Deadfall (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Nick Cage doesn't star in Deadfall. This noir crime film strikes me as sort of a small time affair for Cage, who at the time, was only making huge hits. The opening credits mention Charlie Sheen and Talia Shire as stars, but the two of them each appear in only one scene, with about ten lines apiece. Cage actually plays Eddie King, the criminal and opulent wacko, later reprised in 2017's Arsenal.

Directed by Cage's brother Chris Coppola, Deadfall was a complete flop, subject to a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. But is it that bad? I don't think so. It's the story of Joe, the son of a big time con man who gets tricked into shooting his own father. But the father has a twin brother, Uncle Lou, whom Joe is bequested to recover a "cake" from.

And Uncle Lou is also a big time con man, easily taking to and finding work for his dear nephew, which leads to several dark turns. The story is meant to set you up for a "mind blow", but it's all fairly predictable and generic for the noir crime thing. But the movie is fairly entertaining and fun to watch. It doesn't over reach, and generally succeeds at what it attempts. I think the directing of Chris Coppola was altogether decent, and it's a shame none of his movies have been hits. Deadfall was a movie of its time, rife with seedy violence, and followed closely by Pulp Fiction. If this is your thing, you should check it out. Otherwise, it's worth seeing just for Cage's insane performance, which might even give Jim Carey a run for his money.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Snake Eyes
12. Dog Eat Dog
13. Color Out of Space
14. Mom and Dad
15. World Trade Center
16. Peggy Sue Got Married
17. Zandalee
18. Prisoners of the Ghostland
19. City of Angels
20. Willy's Wonderland
21. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
22. Bangkok Dangerous
23. Drive Angry
24. Army of One
25. Lord of War
26. Gone in 60 Seconds
27. Matchstick Men
28. Vampire's Kiss
29. Con Air
30. Face/Off
31. Trapped in Paradise
32. The Boy in Blue
33. Honeymoon in Vegas

34. Deadfall

35. Amos and Andrew
36. Moonstruck
37. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
38. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
39. Primal
40. Bringing Out the Dead
41. The Family Man
42. Knowing
43. The Frozen Ground
44. It Could Happen to You
45. 8mm
46. Grand Isle
47. Looking Glass
48. Arsenal
49. Between Worlds
50. Left Behind
51. Ghost Rider
52. Trespass
53. The Humanity Bureau
54. Next
55. The Weather Man
56. 211
57. Fire Birds
58. The Croods

Grand Isle (feat. Nicolas Cage)

I think we can all agree that Nicolas Cage is known for his mass of bad movies. Grand Isle is kind of bad, but how bad? I could pick which of his other movies is most similar and decide which I liked better. But is that fair? Do I give this movie points for having Kelsey Grammer (in a minor role), using a Louisiana accent? I guess the film gets a few points for that. It's one of Cage's bad movies, and everyone gets to do whatever they want. It's like an audition with a payday.

Grand Isle is about a young veteran who gets caught in a hurricane while, hard up for cash, fixing a fence for an old (alcoholic) veteran, played by Cage. The old veteran's wife owns their old Louisiana house, and she has a bunch of voodoo stuff. There's a good deal of infidelity and murdurous plots between the couple, but none of those things are as bad as their dark secret.

So you keep watching to figure out what that dark secret is. But in Grand Isle, everything goes to hell.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Snake Eyes
12. Dog Eat Dog
13. Color Out of Space
14. Mom and Dad
15. World Trade Center
16. Peggy Sue Got Married
17. Zandalee
18. Prisoners of the Ghostland
19. City of Angels
20. Willy's Wonderland
21. Bangkok Dangerous
22. Drive Angry
23. Army of One
24. Lord of War
25. Gone in 60 Seconds
26. Matchstick Men
27. Vampire's Kiss
28. Con Air
29. Face/Off
30. The Boy in Blue
31. Honeymoon in Vegas
32. Amos and Andrew
33. Moonstruck
34. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
35. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
36. Bringing Out the Dead
37. The Family Man
38. Knowing
39. The Frozen Ground
40. It Could Happen to You
41. 8mm

42. Grand Isle

43. Looking Glass
44. Arsenal
45. Between Worlds
46. Left Behind
47. Ghost Rider
48. The Humanity Bureau
49. Next
50. The Weather Man
51. 211
52. The Croods

Snake Eyes (feat. Nicolas Cage)

It's hard to recollect the attitudes I'd been pre-emptively exposed to about this movie, aside from its average ratings. A very 90s movie, there was certainly some reaching with the story, in attempts to satisfy its intended demographic. Still, I think Snake Eyes was a great watch. In addition to Ryuichi Sakamoto's brilliant soundtrack, shot-for-shot, this movie is immersive, exciting, and packed with killer performances.

Set in an Atlantic City casino, Snake Eyes tells the story of a crooked detective named Rick Santoro (played by Cage). With a lot of money on a big fight, distracting Santoro while he was supposed to be protecting the secretary of defense, Charles Kirkland. But there was treachery within treachery surrounding the assassination of Kirkland.

