“Gone in 60 Seconds” is a fantastic Nicolas Cage movie. Great cast, including Robert Duvall as Nick’s old mentor, Chi MacBride as his old partner, Christopher Eccleston as the villain and Timothy Olyphaunt as one of the cops. Straightforward plot of stealing 50 cars in one night, so lots of crazy driving scenes through LA, and plenty of scenery chewing. The ending is kind of cheesy, but apart from that it’s a perfect popcorn movie. Second or third best driving movie of the millennium.
Oh, wait… can I change mine to RRW? I love, love, love that movie.
There’s also a sequel to Lord of War in production, with Cage reprising his role.
Damn straight. He nailed that portrayal of advanced alcoholism.
I love Moonstruck, but in spite of Cage, not because of him. I can’t stand him in there.
Of his films I’ve seen, I’d say one of
City of Angels, Leaving Las Vegas, Valley Girl
(I’ve thought Honeymoon in Vegas and Leaving Las Vegas would make an interesting double feature.)
Yes, good choice, or The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Adaptation is my favorite Cage film. He’s plays the same bro in all other films.
I’m surprised not to see 2023’s Dream Scenario mentioned. It’s admittedly high-concept, but the screenplay is intelligent and so is Cage’s performance. “Nuanced,” even. It could win over some of those who dislike Cage’s excesses, I suspect.
My second vote would go to Raising Arizona. It’s tough to see how any other actor could have been better in that role.
I didin’t like the movie much, be he did a great job.
Of course, it’s him being channelled by Abed in Community
I kind of blocked him out of my mind after my tenth bad movie of his during his bad movie times (which was a lot), so the likes of Con Air and Raising Arizona are forever tainted, but man he’s done some pretty decent movies in recent times, so I’ll go with them…
Renfield, Dream Scenario, Pig, Mandy, Massive Talent, Willys Wonderland, Colour out of Space and Longlegs (where his overacting really is the point). It is interesting to note that there are at least as many of his films from that recent period I have not seen and are not rated that high.
However, when it comes to actual favourite and most fun, I’d really have to mention one not mentioned so far: Mom and Dad, I really enjoyed that as a horror…
Maybe he was on his best behavior because his brother was on-set. (This is his older brother Marc Coppola, who played a guy who other characters thought looked like Nick. (And he does!))
Marc was (still is I believe) a long time NYC rock station DJ. I remember long ago Marc was the DJ who came on after Howard Stern. Stern found out he was one of those Coppola’s and wouldn’t leave it alone. Not too long later on Marc’s show he had Francis and Nick in and he interviewed them. This was very early in Nick’s career, possibly right after Valley Girl.
Even in semi-bad movies, Nic is almost always interesting to watch, the quirky stuff he does to inhabit a character or just explore some weirdness. I don’t remember it being mentioned yet so I give you…Vampire’s Kiss
Dead heat between The Rock and Con-Air
I just watched this again this week on TCM. Cher’s makeover was breathtaking, and I thought Nic Cage was so dam cute.
Agreed.
How come nobody here seems to like Bad Lieutenant: New Orleans, though??
I first saw Nic Cage in Fire Birds and didn’t like him at all. He seemed stoned for the whole thing. (Fire Birds itself is the helicopter version of Top Gun. Or an attempt at it.) When I eventually saw Raising Arizona, I was meh about it. I liked one scene but I haven’t watched it since the 80s.
I saw him in The Rock and Con Air and enjoyed those. Same for Face/Off. In fact, Face/Off was when I, at least, thought he could act as I thought he did a good job portraying Travolta’s character. Before then, he just seemed to be him in every movie.
I couldn’t finish City of Angels. Boring.
I enjoy Gone in 60 Seconds and the National Treasure movies. I will watch them if I see them on.
Kick-Ass was good but I wouldn’t call it a Nic Cage movie myself. Supporting actor in that.
Renfeld is fun as well.
Willy’s Wonderland was a great Five Nights at Freddy’s knock off thing and it might have won.
However, my favorite of his is Next. I read a few books series based either seeing potential futures or reliving the day and so Next hits that spot for me. I want the book series done after seeing how it could happen in Next.
As I looked over his IMDB page, I have not seen more than half of his movies. I think it’s because I didn’t think much of him in the 80s and 90s until The Rock. I don’t know if I avoided him or if I avoided the types of movies he was in at that time.
Thanks for the discussion!
That one is interesting because he says almost nothing in it.
“Almost” nothing? 
You need to watch it again!
It’s been a while. I thought hw said nothing but was hoping to avoid any inevitable quibble.