Vampire Kiss, easy. 
Judging the quality of the film and not necessarily his performance, gotta go with Fast Times followed by Raising Arizona and Face/Off.
But while I’m not a particular fan of the film, he is exceptional in Adaptation.
The problem with Nicolas Cage is, when he’s bad, he’s very bad. (And I can’t believe Covered_In_Bees! didn’t link to this!)
However, he simply isn’t always bad, which I think is what trips a lot of people up about him – it’s just hard to get a fix on anybody that all over the map. I really liked him in Adaptation, for instance.
I’ll be the first to mention the role which won him the Oscar: Leaving Las Vegas. I could only watch it once because it’s so suicide-inducing, but I thought he was outstanding in it.
I liked Matchstick Men a fair bit.
Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, and **Adaptation **are probably my three favorites of his.
I thought he was quite good in **The Weather Man **too.
for sure…
I’d go with Adaptation or Raising Arizona, but I’ll give honorable mention to an earlier and goofier performance in Peggy Sue Got Married.
Snap out of it. Yes.
I am not responsible for anything anyone else has deigned to be. I am solely here to be my own witness. Anybody else stealing my mojo can kiss my ass. This is trademarked.
I hated him in his indie film days, and I REALLY hate him when he does Jerry Bruckheimer action movies.
In between, I thought he was surprisingly good in light fare like “It Could Happen to You” and especially “Honeymoon in Vegas.”
I thought Con Air was good, silly, over-the-top fun. But otherwise I agree with you.
I’ll say Raising Arizona as well. And I liked Family Man also.
One vote for World Trade Center, just because I’m an Oliver Stone fan (though I don’t particularly like the movie, I respect it).
No, that’d be Knorf in post #13.
But yeah, his best movie is, as the doctor in Super Size Me calls it, “Death in Las Vegas.”
Ahem. Post 13. Although I acknowledge the hideous presence of a typo.
I’ve got a lot of time for The Rock. It does what it says on the tin very well and is a very enjoyable romp.
Raising Arizona is my fav though.
He did very good work in other movies though. Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation and World trade Center to name just a few.
He can be a very annoying and OTT actor but one that puts in good performances when he’s got the right project.
I don’t think Cage is a bad actor. He can often be quite good, like Adaptation, as you mentioned.
He just has the weird ability to choose the worst scripts in the world and then play them like a zombie.
Ghost Rider managed to defy my expectations and actually be worse than I had heard.
I love it when movies do that, I find it hilarious.
Actually, in Fast Times, Nicholas Cage was originally being seriously considered for the role of Brad (the Judge Reinhold character), but didn’t end up with it for two major reasons - his performance was too sad & dark, and they already had Jennifer Jason Leigh as his sister Stacy, who was also sort of a downer, so they wanted someone a little more funny and silly. Plus, he was only 17 at the time and wasn’t allowed to work as much as the older actors*
*partially from the IMDB trivia, and partially from my memory of the commentary for the movie
As for Nicholas Cage, I can never decide if I like him or not. I tend to like his acting in silly action movies better than his dramas, and actually enjoyed the National Treasure movies. I really liked Adaptation, but didn’t enjoy him in it all that much.