The Essentials: Nicolas Cage’s Best Films

“Con Air” (1997)
Bad wigs, bad accents, and an even worse premise might make “Con-Air” one of the quintessentially perfect bad movies. Nicolas Cage is ex-Army Ranger Cameron Poe, who has served his time for an unintentional manslaughter (though he’s still appropriately tortured by it). Unfortunately for him, he shares his plane ride home with some of America’s most grizzly offenders, played by some of America’s most stalwart character actors: John Malkovich, Danny Trejo, Dave Chappelle, Ving Rhames, M.C. Gainey, and Steve Buscemi. What follows is an all-out balls-to-the-wall action film, with Poe pretending he’s one of the bad guys while secretly working to thwart them, in which he is aided by a U.S. Marshal (John Cusack). Explosions, murders, stuffed bunnies, attempted rapes, and wanton property destruction ensue, along with a worrisome interlude where Buscemi, playing an affably psychotic Hannibal Lecter-style serial killer, takes some time out to play with a little girl. But the real fun of the film is Cage’s reluctant action hero, who happens to save the world but is really just concerned with getting home to his wife and child, outwitting, outbrawning, and generally out-badassing all those bona fide badasses. [B-]

“Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” (2009)
Werner Herzog, meet Nicolas Cage. Originally posited as a remake of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 Harvey Keitel starrer, Herzog’s ‘Bad Lieutenant’ is actually a standalone film featuring one of the more outlandish Nicolas Cage performances (and that’s saying something). Set in Post-Katrina New Orleans, Cage plays Sergeant Terrence McDonagh, a detective who injures his back, while rescuing a prisoner from a flooded cell in the opening scene. Prescribed a regular supply of Vicodin and reeling from constant pain and addicted to a variety of narcotics, McDonagh sees a drug turf killing as an opportunity to, well, act like Nicolas Cage. And so it goes. Herzog’s film got a humongous amount of press for its sometimes contemplative but often bizarre approach to storytelling, and Nicolas Cage helps provide most of the thrills of what boils down to a slow, drawn-out crime flick. Whether howling the now-famous “To the break of dawn, baby” or soliciting a handjob from an all-too-willing teenager, Cage goes off the rails all too often, turning in an unfocused, puzzling performance. If McDonagh has an emotional center, it is intensely difficult to make out, and Cage’s hysterics and contortion make it all the more difficult. Still, few actors could do bad with such real panache — even as a scenery chewer, Cage is not content to gnaw on the set, but would rather tear it apart teeth first. [B -]

“Bringing Out The Dead” (1999)
Haggard, hollow, and spiritually empty, Cage plays New York paramedic Frank Pierce who’s become burned out and soulless inside as he begins to see spectral visions of the Hell’s Kitchen residents he’s tried to save. At first, Frank becomes a near god, bringing patients back to life and feeling invincible, but a heavy psychic toll is paid when he cannot forget the victims he has lost (yes, it’s a Marty Scorsese film, so there are plenty of religious overtones). While it’s perhaps a one-note performance, it’s what the script (by Paul Schrader) calls for, and in this super stylish and underrated Scorsese picture (DP Robert Richardson’s overlit halo look finally does wonders here), Cage quietly shines as the man not only trying to save a veritable angel (the daughter of a patient played by ex-wife Patricia Arquette) but also desperately in search of some kind of salvation from the brutal job and the dirty, heartless city he’s forever tethered to. [B]

“Valley Girl” (1983)
Nicolas Cage’s “first” movie (prior to this, he had gone by “Nicolas Coppola” but was worried about perceptions of nepotism because apparently, his uncle is a director or something), teen flick “Valley Girl” is the 1980s mall version of “Romeo and Juliet” in which Cage plays rocker Randy, who uses his not-so-smooth moves to charm titular valley girl Julie (Deborah Foreman). Deeply believable as the rocker from the other side of town, Cage’s likability shines through, making Julie’s decision to give up her friends, status, and Prom Queen role to date him seem not just understandable but right. The story, interspersed with repeated montages of L.A. scenery, unfolds to a soundtrack chock-filled with modern rock classics, and while it’s in no way Oscar-worthy, it is one of the few films geared to teen audiences that doesn’t shy away from sex, power struggles, drugs and other tribulations that characterize the awkward passage from childhood to young adulthood. If you’re still unconvinced, just think, this is the film that not only allowed Cage to lay the foundation for a decade’s worth of bad-boys-with-a-heart, it also introduced America to the incredibly useful term “valley girl,” and to the underrated band The Plimsouls as well. [B+]

Obviously, that’s not all the films, but highlights of the ones we thought are worth considering as of right now. But there’s surely something else you might vouch for, so as always, sound off below. – Jessica Kiang, Kevin Jagernauth, Rodrigo Perez, Mark Zhuravsky, Danielle Johnsen, Katie Walsh