Hiatus

I hope all is well with my readers! It has been a shaky few months on this blog as new beginnings have been on the horizon for a few months now. My schooling is almost complete, and I am about to transition from being a student to becoming an instructor! This has meant a lot of planning on my end having to take place - the interview process, the hiring/onboarding process, and the preparation of my class materials for the upcoming semester at a new University. I had hoped to have made some updates during the "summer break" that I had, but that did not seem to work out as planned. I had also projected that at the pace I was operating, I could have completed my project by now - how lofty a goal was this! 

Where does that leave the state of the blog? I will continue to post reviews as time permits, but gone are the days where I can wait until my deadlines to complete lesser assignments and use my time as I please. I have new responsibilities, new career trajectories, and new opportunities that require my full attention. but I am not forgetting this project. I will continue to review movies as I have spare moments - I have a review for Longlegs coming in the next few days. But life must take precedence over my spare projects. 

My support page is still available for those that want to use the power of the coin to encourage my next review, especially if the reviews trickle down and dry up like they have the past few months. I would like to continue this project, and your financial support would help guilt me into producing more content. I do not have recurring payments set up - I don't want to put anyone in the situation where they have the option of spending money with no return. This will be individual transactions either for a specific review, or just a tip of appreciation. However, I will continue to release reviews for free if no one pays me to do it. I started this project over one year ago for a personal goal, and it will remain a passion project. Never feel obligated to tip me.

That is probably too many disclaimers, but I will summarize: 

1. I will continue to review Nic Cage movies, the process may just be slow;
2. I will not charge for review access, ever;
3. But I do have an incentive process if you want more content.

The Wicker Man (2006) - Review

The Wicker Man (2006) is a remake of the 1973 movie of the same name. The 2006 release stars Nicolas Cage as California policeman Edward Malus, who travels to the fictional Washington state island of Summersisle to investigate the disappearance of his ex-fiancée's (Kate Beahan) daughter. Once he travels to the island, he is met by a predominantly female apicultural pagan society that is extremely hostile toward any outsiders.

This movie has been examined to death since its release because of the long-since memed performance by Cage as a policeman who is outside of his jurisdiction, but also in an environment that does not respect his authority as a concerned individual of someone he used to love deeply. Ever since stepping onto the island, he is embroiled in a larger conspiracy as the inhabitants of the island speak cryptically as to the subject of his investigation and the consequences of his continued involvement on the island. The conspiracy targets Edward at every corner, forcing himself to question everything about himself that has led him to that point. Even before setting foot onto the island, he is plagued by the failure to save a mother and child who were victims of a head-on collision. This loosening of his grip on reality is usually punctuated by seeing visions of the girl, who presumably perished in the wreck and accompanying explosion, being hit by the same semi-truck that struck the car. Those moments would be effective if they did not appear nearly six times throughout the runtime, dulling its poignance and turning it comical towards it final use. Twelve years ago, I sat in my living room with a group of friends working up a chant of "Truck, truck, truck, etc..." until the ghost truck struck the vision of the child. 

The comedic aspects of The Wicker Man do not seem to be intentional, and yet are back-loaded to the climax of the film. Everyone involved with the production or editing should have been aware of what the final product would have looked like or how it would have been perceived. Edward donning a bear suit to arrive incognito to the paganistic May Day celebration and subsequently punching a woman to save a child being sacrificed in the yearly blessing ritual to bring a good honey yield is perceived more comedic than an act of desperation. The infamous "Not the bees!" exclamation is still a source of humor instead of horror, and removes the tension intended to be conveyed in a single moment.

I became curious about the original film years ago and finally sought it out, especially after knowing that there was also a spiritual sequel in 2011 (The Wicker Tree) that was much more faithful to the spirit of the English film. Much like the brand of neo-paganism that the inhabitants of Summersile (2006) brought to their locale, the tone of the film does not translate the same feelings of doom and wonder that Christopher Lee delivered as the leader of his Summerisle. I do not want to discount the effort that the actors and crew put in trying to bring this movie to an American audience, but the reliance of conventional Hollywood story techniques dilutes the impact of the mystery surrounding the island and the society that inhabits it. The Wicker Man failed to understand the mystique of the original film and deserves the ridicule that it invites due to its callous disregard for nuance.