The story unfolds after this inciting incident, in alternate timelines and a well-calculated narrative. With hopes of diminishing his gambling losses, Santoro puts the casino into lockdown for the investigation. As new evidence is uncovered, Santoro has to make some tough, dangerous decisions.

These decisions make way for a level of Character Arc, rare in Cage's many films. For those who haven't been keeping count, I still haven't seen over thirty of them. While Snake Eyes probably won't do it for everyone, I consider it great way to spend 98 minutes.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess

11. Snake Eyes

12. Dog Eat Dog
13. Color Out of Space
14. Mom and Dad
15. World Trade Center
16. Peggy Sue Got Married
17. Zandalee
18. City of Angels
19. Bangkok Dangerous
20. Drive Angry
21. Army of One
22. Lord of War
23. Gone in 60 Seconds
24. Matchstick Men
25. Vampire's Kiss
26. Con Air
27. Face/Off
28. The Boy in Blue
29. Honeymoon in Vegas
30. Amos and Andrew
31. Moonstruck
32. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
33. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
34. Bringing Out the Dead
35. The Family Man
36. Knowing
37. The Frozen Ground
38. It Could Happen to You
39. 8mm
40. Looking Glass
41. Arsenal
42. Between Worlds
43. Left Behind
44. Ghost Rider
45. The Humanity Bureau
46. Next
47. The Weather Man
48. 211
49. The Croods

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Sharing the first part of its name with a 1992 film of the same theme, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is its own thing. I guess. I also won't be typing out its mouth-stuffing title again. This film is the story of a cop who's kind of an ass hole, then hurts his back. His prescription to pain medicine leads to all forms of drug addiction, including crack. It's noire all the way.

Being a cop has its perks, which Lieutenant Terence McDonah (played by Cage) takes precarious advantage of, progressively becoming a worse cop. Terence's love interest Frankie is played by Eva Mendes, who was also in Ghost Rider. I figured the two decided to party in New Orleans for a while after Ghost Rider, and with Saturn Pictures, went ahead and made a movie. The thing about playing characters who are on drugs is that it's more believable when the actors themselves are intoxicated.

But I don't know whether or not Cage does drugs. I'm not really interested in his personal life. Either way, this movie has some of his creepiest moments and freakiest freak-outs, as a strung out cop, doing everything he can to get his fix AND convict the criminals.

So, was this a good film? It's pretty over the top in a way that's not really funny. But it has Val Kilmer in it, if that means anything. More imporantly, you get to see Fairuza Balk in her pre-sex gear. On top of that, you get to watch people smoke crack. So the gratuity value of this film is pretty high. In some scenes he sounds like himself, and in others he sounds like a complete noire detective, and in others he seems like he's not even trying.

The pacing and direction is definitely more like an episode of ER than a cinematic feature film. I haven't seen the other works of Werner Herzog, but I can respect that he has his own style. There were also some really weird shots, like Terrance is trying to put the scene together in his drug-addled brain. I guess I don't mind when big time film makers have their artsy moments, treating their movie like some angsty music video.

Still, the story of the anti-hero with no redeemable characteristics is pretty hard to invest in. And it's not like Lord of War, in which it really matters whether or not our protagonist dies or retires. In Bad Lietenant, all the other characters are either cops or criminals. I don't know how, but I did end up feeling stressed and worried for Terrance. Maybe it's just because I like Nicolas Cage. Either way, Bad Lieutant was a pretty dark, unhappy experience.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Birdy
6. Wild at Heart
7. Joe
8. Guarding Tess
9. Dog Eat Dog
10. Color Out of Space
11. Mom and Dad
12. Peggy Sue Got Married
13. Zandalee
14. City of Angels
15. Bangkok Dangerous
16. Drive Angry
17. Lord of War
18. Gone in 60 Seconds
19. Matchstick Men
20. Vampire's Kiss
21. Con Air
22. Face/Off
23. The Boy in Blue
24. Honeymoon in Vegas
25. Amos and Andrew
26. Moonstruck
27. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
28. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
29. Bringing Out the Dead
30. The Family Man
31. Knowing
32. It Could Happen to You
33. 8mm
34. Looking Glass
35. Between Worlds
36. Left Behind
37. Ghost Rider
38. The Humanity Bureau
39. Next
40. The Weather Man
41. 211
42. The Croods

Lurking Shadows by Carroll John Daly

If you didn't know, Carroll John Daly is famous for writing the first 'hard-boiled' story, followed by a lifetime supply of noir detective fiction. How did I end up with Lurking Shadows? I don't know. It was a pretty cool read, though. I imagined everyone talking like some Brooklyn tough guy in the 1930s. 'Oriental' people are protrayed terribly, running local opium dens.

People in this story are on opium and cocaine. Lots of cocaine. They try to get their rich friends hooked, to make their rich dealer friends more rich. They carry specific guns and the police are corrupt. Fun stuff.