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After watchingNicolas Cagesend up his career inThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent , it ’s the arrant prison term to check out all the great movies he references in it . The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talentsees Cage satirizing his own filmography and renown persona , à laCurb Your Enthusiasm , as he plays an exaggerated version of himself . During a drop-off in his career , Cage gets his groove back when he ’s paid $ 1 million to appear at the birthday party ofsuperfan Javi Gutiérrez , played by Pedro Pascal .
The moving picture include plenty of spoof and homage to Cage ’s storied film career . Javi has a elbow room in his firm filled with Cage memorabilia : props , costume , and wax figures memorialise the most iconic works of Cage ’s past . Cage has starred in a panoptic variety of moviesthroughout his life , showing off an telling amount of striking range . He ’s been a badass activeness zep in movies likeCon AirandFace / Off , a soulful thespian in moving picture likeLeaving Las Vegas , and a hilarious comedic performing artist in movies likeAdaptationandRaising Arizona .
10Con Air
When Javi show Cage his memorabilia room , a small portraiture of hisCon Aircharacter Cameron Poe is on showing . He also has a reproduction of the burnt toy dog bunny prop from the film . Con Airis one of the heavy action movies ever made . Poe is easy to settle down for ; he ’s a get it on married man and begetter who just wants to get home to his family line after serving a prison prison term for an accidental killing in ego - defense . regrettably for him , the prison transport plane he ’s on is pirate by convict on their way to a supermax .
Con Airis an explosive spectacle , with tickle action sequences and delightfully pulpy bad guys , but it ’s also amazingly emotional . Poe ’s love for his family , symbolized by the bunny , gives the movie a compelling dramatic play . Con Air ’s cast features world - class actors like John Malkovich , Steve Buscemi , and Ving Rhames , and in spitefulness of the stuff , none of them phone it in .
9Moonstruck
Cage grade one of his earliest starring roles in the amatory comedyMoonstruck , and it remain one of the undecomposed performances of his career . Moonstruckstars Cher as an Italian American widow woman who falls for her fiancé ’s estranged younger brother , played by Cage . John Cage ’s graphic symbol is explosive , unpredictable , and endlessly screaming . He has a wooden prosthetic hand due to carelessly put his hand in a bread slicer , and that hand appears in Javi ’s Nick Cage memorabilia room .
It ’s rare that the Academy realize romcoms , butMoonstruckis so enceinte that it landed six Oscar nominations and won three , including good Actress for Cher . She shares striking chemistry with Cage in the cardinal love fib . A band of romcoms allow the romance or the comedy overshadow the other , butMoonstruckis as jape - out - loud funny as it is hopelessly romantic .
8National Treasure
Javi ’s memorabilia room also contains a transcript of the screenplay forNational Treasure , and the torch airscrew that Cage carried in the pic . National Treasureis an intoxicate portmanteau ofIndiana Jones - style action - escapade and a heist motion picture act as on the various cabal theories about American account . coop plays historiographer Benjamin Franklin Gates , who races his employer - turned - competition in the search for a lost Freemason hoarded wealth , which is highlighted on a map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence .
The plot ofNational Treasureis so absurd and far - fetched that it could be a parody of itself . But that does n’t weigh , because the execution is so much fun that the audience gets swept along for the drive anyway . It ’s a atavism to classic dangerous undertaking B - picture show of the ‘ L , and John Cage ’s seriousness makes the shivering plotting commonwealth .
7Mandy
Javi tells Cage that he ’s a big fan ofMandy , and even owns the chainsaw that Cage used in one of the film ’s most bonkers correct - pieces : a blood - inebriate chainsaw duel . Mandyis a gonzo action horror opuswith some of the most distressing and mind - bend psychedelic visuals ever committed to take . John Cage plays a rural lumberjack who seeks revenge against a sadistic cult drawing card and his followers after they ritualistically slaughter the sexual love of his life .
The story ofMandyis as simple as they follow — a mild - mannered everyman is wronged , then unveil a ominous violent nature to exact payback against the mass responsible — but the aesthetic is anything but . Mandyis one of the most rum cinematic visions of the twenty-first century . There ’s no other movie out there that looks quite like this one .
6It Could Happen To You
Another one of Javi ’s treasure Cage moving-picture show props is the lottery ticket fromIt Could Happen to You . The plot was inspire by a real - life news story . Cage plays an NYPD cop who blockade at a diner and does n’t have enough cash to tip his waitress , playact by Bridget Fonda . He half - jokingly offers to partake in his fortune with her if he happens to win the lottery . The next daytime , his tag relent a $ 4 million part of the lottery prize .
