiful. Penela should win an Oscar for this. After this, I am forever a Penela fan.

Outstanding movie that exaggerates Army Apache flight. It was great to see a movie made about it though. Tommy Lee Jones and Nick Cage were great

I loved this movie when it was aired on TV in the UK as "Wings of the Apache". I watched it "by accident" and thought hey, this looks cool... Nicholas Cage & Tommy Lee Jones make a great screnn partnership and there's no pretence or over-the-top Hollywood feel to this like movies such as Top Gun- simple story, amusing scenes, good action... a great recipe for an entertaining 2 hours if you just want to relax and not hurt your brain. I think if you've enjoyed the likes of Airwolf & Blue Thunder then you'll find this a charming surprise. And at this price, you can't go wrong! Come on October!!!

Very good movie, basically a top gun feel in attack helicopters, One Question ---> DVD ????

There have been many criticisms of this movie: that it favors style over substance, that it has too many conflicting storylines, that it slides all over the place without any real character development. I don't disagree. But, that being said, I still like this movie an awful lot. It is packed with talent from end to end, not just the proclaimed stars of the picture, but other little surprises that turn up from time to time. Look for Tom Waits in a bit part that takes place within the Cotton Club, Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry) as a stylish and dangerous member of black organized crime, and Jennifer Grey as Nicholas Cage's perpetually dim and semi-clad young wife. Diane Lane is as lovely as can be, and really seems to convey the singleminded amorality of her teenaged character, determined to get some security for herself, and the conflict created when she is forced to confront the growing madness of her keeper, mobster Dutch Schultz, and her love for Gere's character of Dixie Dwyer. The music and dance numbers are as good as you've heard, and the sets and costumes beautiful and believable. I think that one problem with this movie may have been the era in which it was released, when a 2-hour movie was still considered extraordinarily long. It does have the jerky, confusing feel of a movie that's been too heavily cut. Perhaps if it had been made today, audiences would be willing to sit through three hours of the intricate plot development that so complex a story really needs. Let's hope a director's cut is released someday.

All in all, this is worth a look, or several, despite its rather considerable flaws.

I think the biggest problem is the casting. Richard Gere and Diane Lane did a wonderful job together in the recent film Unfaithful but in Cotton Club they seem more like big brother and precocious little sister. Gere plays a Hollywood actor and he is just too smooth with his little moustache and greased back hair--one moment he is smooching with Diane Lane, the next moment he is onstage playing trumpet, the next hes talking tough to a ruthless killer. Its like hes supposed to be some kind of Harlem Renaissance Man. I think at this phase in his career Gere was not so popular because people perceived him as being kind of conceited and this role just seems crafted for a guy who adores himself. Nowadays he comes across as a much more appealing type of fellow but then the self love was just annoying. Diane Lane was a wonderful child actress but in this role she is not a child anymore and not quite a woman yet either. The awkwardness of the Gere-Lane relationship hurts the film considerably. Plus when your lead just isn't Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro and its a mob picture you feel disappointed. Gere is not a mob guy, he's too sophisticated to play mob roles, and he knows it.

Additionally what happens on-stage at the Cotton Club really takes us out of the drama that is happening off-stage. By the time each musical number ends you almost forget what the film is about. There are so many characters(Bob Hoskins, Fred Gwen, Nic Cage, Joe Dallesandro) saying so many things and yet no one character ever grabs our attention and so its hard to care what each character is plotting to do. Its possible to watch this film and not really know who the main character or what the main plot line is. The writing is that obscure. Even if you figure out its a film about Gere and Lane it doesn't help much because they just don't seem right for each other anyway. As a result we have no one and no thing to root for. Beneath the flash of the costumes the film just has no heart and soul. Its like a glossy magazine with pretty faces but no substance.