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018) - Letterboxd Review

I have been trying to use my Letterboxd account for more reviews that didn't inspire me to spend too much effort into films that try and burn me out seriously and critically reviewing them. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is one of those movies that I spent the first 15 minutes wanting to walk away from. I mention in my Letterboxd review for this movie that I haven't been so affected by cringeworthy material since 2017 when I saw The Lego Ninjago Movie in theaters, yet could not bring myself to walk out because I paid for a full-price movie ticket. The hour-ish runtime remaining just doubled down on the tone-deaf references to popular culture that were in their prime decades before the target audience was either alive or semi-conscious. 

Next week's review will be picked from a list that I have compiled as "palate-cleansers" for when I am assaulted by movies that threaten burnout in this project.

Update and a Special Review

I just concluded the most intense semester in my academic career, but that meant that I had to shift my focus away from this blog and to completing the avalanche of coursework that was required. I was able to complete a review for Snake Eyes and publish last Tuesday for the first time in a month if you want to want to go back and see what a break does to my critical eye.

Despite catching up to my coursework and having a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, I was only able to complete one review for the project before flying across the country for a week. In order to keep the blog current, even though I don't have access to my regular accounts, I decided to write a letter to the various people on the plane ride out west whose entertainment choices were, shall I say, interesting. If you enjoy that letter, please do consider subscribing to my Letterboxd for similarly written reviews for movies. I have one serious review on that account that was written 8 years ago, but have since made it lie dormant until a muse inspires me (see: The Country Bears). As you may surmise, that account is not my review priority as this blog exists and has a defined purpose.

I had high hopes that my course load would stay manageable enough for me to work on putting together a kindle book this summer with my Cage reviews and selected essays, but that has stalled for the reason mentioned above. I still intend to work on this project, but it no longer has a projected completion date. See my support page for more details. I do have some sort of roadmap for future reviews, but any support that you all kick in can help in my selection paralysis.

Have a great week! I hope to have a new Nic Cage review ready next Tuesday at the normal scheduled time!

Seeking Justice (2011) - Review

Seeking Justice is an action/thriller starring Nic Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce, and Harold Perrineau. Nic Cage plays Will Gerard, a high school English teacher who tries his best to mentor hostile students and has a strong bond with his coworker Jimmy (Perrineau). His wife, Laura (Jones), a string musician gets sexually assaulted one night after practice and leaves Will to make a choice given to him by a stranger, Simon (Pearce), who promises that he has the resources to catch and make the rapist pay for his crimes. When Simon comes to collect on his favor for helping Will, Will becomes involved in a conspiracy involving himself in increasingly dangerous situations seeking justice for other individuals. 

I enjoyed this movie. The story is increasingly farfetched, but the tension and paranoia that it builds is done fantastically. As the movie progresses, Will finds himself not being able to trust anybody as he is trying to absolve himself of the allegations of murder and getting to the core of what this organization is, and who is all involved. I didn't feel that many of the twists were contrived- as the mystery unfolded, the clues were doled out almost painfully slow but only fuels the desire even more fierce for everything to unravel. The pace at which the movie isolated from paranoia, first from Laura after her assault, then from Will after he is asked to murder who he thinks is a paedophile, but turns out to be a journalist. I applaud the movie's resisting of temptation to wrap up their story in a nice little package - the cast, including Pearce and Perrineau, do a wonderful job at showing just how fragile trust and loyalty is in the face of adversity and having to make difficult choices. I remember liking this movie around the time it came out, and I don't think that feeling has changed much. I wouldn't, however, say that this movie is a shining star in Cage's pantheon, like Face/Off and Moonstruck but I do recommend this movie for anyone interested to watch - the only thing I would warn against is the atrocious goatee sported by Cage the entire 105 minute runtime.

My Review Process

I didn't have a blog scheduled to run in August, so I wanted to slow my reviewing of movies down a tad this week to give myself time to think of something. I had initially thought of posting one review a week, save for the extra posts for when my wife wanted to watch something out of sequence on my list of "to-do" for this project or for when a movie comes out in theaters and I am able to to catch it in the midst of my busy-ish schedule. But the hope of one per week was dashed against the rocks when I realized that despite two titles I want to review at certain times, I would be reviewing movies for over two years. I like doing this project, don't get me wrong, but there are certain things that I would enjoy doing even one year into the future that this project would get in the way of: the start of my new career, potentially parenthood, among other things not even thought of quite yet.

