Movie Details
Movie: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Director: Tom Gormican
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal and Tiffany Haddish
Movie Genres: Comedy/Action
Release date: 22 April 2022
IMDB Rating: 7/10
Languages: English and Spanish
Duration: 1h 47m
Trailer
Synopsis
Nicolas Cage’s career is on a rollercoaster. First he paid for an Oscar winner, in the nineties for an action hero. In recent years, through several bizarre (well, in the good sense of the word) roles, he received favor from the audience and basically he has also become their favorite, who enjoys his burnt-out position and makes fun of it himself. His return to the audience’s favor was then to be confirmed by the comedy film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which Nicolas Cage plays himself, and the film was supposed to be basically a crazy look back at his life and career. Simply a topic that calls for a properly brisk, bold and also meta concept with the potential to become a big cult hit among fans. But this crazy ride stalled somewhere in the middle of the road.
So Nicolas Cage really introduces himself to us as Nicolas Cage. An actor who is patiently looking for his next big acting chance, which will bring him back to the first league and takes practically everything until then. He happily spends the money, talks to his burned-out self from the nineties, and doesn’t pay much attention to his teenage daughter because of an empty bank account and he also has to nod to the greatest desperation like attending the birthday party of billionaire Javi, who is his lifelong fan. The unconventional couple soon find a way to each other and CIA agents also find their way to the actor. For them, Javi is a dangerous criminal who kidnapped the daughter of a local politician, and they hire Cage as their spy.
Even if the film has the potential to become an overblown meta game, a tribute to the main actor, a parody or an original piece in which the main star will retrospectively and freshly evaluate his career . The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is unfortunately neither of these. As a result, it is a completely ordinary buddy comedy, which does not differ much from the competition. In references to Cage’s memorable pieces abound here, and a few quotes or scenes will quite simply put a smile on your face. But one cannot get rid of the impression that much more could have been made of it with imaginative creators.
The story sauce around Javi doesn’t really pull much and is diluted by the rather clichéd Cage’s family line, which just unnecessarily delays all the fooling around and the film loses its breath especially in the middle. In the last thanks to a more action-packed finish, it again gets juice and the necessary drive from which the viewer is not fully satisfied. It is mainly because of the director Tom Gormican who showed himself to be a complete routine, killing a number of potential explosive scenes with his unimaginativeness and rather dull visuals.
It could then be said that the only one who pulls the novelty forward without hesitation is Nicolas Cage. The acting matador is really in his element here, he enjoys his typical playback, roars and incredible grimaces and can sell even the dumbest line. Although Pedro Pascal has not acquired much comedic talent, he still manages to provide a fairly solid second to the main star and is the only one who is enough for his frantic pace. But they’re on their own, at least in the acting part, and even if they try to extract humor from almost every scene, sometimes it’s simply not enough.
You may find my review harsh and the resulting six rating a little too positive in this context. But that’s because The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is still a solid sit-down comedy with an off-the-cuff central character and some great glimpses into his career. The problem is that this was simply supposed to be a much bigger dare that will have its special place and cult status in Cage’s filmography. Here, however, he relies too much on comedic certainty and remains somewhere in the middle of all the paths the authors could have taken. When I remember how nicely and subtly Van Damme worked with his career, for example, in JCVD, Cage’s fun is visibly lagging behind. One of the potentially most original and funniest films of the year just didn’t happen here.
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