That said the film is a wonder of cinematography and choreography. One wonderful scene toward the end of the film has Coppola cutting between Gregory Hines tapping and a particularly lurid murder scene. This is the kind of thing Coppola did so well in Godfather--mixing life and death in an operatic way--but here the great camera work seems kind of empty because the characters have failed to really make their mark on our imaginations.

Perhaps in the future Coppola will release an extended version of this film which will make the story clearer. Until then I would recommend this film only if you want a strictly visual entertainment.

It's great to finally have this movie on video in the widescreen format. However, I am disappointed that the deleted scenes which were advertised here and on MGM's official website are not on this DVD. It would have been nice to view them but I guess MGM decided not to release them at the last minute (perhaps a special edition DVD is in the works in the near future) or Coppola didn't allow MGM to release them. Perhaps he's planning to extend this film like he did with Apocalypse Now. Anyway, despite the missing deleted scenes, it's great to see this film again in its original aspect ratio with the theatrical trailer which ironically has brief moments of scenes that were deleted from the film.

NOT TOO BAD OK CAGE MOVIE, I DONT REALLY LIKE JOCK MOVIE'S YOU KNOW THE SAME OLD MR. JOCK MUST OVERCOME ODDS AND WORK HARD TO COME OUT ON TOP IN THE END WORTH RENTING I WOULDNT BUY IT UNLESS YOU LIKE JOCK MOVIES.

This 1986 film features a very young, buff and brawny, athletic Nicholas Cage in the role of crude Canadian backwoods bootlegger, Ned Hanlan, who turned into a legendary world class rower. Discovered by an amateur oarsman and self styled entrepreneur named Bill (David Naughton), Ned, using a new style of boat with a sliding seat, is propelled to fame when he wins a race in Philadelphia against a heavily favored contender. His win was a total upset, bringing Ned under the scrutiny of a rich man's betting syndicate, headed by a wealthy man named Knox (Christopher Plummer).

Knox, a man used to having his way by any means necessary, makes Bill an offer he can't refuse. Knox then takes over Ned's future and gets him a professional trainer in order to prepare him for major races. In the meantime, Ned and Margaret (Cynthia Dale), Knox's comely niece, begin a flirtation that ultimately turns into a romance after much angst. When Ned finally gets an opportunity to race against the Australian world champion, he discovers to his consternation and dismay just how much faith Knox has in his ability to win. What follows next causes Ned to be banned from racing in the United States.

A chastened Ned, discarded by Knox, returns home and turns to Walter, the man who invented the boat with the sliding seat. He begs Walter to train him, so that he can enter and race in England on the Thames and vindicate himself. Walter really believes in him, so he gets Knox to agree to race his current boy wonder against his, but not before Walter has proffered Knox his life's dream. When the time for the race finally comes, betrayal, treachery, and skulduggery are the keywords of the day. To find out what happens during this career making race, and to discover what comes of the romance between Margaret and Knox, one should view this film. It will not disappoint.

Christopher Plummer leads the cast with his chillingly portrayal of the rich and unprincipled Knox. Nicholas Cage attacks the role of Ned Hanlan with boyish and engaging enthusiasm, while David Naughton delights with his portrayal of Bill, the former manager and erstwhile friend. Cynthia Dale is charming in the role of Margaret, the niece who finds herself adopting the role that she was pledged to play by her uncle. The rest of the cast is likewise uniformly excellent. This entertaining and informative film about a turn of the century athlete will fully engage the viewer.

this was a nice Brian DePalma flick and it had its ups and downs in the middle and I read the book and the ending of the book is better than the ending of the movie because in the ending of the book Gary Sinise's character gets squashed by a big globe thing and in the movie he shoots himself. Cage is just plain crazy people and I like that about him. though the let down is the fight scenes with Stan Shaw and that other boxer.

This movie was so pointless and ordinary that I finished watching it just fifteen minutes ago, and I've already begun to forget its plot. Frankly, I was expecting much more from this movie. I figured that when you have a great director, an Academy Award winner, and an Academy Award nominee working together on a movie, it might be worth watching. For this particular movie, I was wrong.

