# What happened to Nicolas Cage **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343 "2009-03-22T15:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/81 "2012-07-19T03:55:08Z")
SNL had Nic Cage… and Nic Cage! Get in the Cage! Just hilarious: [http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-get-in-the-cage/1384659](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-get-in-the-cage/1384659) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/82 "2012-07-19T20:12:52Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > He was in one of my favorite movies of 2010, Kick-Ass. Those of you who won’t see a movie because Nick Cage is in it missed out. +1 ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/83 "2012-07-19T20:15:14Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > What I can’t figure out is how he got so popular in the first place. I find him utterly unappealing on screen. Some of his early roles capitalized on his odd looks and hangdog mien. But he just doesn’t work for me as a blockbuster star. I love Con Air in a so-bad-it’s-great kind of way and I’ll watch it whenever I catch it on TV, but I find Nicolas Cage so repulsive that I always find myself rooting for Cyrus the Virus. :eek: > > That’s hilarious. My ex-husband LOVED those movies. He knew they were crap, but he watched every one he could find. His great favorite was Olivier Gruner, though I don’t know if he was ever any good. (There’s another guy who should be on that list, but his name escapes me at the moment.) Fortunately, he never expected me to watch any of them with him. It helps if you are related is Francis Ford Coppola…_cough_ _cough_ nepotism _cough_ _cough_. How else would you explain “The Cotton Club” :eek:? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/84 "2012-07-19T22:31:40Z")
I came in to post that I love Lord of War, which came out in 2005 and features him. Then I realized, I did mention Lord of War 3 years ago when this thread was new! 😃 I’d also say that he is really good in **Knowing** and **Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call** , both which are more recent. And, I’ll be the only one to say it, but I liked him a ton in **Sorcerer’s Apprentice** , an underrated movie. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/85 "2012-07-19T22:42:12Z")
Since last we checked in, we’ve had _Drive Angry_ in which Nicolas Cage did a great parody of a terrible Nicolas Cage performance. I can’t figure out if he came ahead or behind on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/86 "2012-07-19T22:46:52Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > This are such dam wordy articles. They’re pretty bad articles. The writer just listed the bad movies Cage has made and pointed out that they were bad movies. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/87 "2012-07-19T23:12:37Z")
Hey I liked _Sorcerer’s Apprentice_ too! Isn’t his Uncle Francis the reason he changed his name to Cage?? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/88 "2012-07-19T23:13:54Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > He made a good business decision. He’s getting buckets of money to make those vapid action flicks and doesn’t care what those with more refined tastes think. Though he’s one of the worst businessmen in Hollywood. He’s earned tens of millions and tens of millions and tens of millions of dollars in his career and yet his houses were being foreclosed on all over the globe and he had tax debts in several countries all through a ridiculous lifestyle and poor management. (At one point he owned about two dozen mansions, very few of them income producing.) Didn’t his Goth hair band frontman son get into some legal trouble as well? Things like that can be expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/89 "2012-07-20T01:43:15Z")
Cage & **Sean Penn** started out at the same time and in a few films together and were very close friends. When Cage started to really ‘go Hollywood’ and take awful roles just for the money Penn trashed the hell out of him in some magazine interview. Don’t know if they’ve spoken since. Of course, as great of an actor as Penn is, he’s also an incredibly pretentious, insufferable asshole IMO. I don’t fault truly great actors for wanting to occasionally ‘pay the bills’ as it were (and living the good life ensues \*major \*bills). Michael Caine, Bruce Willis, Kevin Kline, Edward Norton, Samuel Jackson (and Penn) etc. have all done their share of popcorn-stinkers, but once Cage became bankable and joined the $20 million club his ratio of good to bad became way too low (and it included too many very, inexcusably, bad stuff). ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/90 "2012-07-20T01:57:51Z")
True, but it’s hard to say if that’s due to greed or stupidity in recognizing decent scripts. Surely at some point he had his pick of projects, and he clearly made a lot of bad picks. Or maybe not. Maybe he sucks so bad that his performance turns what might have been a decent film into crap. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/91 "2012-07-20T03:17:51Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Nobody liked _Bringing Out The Dead_? I can’t believe that throughout this entire thread, **FGIE** was the only one to bring up this movie. _Bringing Out The Dead_ is one of my favorites of all time. Love it. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/92 "2012-07-20T04:05:14Z")
He’s got the same philosophy as Michael Caine: “I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” Fair enough. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/93 "2012-07-20T04:21:12Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > I can’t believe that throughout this entire thread, **FGIE** was the only one to bring up this movie. _Bringing Out The Dead_ is one of my favorites of all time. Love it. I think the rest of us are still waiting for it to end. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/94 "2012-07-20T04:28:06Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I think the rest of us are still waiting for it to end. Huh? No comprende mi amigo. (I _don’t_ speak spanish) ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/95 "2012-07-20T04:55:22Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > What does everyone else here think of the turn Cage’s career has taken. [**He needs the money**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Cage). Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > The IRS alleges that Cage failed to pay over $6.2 million in federal income tax for the year 2007.[31] In addition, the Internal Revenue Service has another lien for more than $350,000 in unpaid taxes dating from 2002 to 2004. . . . Cage is also facing separate lawsuits from East West Bank[34] and Red Curb Investments for unpaid, multimillion dollar loans. . . . More alleged debts are discussed on the page. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/96 "2012-07-20T07:01:31Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Huh? No comprende mi amigo. (I _don’t_ speak spanish) Sorry, it was a joke that wasn’t too clear. What I meant was that I liked Bringing Out The Dead enough, but I felt like it had four or five endings, so I was getting pretty exhausted by the end of the movie. I can’t remember where the best ending was, but I think if they chopped 15-20 minutes off the end, it would have been a much better movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/97 "2012-07-20T10:06:40Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > He’s got the same philosophy as Michael Caine: “I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” Fair enough. ‘Of course, I had to sell it because I spend money faster than I make it, but I’m sure the new owners love it.’ But, yeah, even without the money problems, can’t fault the guy for working, especially in films that let him geek out. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/98 "2012-07-20T15:59:14Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > It’s sad. He’s one of the few actors in Hollywood who can actually, you know, ACT, and he’s wasting it, totally wasting it. Sorry, I had to laugh out loud at that. Cage can’t act. He plays the same character in every movie - Cage - and that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/99 "2012-07-20T16:05:16Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Sorry, I had to laugh out loud at that. Cage can’t act. He plays the same character in every movie - Cage - and that’s all. I agree. His range is from wooden to woodener. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343/100 "2012-07-20T18:45:22Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Nicolas Cage is a actually a very good actor with extremely poor taste. It’s his agent’s fault. NSFW Youtube clip. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eExfV\_xKaiM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eExfV_xKaiM) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-nicolas-cage/490343.md?page=6)