Trailer Trash Talk: Another Horrible Nic Cage Movie
This week we’re taking a look at Outcast, a film that came out in China this past January. The movie supposedly came out in the U.S. on Februrary 6.
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From: Charlotte Wilder
To: Jeremy Gottlieb
Subject: Seriously? Another awful Nic Cage movie?
When I started watching this trailer I thought it had potential to be a real movie that I would take seriously. There’s an Asian empire in peril, a boy whose life is in danger, a pretty girl who seems to have some idea about how to help the whole situation, and a handsome, brooding white guy played by Hayden Christensen. I haven’t thought about Christensen since he played Anakin Skywalker. He looks pretty good, I’ll give him that much.
And then Nic Cage shows up: a dirty, worn-looking, long-haired man they refer to as “the white ghost.’’
“OK,’’ I thought, “This has got to be satire.’’ So I waited for the serious music to stop and for Seth Rogan to walk out of the pagoda’s doorway in just a pair of tightie-whities, with pizza in his hair and a joint in his mouth.
But that never happens. Instead, Outcast is a movie that is meant to be taken seriously. There are more sword fights than at a pre-school recess, carriage wheels get slammed against doors in attempts to break them down, horses are galloping all over the place, and Cage laughs maniacally and often.
I’d expect Cage to be in a movie like this, but Christensen is the real curveball, here. According to IMDB, he’s been in American Heist, Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey, Vanishing on 7th Street, and five other movies I’ve never heard of since his last big turn as Anakin in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. But that’s all news to me.
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To be honest, I just feel bad for him. Christensen doesn’t seem to be at Cage’s level of craziness; he doesn’t share that wild and terrifying look in his eye that is Cage’s calling card.
Christensen must’ve been harder up than I thought if he said, “Yes, [insert agent’s name here], I will sign that contract.’’
So my question for you, Jeremy, is: How is this a movie that got made?
From: Jeremy Gottlieb
To: Charlotte Wilder
Subject: Re: Seriously? Another awful Nic Cage movie?
I don’t know. I mean, maybe I do. Maybe there’s a real cottage industry for movies in which Cage makes a complete ass out of himself. Have you heard of anything he’s been in since The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (which also falls into the “Nicolas Cage Making an Ass of Himself’’ category)? His track record is almost as bad as little Anakin’s.
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It’s pretty sad, when you think about it. Go back to Leaving Las Vegas, and even before then. Cage was one of the most interesting, complex, intelligent actors out there. He had some bombs, of course, but Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, Red Rock West, and even Honeymoon in Vegas were great. He was the lead for the Coen brothers and for David Lynch.
So Cage gives a harrowing performance in Leaving Las Vegas, one of the most devastating movies I’ve ever seen, and the minute he can do whatever he wants, he chooses to make Con Air and The Rock with Jerry Bruckheimer.
That’s when it all started to get away from him. This is a man who made Bringing Out the Dead (one of Scorsese’s most underrated movies) and Adaptation (which you could argue is the best Spike Jonze movie and the best Charlie Kaufman movie). Once he figured his best move was to become an action hero who wears bad hairpieces in crappy movies, the wheels were in motion.
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It’s been over 12 years since Adaptation. Name one thing he’s done since then that’s even been sort of worthwhile. When your career highlights in a 12-year span are Bangkok Dangerous and the National Treasure franchise, there’s something seriously amiss.
Which leads us back to how something as hysterical as Outcast, with him playing a samurai legend on sets that look like the director’s backyard, can even get made. He’s still always gonna be Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage no matter how ridiculous he becomes.
From: Charlotte Wilder
To: Jeremy Gottlieb
Subject: Re: Seriously? Another awful Nic Cage movie?
Wow, I had no idea you were such a Nic Cage aficionado. You just painted a pretty complete portrait.
Sure, Cage will always be an Oscar winner, which does explain how he gets people to make movies with him in them. But you’re only as good as your last move. There’s a compilation on YouTube called “Nicolas Cage Losing His Shit,’’ where he makes the same yelling sounds and facial expressions over and over, no matter the film. But at least he’s still at it, unlike Lindsay Lohan (even though her Super Bowl commercial was strong-to-quite-strong), who seems to have just given up on the whole acting thing entirely.
I’d be inclined to go a little easier on Cage if I thought his bad work was harmless, but I don’t. This film strikes me as potentially racist. What I gather from the Outcast trailer, there’s an Asian empire (we don’t even know which one) that’s in need of saving and two white guys are called in to do so. The taglines that flash on the screen are, “When treachery becomes tyranny, outlaws become heroes.’’ It’s a classic case of white saviors.
Christensen and Cage are the only ones credited at the end of the teaser—we don’t find out the names of anyone else in it. The non-white actors remain nameless.
From: Jeremy Gottlieb
To: Charlotte Wilder
Subject: Re: Seriously? Another awful Nic Cage movie?
Yeah, it’s tough not to notice that this is a movie about two scowling white dudes with caterpillars for eyebrows who liberate a large group of Asian folks who can’t defend themselves.
It’s all part of a bigger problem that seems to run through the entire trailer, and that’s the fact that no one seems to give a damn how little care has gone into any of it. Look at the exteriors. When I was in college, I had a couple friends who studied film and they would make shorts with titles like “Back Country Slam’’ and “Saving Yolanda’’ on campus on the weekends.
That’s what this trailer looks like: Like the director and his buddies smoked weed and went outside with a camera. But someone involved knew Cage’s agent’s cousin so boom, there’s the financing and the star.
Next thing you know, you have a movie that’s actually going to get a theatrical release no matter how cheap, careless or potentially racist it is. Or how washed up the two stars are. What a country.
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