The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Nic Cage)

Apparently announced last december, but I only learned of it through our page on the guy: Nicolas Cage stars as Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, coming this April. Trailer:

The plot, in brief: Nic Cage, in massive debt and experiencing something of a mid-life crisis, takes a million-dollar paycheck to attend the birthday party of an obscenely wealthy superfan, Javier Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). Before arriving at his villa in Spain, a CIA agent approaches Cage, informing him that Javier is an international crime lord and requesting his assistance in a plot to assassinate him.

In way over his head, Cage must "play his ultimate role" as the person Javier thinks he is - and things only get more complicated when the two start to develop a genuine friendship...

Side-note: Wasn't there some tabloid rumor a while back that Cage was in debt and took a big paycheck from some European oligarch to party with him, or something? I feel like this might have been inspired by that XD

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Mar 8th 2022 at 9:28:24 AM

Isn't this just Nicolas Cage's daily life?

This is the most Cage movie ever. And that's saying something. I'm in.

It sounds so..Cagy

Still can't believe he was being considered to play Superman.

As if on cue after discovering it exists, a new trailer drops!

So, it's a documentary about his choice in films?

Sounds like "My Name is Bruce".

While I like Cage I have been disappointed by a couple of his recent movies, so I'm wary.

Trailer kinda reminds me of The Interview.

I'm a little disappointed because I misunderstood the plot synopsis. I thought the crime lord was going to recruit Nicolas Cage in a plot to assassinate Nicolas Cage. Like he was going to mistake Cage for a body double of Cage to use for some elaborate plan to take Cage out, forcing Cage to play both roles of assassin and intended victim.

That's my bad. This looks nuts nonetheless.

Nicholas Cage, played by Nicholas Cage, in a movie that's exploiting Nicholas Cage's reputation as a memorable actor.

Well, at least this will probably pay more then being on the cover of 8th Grade Serbian biology books.

Reviews starting to come out. Mostly positive, though with the obvious caveat that if you are not a Cage fan (or at the very least ambivalent) this is NOT the film for you. Pascal also getting plenty of praise.

Oh, this isn't streaming anywhere, it's only showing is something called a "movie theater", which is somewhere not in my home.

I just saw the movie, and it was a lot of fun. Was not expecting Pascal to have such good comedic chops, and of course Cage was going all-out in the best way possible.

Edited by lbssb on Apr 24th 2022 at 6:55:20 AM

Wasn't there a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie from a couple years back that had a similar kind of meta-plot?

Yeah, JCVD is what you are thinking of, way back in 2008 apparently.

JCVD was more of a human drama, though. The one with a similarly absurd comical edge was the sadly short lived Jean-Claude Van Johnson series.

A movie about Nicholas Cage and an arms dealer, and they made zero references to Lord of War.

...Which makes perfect sense, since Lord of War is depressing as hell and this movie is a comedy.

Would those of you who've also seen this movie already call Javi Ambiguously Bi, or canonically bi?

Eh, I'd say Ambiguously—while his devotion towards Nic is a big part of his character, it's not really played as explicitly romantic in the same way that his relationship with Gabriela(?) is, and is more played for laughs than anything serious.

If anyone would like to help create a Character Sheet, I started one in a sandbox.

I like that this movie had a mystery that really kept me guessing. While watching it I frequently switched between thinking Javi was actually guilty, that he was an innocent that the CIA were scapegoating for some reason, OR that he was guilty of the weapons trafficking but the CIA did the kidnapping to create something they could finally nail him for.

All of which totally blinded me to the actual twist of the REAL mastermind being the guy skulking around in the background all movie!

Edited by HamburgerTime on May 2nd 2022 at 1:34:54 PM

While I had a feeling that the twist would be Javi being more or less innocent, it'd definitely be funny to rewatch the movie knowing that him bringing Cage's family to the island really doesn't have any sinister intentions, he genuinely is that invested in getting Nic to resolve his family crisis and would probably have no idea how what he did could be read as a threat.

Edited by unexplainedEnemy on May 2nd 2022 at 7:06:14 AM

I'm trying to tell if the third act turning into a dumb action movie is a deliberate homage to Adaptation or a coincidence.