What travel along is a surprisingly touching love story . The conceit that brings these character together is somewhat unique , but the emotion of their love affair are cosmopolitan . Cage is charming as always and Fonda is well - tally as his tolerant - hearted partner . It Could find to Youdoesn’t get a peck of word in the romcom fandom , but it ’s massively underrated .
5Adaptation
Nick and Javi ’s bromance inThe intolerable Weight of Massive Talentis solidified by Nick ’s rendition of “ Happy Together ” by The Turtles . This is n’t the first clock time that Cage has sung “ Happy Together ” in a pic ; he also perform the song inan to begin with self - mindful satire , Adaptation . Cage ’s dual role as himself and his imaginary counterpart inThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talentis a recall to his double duty inAdaptation .
While struggling to adaptThe Orchid Thiefinto a screenplay , Charlie Kaufman instead write a glossa - in - cheek clowning about his struggles to adapt the book . Cage plays both Charlie , a brilliant film writer with lofty ambition , and his fictional twinned brother Donald , a hack film writer who bank on trope and clichés ( and accomplish much more success because of it ) . Cage gives two of his funniest performance inAdaptation .
4Wild At Heart
All throughoutThe unendurable Weight of Massive Talent , Cage is torment by “ Nicky Cage , ” a figment of his resource who resembles his younger , wilder ego . These notional conversations are a reference to Allan ’s chats with Humphrey Bogart inPlay It Again , Samand Clarence ’s chats with Elvis Presley inTrue Romance . But the appearance of Nicky Cage is specifically based on Cage ’s reference fromWild at Heart .
The film community recently stomach a tragic loss withthe passing of David Lynch , andWild at Heartremains one of Lynch ’s most underappreciated movies . Cage and Laura Dern star as untried lovers Sailor Ripley and Lula Fortune , who go on the run to escape the gunslinger that Lula ’s overbearing mother has charter to kill Sailor . Wild at Heartis a riveting crime thriller , a twisted pitch - bleak drollery , and a astonishingly dear sexual love story all roll into one .
3Face/Off
The centerpiece of Javi ’s Nick Cage memorabilia room is a living - sizing wax figure of Castor Troy , Cage ’s character from the Graeco-Roman natural action thrillerFace / Off , complete with his iconic prosperous gunman . John Travolta plays an FBI agent and Cage fiddle the terrorist who murdered his son . As part of a convoluted investigation , they undergo a secret government experiment to switch faces and assume each other ’s individuality .
In the hands oflegendary music director John Woo , Face / Offis a chef-d’oeuvre of natural action cinema . Its action scenes are so operatic and over - the - top that they fit the absurdity of the plot . coop and Travolta have a short ton of fun play each other and affecting each other ’s mannerisms after the fiber switch spot . Face / Offsounds ridiculous on paper , but the motion picture itself works really well in the slaying — it ’s a gemstone .
2Leaving Las Vegas
Cage earned a much - deserved Academy Award for Best Actor for his breathtaking work inLeaving Las Vegas . He plays an alcoholic writer who heads to Vegas to drink himself to death and ends up fall in sexual love with a sexual urge worker , played by Elisabeth Shue . As they both endeavor to escape their miserable lives , they find a kindred spirit in one another . The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talenthas a direct character reference toLeaving Las Vegas : when Cage is at his lowest power point , he ’s shown drinking a beer at the bottom of a swim puddle .
Just when he was gain ground a repute as an natural action star , Cage threw critics and consultation a curveball with his heartbreaking dramatic turn inLeaving Las Vegas . He captures the ego - destructive tendencies of an addict with withering legitimacy . Cage and Shue labialise out two classic origin characters into three - dimensional human being .
1Raising Arizona
In Javi ’s Nick Cage room , a small portrayal of H.I. McDunnough , Cage ’s fictional character fromthe Coen brothers ’ endlessly repeatable crime caperRaising Arizona , can be seen on display . He also has a diaper pack prop from the movie . Raising Arizonastars Cage as an ex - flimflam and Holly Hunter as an X - copper . When they decrease in love and want to get down a family , they find that they ca n’t conceptualize due to biological reasons and ca n’t follow due to effectual rationality . When a local article of furniture baron has quintuple , they decide to kidnap one and arouse him as their own son .
AlthoughRaising Arizonawas just their 2d feature film afterBlood Simple , the Coens ’ quirky comedic sensibility was in full formed . The situation is unashamedly dark-skinned , but there ’s plenty of lighthearted slapstick humor . elicit Arizonais a classic farce comedy , andNicolas Cagefits in perfectly with that tone .