I started this project during a month-long break from school earlier this summer, and I was watching movies at a fairly fast clip. I wouldn't even put words into a document until I had about three reviews waiting to be written. Oh, but never more than three. I never have even considered uploading information about four or more movies into my head and not reviewing them for this blog. Watch-Watch-Watch-Write 2 reviews -Watch-Watch-Write 3 reviews-Watch-Write 1 review, etc. The process is fairly inconsistent in that manner, but it helps me contextualize Nic Cage's movies with each other, even if they have no other connection (year, quality, etc.) than the actor himself. I also try to give a fairly short synopsis of the movie in question, followed by one or two sections that make up the subjective portion of the review. This helps me get the reader up to speed on the jist of the movie if they haven't seen it, explain what potentially drew me to this movie before, my feelings about it, and if those feelings have changed over time. I don't think I'll ever get to the level of professionalism of a Siskel and Ebert, as that is not where my passion in life lies, but I do want to produce a product that people can relate to themselves and maybe trust me to give them some decent movie recommendations. I even produce reviews, if I am so inclined, from movie recommendations from friends. 

I am writing this blog on July 14th, posting this Aug. 3rd, but I have scheduled reviews out until Oct. 31st at this point to make sure I can accomplish this task in a manner that satisfies my stated goal of doing this as quickly as possible. Just as I am zooming through my courses at school to become an authority on my studied subject, I aim to be some sort of authority on Nicolas Cage's filmography. I used to be self-conscious of my older brother making jabs at me for allowing myself to watch low quality movies so easily, but that doesn't matter to me as much anymore. I appreciate the wisdom that he was trying to teach me: not wasting my time with movies that have no meaning or bearing on how I view the world or that are hardly enjoyable. But I feel as though my niche has always been giving the lesser known and lesser quality a shot, knowing that I will rarely find the diamond still caked with dirt, but a diamond nonetheless.

Ghost Rider (2007) - Review

I wanted to get it out at the top that I watched this movie with my wife and one of our closest friends. Their involvement in the process was mentioned further down in the review, but we could not help ourselves tearing this movie apart as we watched it. We watched the extended cut, which is supposed to give more insight into the movie than the theatrical, but boy oh boy did it just make us more upset that it was dragging this flaming bag of turds on longer than it should. I don't think that it is necessary to write a short blurb warning you about what you are about to read, but this movie just about broke my resolve to see this project until the end. Don't fear! I still have gas in the tank, I just need to watch some of Cage's better movies to give me a recharge. I hope you enjoy this review!

Hello, World!

My name is Allen and I wanted to catalogue my journey of collecting every single Nicolas Cage movie released. Gosh, that sounds like I am in a support group needing intervention. Anyways, I want to start out by talking a little about what has led to this project and what I hope to get out of doing this.

I remember one of the first paychecks I received from my first job and I remember it well. I remember it because I spent it all in a week. I was still in high school and living at home, so this was warranted in my mind. One of the items I spent that paycheck on was The Wicker Man (2006). I had decided shortly after starting my job that I wanted to collect the entire filmography of an actor - this would be the measure of success that I would attain in life! Nicolas Cage was memed heavily online, and the task of choosing his career to follow seemed like an easy one at the time, there were only 63 credits to his name at the time, so that was a slam dunk... or so I thought. Very soon I learned the reality of saving money for college, so the collection idea progressed at a more glacial pace than anticipated. But I persisted in the effort, nonetheless. I would have friends over for "Cage-a-thons", thinking that I had limitless potential for entertainment, but as more people moved away for college or other pursuits, that tradition has since passed.

An example of the chaos, slightly shifted 
to be photographed easier

Many years later... I recently decided to clean up my office, which after two years of owning my home, still wasn't clean enough for me to do my work. I have had many attempts over the years of making some sort of inventory of the movies and TV shows that I owned, but none of those attempts were backed up thoroughly on various platforms and a very rigorous search on my local and cloud storage locations turned up zilch. Nada. Nothing. All of that "hard work" over the years? Gone. As a distraction to the mounting stress that my work was providing me, I decided to wrest some control in my life back into my hands and clean a significant portion of the mess at the same time. I took a picture of every movie spine on my tiny bookshelf and went to work typing each name into a spreadsheet. After the work was completed, 348 different titles sat on my shelf (not including television seasons).

Nic Cage movies removed
from general population

The game was afoot! I had a more manageable task to accomplish, and the act of doing something for myself helped me get past the wall in completing looming deadlines.. I would work on something small every day, giving myself motivation to be in my office and making sure that school was taken care of and feeling less burdened about the mounting piles of neglect that seemed to confine me before. I separated the Nic Cage movies that had been haphazardly profaned by the common films for years into their own sort and threatened a group of friends with a good time over text, stating that they were going to experience wonderful things in the future.