Nicolas Cage occupies a curious role in pop culture, I think unlike any celebrity around. Never has an actor been so simultaneously adored, hated, admired, and mocked. He has a reputation for never turning down a role, but rarely is he ever forgettable even in the dullest piece of garbage. He's infamous for giving big loud performances in big loud action movies, and he's known to have an ego to match, but good filmmakers (Werner Herzog, in particular) profess to have enjoyed working with him.
He also tends throw his weight behind movies that, I think, he just really wants to see made. The films he appears in and produces are usually interesting and unique, if not always very good. He drove Drive Angry, a sublimely trashy '70s throwback action movie which I loved, into production. He was a force behind Shadow of the Vampire, which featured Willem Dafoe as the "real" vampire who played Count Orlock in F.W. Murnau's original Nosferatu. He unfortunately also spearheaded the lousy Neil LaBute remake of The Wicker Man, which was unsuccessful, but it at least featured the unforgettable image of Cage in a bear suit punching out women in a Three Stooges fashion for much of the third act.
So it's understandable that Cage has a cult following. He has a subreddit dedicated to him called r/onetruegod, which is more reverent than you would think. It's where I found Nicolas Cage Roulette, a program designed by Scott Luptowski. Click and it brings you to a random Cage movie on Netflix Instant.
And so the challenge is on. I'll be watching random Cage movies until there are no more.
The first one to come up was Seeking Justice.
Seeking Justice breezed through theaters alarmingly quickly considering its A-list cast and veteran director. Though no one would label Roger Donaldson an auteur, his considerable resume includes some actual good films, like the Cuban Missile Crisis thriller Thirteen Days, and some enjoyable trash, like the gore-and-nudity-filled Freudian alien opus Species. He's also been responsible for some memorably awful movies, like Cocktail, which featured Tom Cruise juggling Tanqueray bottles and reciting poetry for bar patrons who ought to have been getting impatient for their drinks. Donaldson may be no Scorsese, but he's not a nobody either.
I have to assume he simply got a kick out of tackling a ridiculous action thriller like Seeking Justice, kind of like Richard Rush must have taken on Color of Night as his only film in 14 years just for giggles. Seeking Justice doesn't have the nerve to be as loopy as that film, but it does feel similarly pieced together from spare parts. Donaldson and his cast are game, and everyone does an earnest job, but boy, the writing has really done this movie in from the beginning.
Seeking Justice breezed through theaters alarmingly quickly considering its A-list cast and veteran director. Though no one would label Roger Donaldson an auteur, his considerable resume includes some actual good films, like the Cuban Missile Crisis thriller Thirteen Days, and some enjoyable trash, like the gore-and-nudity-filled Freudian alien opus Species. He's also been responsible for some memorably awful movies, like Cocktail, which featured Tom Cruise juggling Tanqueray bottles and reciting poetry for bar patrons who ought to have been getting impatient for their drinks. Donaldson may be no Scorsese, but he's not a nobody either.
I have to assume he simply got a kick out of tackling a ridiculous action thriller like Seeking Justice, kind of like Richard Rush must have taken on Color of Night as his only film in 14 years just for giggles. Seeking Justice doesn't have the nerve to be as loopy as that film, but it does feel similarly pieced together from spare parts. Donaldson and his cast are game, and everyone does an earnest job, but boy, the writing has really done this movie in from the beginning.
When his wife is raped, mild-mannered high school English teacher Will Gerard (Cage) is approached by a mysterious man named Simon (Guy Pearce), who professes to be from a secret organization of vigilantes. He offers to find and kill the rapist before the police can. No payment will be required, though Simon alleges that he may call on Will for a favor or two sometime in the future. With little hesitation and only a few seconds of patented Nic Cage facial distress, Will agrees. The rapist is dispensed with and all is well. But after a few months--you guessed it--Simon calls and demands that Will pay up, in some undesirable ways.
Looking at the plot description beforehand, I thought for sure that the movie was a screed on vigilanteism. After seeing the film, I have to assume that that was screenwriters' original intention, but that Donaldson realized that the screenplay was too silly beyond belief to be taken seriously, so he filmed it as a brainless action thriller. The movie's no more about the morality of vigilanteism than The Wicker Man was about the process of honey production. It's more interested in traveling down the rabbit hole of a conspiracy theory plot, with goofy twists and turns along the way.
Once the movie launches into its unlikely plot, it's easy to forget that it actually started with a woman being raped. A movie that begins with such a thematically weighty occurrence is asking to be taken seriously, and Seeking Justice doesn't hold up its end. For what is supposed to be the movie's instigating force, the rape is pretty much forgotten by the 30-minute mark, and the rest of the film goes off on the tangent of Will performing tasks for Simon's organization, police getting involved, and so on. As the wife in question, January Jones is appropriately disposable.
Cage, as usual, is a trooper. He runs through all the usual action movie tropes, and does the whole Innocent Man Wrongfully Accused rigmarole--the escape from jail, the multiple chase scenes, the amateur sleuthing--with a straight face. Still, no actor could be convincing as a character this boneheaded. Pearce is a delightfully smarmy villain, and usually fun to watch, especially when he's shouting meaningless orders to Cage just to make sure he's on board. ("Go into the store. Buy a pack of gum.")
Harold Perrineau turns up as Will's best friend, though how his character fits into the story is difficult to buy. Blink and you'll miss Jennifer Carpenter as another confidante. The dude who played T-Dog on "The Walking Dead" turns up as a henchman. Xander Berkeley is a welcome presence as a streetwise detective, though it's impossible to figure out his role in the movie's grand scheme. Is he a cop? A higher-up in the organization? A double agent? His actions in the third act are pretty inscrutable in all of those scenarios.
Seeking Justice certainly isn't dull, though it's unacceptable as a thriller. Donaldson actually manages a few neat action sequences, the most interesting of which involves a foot chase between Simon's men and Will across a New Orleans highway. Even so, there have been more ridiculous thrillers that have been more fun. Seeking Justice doesn't cut it.
* 1/2 out of ****
Caginess level: Mild. Somewhere between National Treasure and Gone in Sixty Seconds.
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