Caged In

‘DYING OF THE LIGHT’ TRAILER REVIEW BY METRO CREW

Nicolas Cage stars as once-great CIA agent Evan Lake, who is being forced into retirement as he fights dementia. But when he discovers that an old enemy is still alive, Lake sets off on a new mission to track him down. Cage himself also was considered great once upon a time. But in recent years, he has become the butt of a lot of jokes — and we think that this trailer makes it clear why: He just doesn’t seem to be able to pick a good film. It should be noted, though, that Cage and others, including writer/director Paul Schrader (who also wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), are protesting the release of the film, claiming that Schrader was locked out of the editing process.

Dying of the Light plays in wide release starting Dec. 5. >>

JAMES: This movie looks like a perfect metaphor for Nicolas Cage’s career. And in every performance, he plays some guy who is slightly slipping away.

NICOLE: He looks old! Did they dye his hair (gray), or is that just what his hair looks like now?

CHRISTINA: I think he is just getting old.

PAIGE: So it looks like Nicolas Cage is at the Liam Neeson stage of his career.

CHRISTINA: I don’t understand his career. He is in good movies sometimes. He was in Adaptation.

JAMES: I think the problem is that he never plays it straight.

JAIMIE: It is his face. He looks perpetually high. What did he win an Academy Award for? What could he possibly have won for?

JAMES: Matchstick Men? He was also in Leaving Las Vegas.

PAIGE: And he was in National Treasure, which is a cinematic masterpiece.

CHRISTINA: I know Leaving Las Vegas is supposed to be the greatest movie ever, but I didn’t really like it.

JAIMIE: That is what he won an Oscar for, Leaving Las Vegas.

CHRISTINA: That kid in the movie (Anton Yelchin) really irritates me.

NICOLE: I don’t want to watch this. I don’t hate Nicolas Cage, but this does not look good.

JAIMIE: I hate Nicolas Cage. I am trying to think of anything that I have seen him in where I liked him. I saw this movie called Peggy Sue Got Married once, and it was really weird. He was supposed to play a high schooler in that, right?

JAMES: I think he was a guy who goes back in time and meets his wife as a younger lady.

JAIMIE: He is just not a likable person. He was in Gone In Sixty Seconds, which I hated.

CHRISTINA: I used to really like that movie when I was younger.

PAIGE: Here, it seems like the twist is that he has dementia.

JAMES: In Hollywood, having dementia is having a shaky hand.

JAIMIE: That could be interesting, but it looks like they just make it really clownish. Or maybe he does mean it to be interesting, but it is just really hard to take him seriously.

NICOLE: I don’t know if he is just going crazy, or if that guy is really still alive. I have a feeling he is going crazy.

JAIMIE: I have to say, though, I don’t care. I don’t care at all. This movie looks stupid.

PAIGE: In the credits, they were sure to say that Nicolas Cage is an Academy Award winner. And then the trailer sucks.

JAIMIE: He is one of those people who won an Academy Award early on and then was never able to redeem himself or live up to it. It was a fluke.

NICOLE: He is not a good actor.

JAIMIE: Although, I did like him in National Treasure.

NICOLE: Paige, I saw you laughing at that part where he is like, “You know what we have? Values.” That was so lame! The theme of values was not anywhere in the rest of the trailer.

JAMES: Who was the guy they are looking for in the movie?

NICOLE: He’s like an Osama Bin Laden stand-in.

JAMES: I think it is going to turn out that that guy has dementia as well. And it will show them chasing each other around the same building for, like, three days.