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Sat 23 August 2025 16:15, UK
You never know what you’re going to get with a Nicolas Cage film. Sometimes, it’s a real gem of a movie, full of tremendous performances and a unique concept. Other times, it’s 2006’s The Wicker Man.
Cage’s acting choices are all over the place, and his decision to appear in a remake of the classic British folk horror film was certainly one of his most baffling decisions. But that’s just one of many bizarre and plain bad movies he has lent himself to since the 1980s, giving him a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most enigmatic stars and leaving us to wonder – what is going on inside Cage’s brain?
The actor, who was practically born into cinematic royalty as the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, definitely has it in him to pick some great roles. He won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, appeared alongside Cher in the terrific rom-com Moonstruck, exercised his campiest muscles for David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, and even proved himself to be an unforgettable horror icon with Longlegs. But then there’s all the bad films…the really bad films.
Since 2014, Cage’s movie choices have largely been video-on-demand only, and most of them have been received overwhelmingly negatively. I’m talking tremendously poorly. From Dying of the Light to Pay the Ghost, Cage’s career certainly looked like it was destined to be over, but luckily for the self-proclaimed thespian, recent choices like Dream Scenario and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent seem to have redeemed the actor’s place in Hollywood.
Yet, Cage still thinks that critics have been a little too harsh on many of his movies, and there’s one film from 2008 that he believes deserves a little redemption. Bangkok Dangerous, directed by the Pang Brothers, was panned by audiences, with the general consensus being that Cage needs to stay away from Hollywood remakes. Just two years on from his God awful approach to The Wicker Man, his decision to star as the lead in a Hollywoodized version of the Pang Brothers’ 1999 Thai original proved to be just as lacklustre.
Cage told Den of Geek, “I recently saw The Killer, which I thought was very well crafted, but it was very nihilistic. It also made me think about a movie that I had made that was largely beaten up critically and didn’t really have any voice at all, and that was Bangkok Dangerous.
“And what I would say about Bangkok Dangerous is I’m playing a similar character [to Michael Fassbender’s], but what I liked is that there’s a lot of heart there within this nihilistic world of being an assassin. He falls in love and I liked these emotions that start to grow.”
Explaining his theory on why the movie wasn’t successful, Cage accused critics of “marginalizing it because it was considered a B-level action flick,” adding that the final cut of the film was different in America compared to the international version. This can certainly be an issue for directors, although we’re not sure if Cage is just making up excuses here.
Still, he’s adamant that you should check it out. “If you can, get the Asian cut and not the American cut. I think there’s, perhaps, some enjoyment there to review,” Cage concluded.
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