Top 10 Best Nic Cage Films (We’re Serious)
Nic Cage gets a bad rap, man. So maybe he made ten or twenty awful action movies and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. And maybe the recession of his hairline has been matched only by the questionable colors he has chosen to dye his increasingly Crypt Keeper-like mane. And MAYBE he went bankrupt because he spent all his money on things like two yachts, a jet, and a $276,000 67-million-year-old dinosaur skull. So what? He was also in some of the best films of our generation, and to honor the memory of his career, I shall list them for you below. Come, walk with me.
Raising Arizona
While the Coen brothers are the true architects of this masterpiece, it is Cage who steals the show as the forlorn kidnapper, eliciting sympathy and laughs with his twangily articulate narration of his woeful tale.
Valley Girl
This is Cage before he became botoxed and broke, when he was lanky, goofy, and charming, just a punk from Hollywood trying to steal a preppy Valley Girl’s heart.
It Could Happen To You
So I’m a sucker for rom coms. Sue me.
Moonstruck
Even if we forget for a moment that Cher is in this film (or that she won an Oscar for being so awesome in it), this film is still one of the greatest comedies involving an aritifical hand ever made. (Second only, of course, to The Big Leibowski).
Peggy Sue Got Married
I like when life lessons are packaged in hilarious screwball comedies, and I also like pompadours, so this movie is a win-win in my eyes.
Honeymoon in Vegas
There’s something you should know about me, and that is that I have sort of a thing for Elvis (see above: liking pompadours). So this film, which is essentially a visual smorgasboard of Elvises (sky-diving, no less), had me at “Vegas.” Plus, two wordes: James. Caan.
Face/Off
This is kind of like the Twelfth Night of action-adventure movies. Yes, I just likened it to Shakespeare. It’s that good.
Wild At Heart
Much like gin, children, or cilantro, you either love David Lynch or you hate him. I love him (and cilantro).
Adaptation
This is the only film ever in which a fictional person has won an Oscar (Donald Kaufman, along with Charlie Kaufman, won the award for Best Screenplay) and one of my favorite movies of all time.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
As you may be able to tell from this extremely high quality still, Cage didn’t have a very big part in this film (I think he’s credited as “Brad’s Bud”) but come on. It’s Fast Times.
