Review: “Renfield”

Dracula’s first introduction in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel predates the founding of Universal Studios (then Universal Pictures) by a mere 15 years, but Universal possibly wouldn’t still be around if it wasn’t for the vampire. Financially struggling at the start of the 1930s, Universal’s new head Carl Laemmle Jr. (recently bestowed that title by his […]

Review: “The Old Way”

There’s a moment in the climax of director Brett Donowho’s “The Old Way” where baddie James McCallister (Noah Le Gros) and gunslinger Colton Briggs (Nicolas Cage) finally confront each other face-to-face after having spent the entire movie on each other’s heels. McCallister tells Briggs that they’re going to resolve this conflict “the old way”—i.e., with […]

TIFF Review: “Butcher’s Crossing”

Toronto International Film Festival Gala Presentations World Premiere Of all the varied genres Nicolas Cage has explored over the course of his long and colorful career, an old school western is one he hasn’t really touched. But it turns out that the part of buffalo hunter Miller is the exact right fit for Cage, one […]

Review: “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”

“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” opens with perhaps one of the silliest scenes from Nicolas Cage’s long and varied filmography: the ending of the 1997 action movie “Con Air,” in which Cage’s Army vet and ex-con who just saved the day reunites with his wife and the daughter he’s never met, Trisha Yearwood’s “How […]

Review: “Pig”

“Pig” is not quite the movie I—and I think many others—expected it would be. Not that I necessarily had specific expectations for a film with such a bizarre premise: a forager (played by an exceedingly scruffy Nicolas Cage) travels from his isolated woodland existence to the city of Portland on a quest to recover his […]