The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent — First Thoughts
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is an enigma. The action-comedy starring Nicolas Cage as Nic Cage was nothing like I expected it to be, yet at the same time, it was everything that I could have hoped it would be. If only I weren’t such a pessimistic scrub. Make no mistake, this movie isn’t City of God or anything, but it was surprisingly fun and well-paced. I had the luxury of watching this at my local cinema’s $5 night, so I feel like I got a steal on this one. Makes up for all of those times I paid to watch The Matrix Revolutions.
Spoiler alert incoming. Before we go any further, let me say that you should give this a watch. It’s a goofy, self-indulgent comedy that is admittedly much more enjoyable to people who are familiar with Cage’s previous roles. If you’re getting out, get out now. While we won’t dive in and give this a proper review, there will be spoilers.
Let’s begin by pointing out what should be obvious; if you are not a fan of Nic Cage and his filmography, you may find this significantly less funny than the rest of us. As my uncle, Kendrick would say “Carry the Hell On.”
STORY
This movie begins by building the background for a cliche action-comedy hero. A down on his luck, divorced dad trying desperately to rekindle his marriage and connect with a moody teenager. It’s a tale as old as time, but this time, it’s Nic Cage. This is a perfect example of what this film does well. Nothing about this movie is groundbreaking, nearly everything it does has been done before. It’s just done differently in this movie. And done with Nic fuckin Cage.
Early on we meet Nicky, a younger version of Cage that seems to dominate his decision-making. This little bastard is responsible for a few meme-worthy moments, but other than that isn’t a huge factor in the film. He is oddly thrown into the climax, which is a tad-on-the-nose way of showing the real Nic Cage’s character arc coming to a resolution. It wasn’t great and this message could have been done a hundred different ways, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s finish setting the table.
So Cage doesn’t get the gig of his dreams that will finally bring him back baby (not that he ever left). He proceeds to get drunk and ruin his daughter’s sweet 16. Finally, at rock bottom, our hero, who I forgot to mention passed on a weird $1 million birthday gig earlier in act one, finally succumbs to his situation and accepts the deal of a lifetime. $1 million to go to Spain for some weird dude’s birthday.
Surprise, surprise, the guy with enough money to hire (and overpay) celebrities to pretend to like him on his birthday is a drug kingpin. The CIA agents tracking the Mandalorian in Spain recognize Cage and a plot is hatched to have the actor stay at Javi’s compound until he can find a recently kidnapped girl. She’s the president’s daughter or some shit, there is this whole spy-thriller aspect to what I am considering to be the side-plot of the movie. Watch this movie and tell me that the bromance between Cage and his new best friend isn’t story A. Where was I?
Ah yes, Cage joins the mission, hilarity ensues, yata yata yata. The only problem is, that Castor Troy himself has made a huge mistake in this process. He fell in love with the mark. Ok, not in the James Bond kinda way (unfortunately) but Javi becomes the kind of friend that Cage has always wanted. The ploy to stay on the compound to help Javi with his movie turns into a real relationship.
Things get weird when Javi flies Cage’s family in an admittedly convenient scenario. You mean this millionaire idiot really convinced his friend’s ex-wife and daughter that the man was sick so they could drop everything and fly to Spain on a terrified whim. Who needs enemies am I right?
Wrong, because these two actually have enemies in this situation. Javi’s cousin, who is played as some funny but frightening goon early in the film, is actually the brains of the operation and he’s onto Ghost Rider’s scheme. Turns out Javi is the frontman for his super evil cousin, which doesn’t absolve the guy of his sins or anything but the movie kinda wants you to think that based on how this ends. Regardless, Javi is told he must kill Cage and the CIA tells Nic that he has to kill Javi if he wants to get his family home. This plot convenience is met by another as the former friends thankfully suck at killing and talk to each other long enough to discover the truth.
Now if you didn’t expect this movie’s third act to take a Batman v Superman, Godzilla-Kong style team-up turn, then I have an incredible investment opportunity for you.
So the good guys face their demons and conquer them, kill the bad guys, and everyone goes home. Cage gets his family back, and we find out that Javi made his movie after all, because we were just watching it. A little tropic thunder-esque ending situation.
ANALYSIS
The bulk of this movie’s comedy comes from references to Cage’s previous work. That shouldn’t be a problem for most because if you don’t at least ironically love the man’s movies, you really shouldn’t be there. Pedro does a great job as Javi, I think the two leads had great chemistry. They played the acid scene quite believably, or so I’m told. I liked the entire cast really. Virtually everyone gets at least a few one-liners in and more impressively, they all seemed to chew the scenery well. I especially liked the Fruit Loops scene, bouncing back from tense to funny in a nice rhythm.
In my opinion, this movie does a good job overall with the pacing and injection of comedy into the action. It isn’t trying to be an epic film and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This makes it easier to enjoy these jokes even when they break up the tension in a scene. We all know the stakes aren’t that high, to begin with here. This isn’t End Game or like a Star Wars sequel people waited over a decade for. It’s Nic fuckin Cage dude, it’s gonna get goofy.
The movie isn’t perfect though, as I stated, it can be paint-by-numbers at times as for as the plot and story structure goes. But they disguise this pretty well with the antics of Pablo, Cage, and Nicky. The story is easy and the writing isn’t Shakespeare, but if you are looking to laugh for two hours at a movie that won’t leave you bored, then I’d say the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is worth the cost of admission.
7/10.
I really enjoyed it and will probably watch it again for $5.
