For the first 1/3 of the movie, I thought the parody of Nicolas Cage's career and life may have been taken too far. The cringe level was kept very high, and I was embarrassed to watch. However, as the plot started to push forward, the characters moved with it and made for an enjoyable movie. I laughed pretty hard at a few scenes, and the ending was satisfying. It just took a long time to change my mind from disappointed to appreciative.
The good stuff:
** Pedro Pascal (Wonder Woman 1984) was excellent as Javi, an unassuming "crime boss" that just wanted to meet Ncolas Cage. Javi was funny while maintaining appropriate levels of badassery to help the audience believe his lifestyle.
** During the scenes where Nic Cage is trying to be a hero, he actually looks like an actor playing a live action star without choreographed moves. As such, the character wings a lot of it, sometimes to hilarious ends.
The bummers:
-- I guess I'm just not a fan of Tiffany Haddish. At no point is she believable as a CIA agent. I'm not saying Ike Barinholtz is either, but at least he was comic relief. She just makes me question the casting director.
-- Cage's absence from his family's life to pursue his career would have been enough to believe his current status, but the hubris was a little over the top. The cringe level was almost too much to keep watching.
I was floating along with 4/10 stars in my mind for a while, then added two stars when the plot kicked in and when we got to see more of Pedro Pascal. The movie was OK, but it wasn't good enough to require that you see it in theaters.
Though uneven, Nicolas Cage's professional career has always been very appealing to me. He played my favourite Marvel character in Ghost Rider (both horrendous), brought us The Search, The Rock, 60 Seconds, and a host of other films that entertained me for years and that I still remember fondly. That's why having the opportunity to see him in a film where he plays himself (with certain licences), showing us his problems, his fears and his mistakes, really caught my attention.
But what's more, "The unbearable weight of an enormous talent" is a meta-film, that is to say, we will see Nicolas talk about how to write a film, and how the development affects the story itself. Original, entertaining, slow at the beginning but fun at the end.
However, it wouldn't gain as much without the impeccable performance of Pedro Pascal, who turns everything he touches into gold, and this film is no exception. He softens Cage's histrionic gestures and sometimes stilted mannerisms, making the 100-minute film all the more engaging to watch.
Unfortunately, in the Spanish version we can't enjoy the original voice of Paco Leon, who despite not being too much of a saint of my devotion plays a fine role that is spoiled by dubbing him into Spanish even when he speaks our language.
By sticking to the safest narrative decisions that would come out of a film like this, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent feels like it wasted a genuine chance to stand out from the crowd. It's the type of film that, while having an excellent cast of characters, is always striving to be better than it is. It never quite accomplishes that aim, instead settling for something that isn't quite excellent enough to be regarded as great but not poor enough to be detested. The screenplay could have been more sharp and witty, and it needed to be more courageous.
Nicolas Cage gives us all we've come to expect from him, while Pedro Pascal outdoes himself. Despite a few problems, anyone who likes a tangled mix of sincerity, fakery, vanity, ingenuity, and self-commentary would enjoy this film. It isn't as daring as one might imagine, given its intriguing title and well-known star.
The actual heart and soul is the on-screen bromance between Cage and Pedro Pascal's characters. The film's chemistry takes it into the far more memorable territory, more than making up for some of the less interesting portions.
Hardcore Cage fans, as well as everyone who enjoys a good action-comedy, will enjoy the film. It's humorous, emotional, and action-packed. It hints at being smarter than it actually is at times, but it's a lot of fun and well-made overall.
Rating: 7/10
Every year a company called The Blacklist publishes a list of the most popular unproduced scripts, as voted on by several hundred film executives. This list is a common marketing tool for up and coming screenwriters to generate interest and secure work. However, because of the way the list is put together, producibility often takes a backseat to memorability, with high-concept, attention grabbing scripts outperforming the more budget conscious scripts. On the extreme end of this spectrum, this list can sometimes even include scripts that are downright unproducible. For example, the 2021 list included what essentially was a Harry Potter fan fiction. Given that the author almost certainly doesn't own the rights to that IP, that script has little chance of being produced and likely will serve only as a writing sample. Back in 2019, there was another script that seemingly had very little chance of being produced: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Writing a script that hinges not only on securing a particular A-List actor, but also having that actor be willing to play a satirical version of themselves... that's a low odds play. All of this is to say, the most impressive thing about this film is that it exists at all.
Regarding the film itself, it was exactly what I expected. The relationship and humor between Nicholas Cage and Pedro Pascal's character is enough to carry a straight forward plot that doesn't take itself seriously. While some of the supporting cast don't have much of an impact (e.g. CIA agents Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish), none of them get enough screen time to bog things down. If you enjoy Nicolas Cage and are familiar with his filmography, there is a good time to be had.
As an aside, I had a chance to read the script about a year back. While I don't remember the details well enough to do a full compare/contrast, generally speaking the film seemed quite faithful to the original script, which again speaks to the chops of a screenwriter who was willing to write a "for fun" script that he probably never dreamed would make it to the big screen.
Review by drqshadowBlockedParent2022-08-31T19:39:43Z
Paradise for Nic Cage fans, as Nic Cage plays a slightly fictionalized version of Nic Cage, travels overseas to visit an obsessive Nic Cage fan, argues with an imaginary friend (younger, crazier Nic Cage), combats a drug kingpin (not Nic Cage) and writes a movie. Want to guess which Hollywood celebrity he casts in the leading role?
Wacky, tongue-in-cheek and overtly meta-conscious, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent sees Cage leaning into his well-earned public image, embracing his noted private eccentricities and having some fun with his status as a world-class weirdo. He finds a capable partner in Pedro Pascal, who flaunts an impressive set of comedic chops as the aforementioned international fanboy. Together, they see sights and enjoy luxuries while discussing life, love and their favorite cinematic Cage-isms in the same breath. This is fun while it lasts, longer than I'd expect in fact, but eventually we do have to move on from the knowing winks and silly dialogue. At that transitional moment, it fades quickly, in a desperate effort to connect the most effective bits of the first two acts with a grander arching metaphor that's mismatched at best. Lame stuff, really; a limp follow-through to what had been a sharp, intelligent cluster of joyous mayhem up to that point.
While the getting's good, it's a wickedly entertaining ride, but that last half-hour feels like work.