Its a tie for first place:
Family Man…and Peggy Sue Got Married
…and I loved both movies!!!
I thought I was the only person to see that movie! Definitely a cult classic.
I’ll list Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, and *Wild At Heart *as his best, though.
He was also very Nic Cagey in Red Rock West, a great little modern noir thriller that every Nic fan should go out and see.
Hmmm, looking at these responses I think I have to re-evaluate him. Yes, when he is bad it is pretty bad, but he has had some very good and some very outstanding performances that I seemed to have forgotten.
My vote is for Raising Arizona.
I love Peggy Sue Got Married, but only in spite of Cage’s performance. Supposedly he was almost fired because of the ridiculous voice he used.
Raising Arizona, then Moonstruck. Sad that both of those were over 20 years ago.
I’ll second this. Great movie, and I thought it was one of his best performances.
I came to mention matchstick men. Already beaten to the punch.
I loved this movie. Perhaps not his best movie, but it was his best acting job imho. “A! B! C!..”
Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBmpr21Xes&feature=related
(Start at 3:45)
Part of the reason I think Raising Arizona is so good is that he acts like such a loveable wacko. It fits perfectly in the weird universe the movie creates.
I like Peggy Sue Got Married, though at first I believed his strangeness in that movie almost kills it. Then there’s the magic part … then you remember this isn’t reality and, I guess, sort of accept that Peggy Sue is the type of person who marries strange flaky men and time-travels back to her youth. I love the scene where she’s enthusiastically saying the Pledge of Allegiance (or is it singing the Star Spangled Banner?).
Wasn’t it “My Country Tis of Thee (America)”?
I thought cage was definitely the weakest link in that movie. The problem wasn’t just that his character was so goofy- it’s that he showed NO raw sex appeal.
I mean, when Kathleen Turner goes back in time, she’s lusting after him, and it’s almost impossible to see why she’d go for such a Jerry Lewis clone!
It’s fine to be reminded how silly and dated the fashions, haircuts and attitudes of the late Fifties were. When you watch an old Elvis movie, or footage of a 1968 Rolling Stones concert, you can’t HELP laughing at the clothes, or at Elvis and Mick’s on-stage posturing. But even as you laugh, you recognize that Elvis and Mick had some genuine charisma.
For Cage’s character to work, he had to ooze some real testosterone. You had to sense that there was a genuinely macho, sexy guy underneath the plaid suit and behind the dated poses. And I don’t think he showed that at ALL.
He HAS shown it in numerous other movies.
At the time, I thought Cage was just a lousy, no-talent actor who got the job because his uncle was the director. SINCE then, I’ve seen Cage give some very solid performances, and I’ve seen Francis Ford Coppola make a string of AWFUL movies. I now wonder if, maybe, Cage was doing exactly what his increasingly out-to-lunch uncle wanted him to do.
I’ll risk being ostracized, and go with Ghost Rider. If only because when I’m channel surfing and I come across it, it pulls me in, and next thing I know, I’m watching the end credits - maybe it sucks, but it sucks effectively.
Plus, you’ve got Peter Fonda as the devil, Donal Logue as the sidekick, and best of all, Sam Elliot as Ghost Rider the Elder. Eva Mendes doesn’t hurt either (ok, her acting hurts, but her other bits more than make up for it). And Nic seems fully self aware of the craptastic nature of the whole affair, which gives his performance a certain je ne sais quoi.
Also, The Wicker Man - only because he lays out a chick with a right cross, whilst dressed as a bear, which is perhaps the funniest bit of unintentional humor I think I’ve ever seen (see Half Man Half Wit’s link upthread for the highlight reel).
I’ll join the chorus saying “Raising Arizona”. Followed by “Wild At Heart”.
For later period stuff, I’d go with “The Weatherman” and “Lord of War”, both of which were shockingly good (shocking because I hated him so much at that point I couldn’t believe he still had any kind of instinct for picking a decent script).
The Wicker Man is chock full of such goodness. Though nothing can beat “Aaahhh! Not The Bees!”
i’ll go with birdy - it never gets much play, but i really like that movie. (also will chime in for leaving las vegas and raising arizona)
I was a huge Nicolas Cage fan as a kid–I had a big crush on him when I was a little girl, starting with his performance in The Rock. I was so pumped when he started doing quality stuff like Matchstick Men and Adaptation.
Nevertheless it’s the dumb action flicks I like best. The Rock and Snake Eyes are two I enjoy, because he’s not a tough guy in either movie, he’s just this average guy put into high-stakes scenarios, and gets the shit beat out of him a lot, which I think is pretty realistic given the context.
I’m so sad for what his career has become.
I don’t love him or revile him, but you’ve got to be joking about 8MM. He was awful in that. Joaquim Phoenix was great, though.
Best-
Raising Arizona
Runner-up-
Adaptation
Honorable mention-
Wild at Heart
Leaving Las Vegas