Tag Archives: nicolas-cage

The Retirement Plan (2023)

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June 14, 2024

Today’s June Swoon 3 entry is an action film featuring Nic Cage in all his Nic Cage-ness, and it is a a lot ridiculous fun.

According to IMDB, “In The Retirement Plan, when Ashley (Ashley Greene) and her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell) get caught up in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives at risk, she turns to the only person who can help – her estranged father Matt (Nicolas Cage), currently living the life of a retired beach bum in the Cayman Islands. Their reunion is fleeting as they are soon tracked down on the island by crime boss Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) and his lieutenant Bobo (Ron Perlman). As Ashley, Sarah and Matt become entangled in an increasingly dangerous web, Ashley quickly learns her father had a secret past that she knew nothing about and that there is more to her father than meets the eye.”

Is this movie more convoluted than it needed to be? Absolutely. It felt pretty messy in a lot of ways. Does it require a suspension of disbelief? 100%. Perhaps more than most movies. None of that ruins this film from being a hoot. It knows the type of movie it is and Nic Cage is totally in for a ridiculous good time.

I did like the little girl Sarah, played by Thalia Campbell, and her relationship with her kidnapper Bobo, played by Ron Perlman. I really thought this was going to go in one direction, but it takes a different path, which I found refreshing.

The action is great, if not difficult to believe. There just felt as if there were too many threads getting pulled and it was unnecessary.

I am not sure I liked the way the film wrapped up either. I think I would have preferred for the end of the third act to feel less like it was nothing more than a deus ex machina.

Still, if you love Nic Cage, this will be fun. I wish Thalia Campbell’s role would have been more in the second half of the movie because she was one of the standouts in the first half.

Dream Scenario

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We got a new Nic Cage movie released this weekend focusing on celebrity and the potential toxicity that comes along with that. It was called Dream Scenario.

Nic Cage played a college professor named Paul Matthews, a hapless man who is just going through an unremarkable life. Then, one day, he discovered that people were all dreaming about him, people that he did not know. Paul would just walk through the dream like an observer, doing nothing to help the person. It got to the point where real life Paul was feeling guilt over not helping despite the fact that he had zero control over it.

As this phenomenon went viral, Paul started to become well known and in demand. This is, until the dreams he was appearing in began to turn dark and nightmarish. The people who were fascinated by Paul before turned on him quickly, forcing Paul into trying to get through his life.

Nicolas Cage was sensational as Paul, playing completely against his typical character. Paul was frumpy and depressed, unable to understand why things were happening and why people were turning on him considering he had done nothing wrong. You can’t help be feel sorry for Paul considering things were happening that were totally out of his own control.

I really enjoyed this film, but I will say that the ending did not strike as well as I would have liked it. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about that without diving into spoilers. Suffice it to say that I did not love the way the film concluded.

There were some funny scenes of the film, which is listed by A24 as a comedy/horror film. I’m not sure that is an accurate classification, but there are several funny moments. Nicolas Cage does great job bringing this schulb to life, and seeing what happens to him is a warning about the fickleness of pop culture as well as a commentary on cancel culture.

3.8 stars