Nicolas Cage's Most Over-the-Top Roles So Far Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant remake starring Nicolas Cage opens this week, and somehow defying everybody's expectations, it is getting good reviews. I haven't seen it yet, but I understand the new movie is less the soul-crushing character study the original was, and more in the vein of Nicolas Cage just being crazy Nicolas Cage in a cop movie. He's played that role many, many times before, to sometimes entertaining and sometimes dreadful effect, and while the man has his fans and his handful of quality films, subtlety is not exactly his acting style. In honor of Nicolas Cage doing crazy action guy well for the first time in years, let's remember his most over-the-top roles to date.

The Wicker Man
There's no funnier Nicolas Cage than frantic, over-acting, searching for a child kidnapped by a honey-obsessed cult Nicolas Cage. Well, besides dressed up as a bear for a parade Nicolas Cage, punching Ellen Burstyn in the face out of nowhere Nicolas Cage, and bees poured into his helmet Nicolas Cage. Those were all very, very funny too.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Ahh, Captain Corelli. He sure loved that teeny tiny little guitar. Almost as much as he loved the Super Mario Bros. School of Dialects, where he received his diploma for "Authentic Italian Talking" prior to making this film.

Face/Off
Arguably the most over-the-top Nicolas Cage performance ever, from the opening scene in which he prances around in public pretending to conduct a church choir (complete with '90s booty dancing), then violates one of its teen members for no reason, to that whole "suck my tongue" thing, to his attempts at a restrained John Travolta impression, it's at the very least one of his most indulgent films.

Con Air
A stand-up guy with a murder wrap, Jesus hair, and a heart of gold, Nicolas Cage's Con Air character isn't nearly as cartoon-y as his Face/Off one, but there is his jet landing on the Vegas strip scene to consider, as well as the "It's not all mai tais and Yahtzee out there, but let's go!" line before running through an avalanche of gunfire. Why am I hankering for a terrible Nicolas Cage action marathon now?

Honeymoon in Vegas
"I haaaaad ASTRAIGHTFLUSH!" Private eye, commitment-phobe, over-confident gambler, and idiot prone to yelling and whoring out his fiancée, the role of Jack Singer is undoubtedly one of Cage's finest overacting moments. Remember the scene where he has to skydive dressed as Elvis without knowing which string to pull on his 'chute? Classic Cage.

Moonstruck
Another very enjoyable movie (in making this list I realized he's made more of them than I realized -- side bonus!), Nicolas Cage played an amputee pizza boy/Italian-American stereotype who romanced Cher away from his own brother through sheer force of brooding. We all swoon every time it's on TBS, but c'mon.

Raising Arizona
This movie's hilarious, and admittedly a purposeful farce, but Nicolas Cage as trailer trash is like casting Yosemite Sam, but with weirder chest hair and bigger teeth. This movie is awesome though. Apparently I'm a real Nicolas Cage-head and had no idea.

Wild at Heart
It's David Lynch's fault overall, but like Cage didn't take the role solely so he could sing an Elvis song over the credits? And can people please stop allowing this man to appear in films that require accent work? It just enables his caricature-ish acting instincts.

Snake Eyes
You probably didn't see this, because you're probably smarter than I am, but I paid to sit through it, and if there ever was a perfect cautionary tale for actors who want to make a ridiculously indulgent vehicle for themselves, sacrificing all content quality and story in favor of stroking their own ego on-screen and charging people for it after having a couple hit films, this is it. Everything people criticize Cage for is here -- the singing for no reason, the dancing for no reason, the yelling, the unbuttoned dress shirts, the non-sequitur crazy eyes -- all of it, just bashing you in the face for two unbearable hours. Many of the films above are actually cheesy fun entertainment; Snake Eyes is not.

And I didn't see Ghost Rider, but it looked hilarious. I'm giving it an honorary place here.

Your favorite Cage overacting achievements? Tell us about them below.

7 Comments

November 18, 2009 2:33 PM
Dex
Reply

How in the WORLD do you not include "Vampire's Kiss?"

November 18, 2009 3:35 PM
Esmeralda
Reply

Oh my God. Who could forget his nasal,whiny accent in Peggy Sue got married. "I love you Peggy Thue!"

November 18, 2009 4:00 PM
Chadwick
Reply

Ghost Rider is not only the worst movie Nicolas Cage has made, but the worst movie ever made. It's a black hole of suck, with an event horizon of bad cgi. It is a self-contained refutation of the idea there is a benevolent God.

Which is to say, I didn't care for it.

November 18, 2009 4:27 PM
Carla
Reply

Lol @Chadwick

November 18, 2009 10:10 PM
Tortilla
Reply

You're right, Esmeralda, he was the worst in "Peggy Sue Got Married".
"Con Air" pissed me off not just for his acting but its not geographically correct!
They're all just bad....

November 19, 2009 12:36 AM
athlios
Reply

Ghost Rider was really, really, really bad, and I tend to be very . . . generous to comic book movies. I WANT to like them. Ghost Rider was still extraordinarily awful. The only redeeming part was the truly hilarious scene of all the cops chasing the flaming motorcycle through the city. Seriously, what were they going to do if they caught it? A FLAMING MOTORCYCLE RIDDEN BY A FLAMING SKULL-MAN. Made me laugh for days. Actually still makes me chuckle thinking about it now.

December 7, 2009 5:03 PM
Kristin
Reply

Are you sure all of his movies shouldn't be listed?!

Loading...

Add a comment

BLOG ARCHIVES

The Moviefile

January 2010

18 Entries

December 2009

15 Entries

November 2009

21 Entries

October 2009

27 Entries

September 2009

30 Entries

August 2009

28 Entries

July 2009

34 Entries

June 2009

27 Entries

May 2009

24 Entries

April 2009

23 Entries

March 2009

18 Entries

February 2009

30 Entries

January 2009

56 Entries

December 2008

51 Entries

November 2008

61 Entries

October 2008

102 Entries

September 2008

86 Entries

August 2008

99 Entries

July 2008

116 Entries

June 2008

95 Entries

May 2008

86 Entries

April 2008

67 Entries

March 2008

14 Entries

Blog Categories

Accidents Do Happen

42 Entries

Box Office Tally

55 Entries

Coming Soonish

7 Entries

Cool Nerds Guide

2 Entries

DVDs Unwrapped

22 Entries

Foreign Relations

32 Entries

Girls on Film

49 Entries

I Voted for GORE!

81 Entries

I Want My DVD

64 Entries

IMDb Fun Times

1 Entries

It's a Major Award!

40 Entries

Legal Eaglese

18 Entries

Martial Artistry

7 Entries

Momentous Occasions

22 Entries

More On Movies

0 Entries

Musicalifornication

38 Entries

Sci-Fidelity

101 Entries

Separate but Sequel

199 Entries

Strike Watch

14 Entries

The Biz

115 Entries

The Casting Conch

167 Entries

The Kongs of Comedy

130 Entries

Top of the

0 Entries

Top of the MWoP

4 Entries

Trailer Trashing

55 Entries

We Call Do-Over

146 Entries

You Know, For Kids!

94 Entries