This movie takes place in Atlantic City, where there is a big boxing match at which the Secretary of Defense of the United States is in attendance. He's assassinated as the match commences, and at first this murder seems like a textbook case of a political fanatic who kills a politician in order to raise awareness about his cause, but soon the plot thickens. Nicholas Cage plays the detective in charge of uncovering this plot, and Gary Sinise is his friend and fellow law enforcement official who is really the brains behind the assassination. The rest of the movie involves some hackneyed cat and mouse scenes, but nothing incredibly memorable.

There are two very talented actors in this movie, and they weren't able to display their talents here. This type of movie is really too simplistic for actors of this caliber. The truth is that you'll be entertained for the duration of the movie, but if you're looking for something that's Oscar worthy, this isn't it.

Great film, good cast, but it was the lack of special features that disapointed me. All it has was the original theatrical trailer.

this was a nice Brian DePalma flick and it had its ups and downs in the middle and I read the book and the ending of the book is better than the ending of the movie because in the ending of the book Gary Sinise's character gets squashed by a big globe thing and in the movie he shoots himself. Cage is just plain crazy people and I like that about him. though the let down is the fight scenes with Stan Shaw and that other boxer.

This movie was so pointless and ordinary that I finished watching it just fifteen minutes ago, and I've already begun to forget its plot. Frankly, I was expecting much more from this movie. I figured that when you have a great director, an Academy Award winner, and an Academy Award nominee working together on a movie, it might be worth watching. For this particular movie, I was wrong.

This movie takes place in Atlantic City, where there is a big boxing match at which the Secretary of Defense of the United States is in attendance. He's assassinated as the match commences, and at first this murder seems like a textbook case of a political fanatic who kills a politician in order to raise awareness about his cause, but soon the plot thickens. Nicholas Cage plays the detective in charge of uncovering this plot, and Gary Sinise is his friend and fellow law enforcement official who is really the brains behind the assassination. The rest of the movie involves some hackneyed cat and mouse scenes, but nothing incredibly memorable.

There are two very talented actors in this movie, and they weren't able to display their talents here. This type of movie is really too simplistic for actors of this caliber. The truth is that you'll be entertained for the duration of the movie, but if you're looking for something that's Oscar worthy, this isn't it.

Great film, good cast, but it was the lack of special features that disapointed me. All it has was the original theatrical trailer.

this was a nice Brian DePalma flick and it had its ups and downs in the middle and I read the book and the ending of the book is better than the ending of the movie because in the ending of the book Gary Sinise's character gets squashed by a big globe thing and in the movie he shoots himself. Cage is just plain crazy people and I like that about him. though the let down is the fight scenes with Stan Shaw and that other boxer.

Great film, good cast, but it was the lack of special features that disapointed me. All it has was the original theatrical trailer.

I revisited this movie on DVD, to again watch this thriller that has "meat on the bone." The quality of the widescreen DVD is excellent. The only disappointment, is that other than the movie's trailer, there are no additional bonus features. Alas!

However, despite the lack of extras, this is one satisfying movie. The camera work is breathtaking, and at the core of the movie is a problem: What happens when a corrupt cop, Atlantic City Detective Nick Santoro (Cage), reaches a point where he has to make a high stakes ethical decision? The smart money says he'll sell out, pocket his take, and move on. As this movie shows on many levels, where the smart money is, is not always the place to place your bet. Counterbalanced against taking the money and running, is the grating concept that he (Santoro) was used, like a pawn, by his erstwhile "best friend" Lt. Cmdr, Dunn (USN), played icy-cold by Gary Sinese. Full of surprises, and hi-tech toys, this 98-minute movie presents a problem for its protagonist, and his decision is the key: Should he do the easy thing or the right thing? The result is excellent cinema and another bravura performance by Nicholas Cage.