Tag Archives: Nicolas Cage

Horror Film Review: Willy’s Wonderland (dir by Kevin Lewis)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2021’s Willy’s Wonderland takes place in an dilapidated restaurant.

Back in the day, Willy’s Wonderland was the ideal place to go if you were young and celebrating your birthday.  The animatronic mascots would sing “Happy birthday” and maybe meet your parents.  Willy Weasel, Arty Alligator, Cammy Chameleon, Ozzie Ostrich, Tito Turtle, Knighty Knight, Gus Gorilla, and Siren Sara promised fun and cheesy entertainment to anyone looking for a nice family meal!

Unfortunately, people stopped going to Willy’s once it was discovered that the owner was a serial killer.  Jerry Robert Willis (Grant Cramer) and his seven friends were cannibals who regularly sacrificed families.  Eventually, the police caught up to him but, even under new ownership, no one wanted to eat at Willy’s.  There were rumors that Willis and his friends had transferred their souls into the animatronic figures but surely, that could not have been true!

Right?

Nicolas Cage plays a man with no name.  When his car breaks down, the local mechanic agrees to fix the car if the man agrees to spend the night as the janitor at Willy’s.  Apparently, it’s been a struggle to keep a night janitor at the place.  People find the location to be creepy and, of course, the animatronic mascots keep killing anyone dumb enough to try to mop the floors.  Cage’s man with no name silently agrees.  Everything that Cage does, he does without a word.  This is one of the rare films where Nicolas Cage, usually a champion talker, says absolutely nothing.

Now, I should mention that there actually is a plot to Willy’s Wonderland.  Liv (Emily Tosta) and her friends are trying to burn the place down because, years ago, Liv’s parents were murdered by the mascots.  Unfortunately, Liv and her friends aren’t that smart and they end up trapped in Willy’s Wonderland.  The majority of them quickly fall victim to the mascots.  The deaths are appropriately gruesome, though tinged with the dark humor that would come from essentially being killed by a knock-off version of Chuck E. Cheese.

But really, the plot isn’t important.  This film is entirely about Nicolas Cage, playing a man with no name.  Cage takes the janitorial job and, over the course of the night, he battles the mascots.  At the same time, he also makes it a point to continue to do his job.  Besieged or not, he agreed to clean the place up.  He takes his breaks and plays pinball exactly as scheduled, even if that means abandoning Liv and her friends.  Normally, you might think that this would be bad behavior on the part of Cage’s character.  Abandoning someone in the middle of a battle is not usually encouraged.  But Liv and her friends are very annoying.  Cage is ultimately the hero by default.  Yes, he’s fighting and killing the mascots but he’s really only doing it because they’re getting in his way while he’s trying to do his job.  The fact that he helps out Liv is largely coincidental.

Willy’s Wonderland proves that Cage doesn’t need a lot of lines to be the center of a film.  Even without speaking, he’s such a wonderfully eccentric presence that you can’t help but watch him and cheer him on.  Admittedly, Willy’s Wonderland is never that scary, though the “Happy Birthday” song is definitely creepy.  The mascots are a bit too cartoonish to be truly frightening.  But, if the film doesn’t really work as a horror film, it does work as an adrenaline-fueled Cage match.  And that’s nearly as good.

Live Tweet Alert – #MondayMuggers present WILLY’S WONDERLAND (2021), starring Nicolas Cage!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. We’re actually hitting a 3-year milestone with #MondayMuggers, which had its premiere on July 11th, 2022. Tonight, Monday, July 14th, we’re excited to present WILLY’S WONDERLAND (2021), starring Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant, and Ric Reitz.

The plot: A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy’s Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash — and only one side will make it out alive.

So, if you think you might enjoy watching Nicolas Cage take on “demonic animatronics,” then there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this movie. Join us for the 3-year anniversary celebration of #MondayMuggers and watch WILLY’S WONDERLAND. It’s on Amazon Prime! I’ve included the trailer below:

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Alessandro Nivola and Nicolas Cage in FACE/OFF (1997)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Alessandro Nivola has some good credits in movies like MANSFIELD PARK (1999), AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013), and THE BRUTALIST (2024), but he’ll always be special to me as Pollux Troy, the younger brother of Nicolas Cage’s Castor Troy, in John Woo’s most awesome American film FACE/OFF!

In celebration of Nivola’s 53rd birthday, enjoy this little taste of late-90’s coolness (the link can only be watched on YOUTUBE, and it’s worth it):

The Films of 2025: The Surfer (dir by Lorcan Finnegan)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Surfer (Nicolas Cage) is an American who has returned to the Australian beach where his dad used to surf.  He wants to buy a home overlooking the ocean.  Even more importantly, he wants to surf with his teenage son (Finn Little).  As the Surfer and his son walk towards the water, they are confronted by three men.  The leader of the men goes by the name of Pitbull (Alexander Bertrand).

“Don’t live here,” Pitbull says, “don’t surf here.”

The Surfer assures Pitbull that his son is an amazing surfer.  (The Surfer’s son looks embarrassed.)

“Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” Pitbull replies.

Pitbull is a member of a cult of local surfers, all of whom follow Scally (Julian McMahon), a self-appointed guru who recites his rules with a ruthless but charismatic intensity.  Scally brands his followers, burning their flesh in a ritual to announce that they are now a part of his family.  “Before you can surf, you must suffer,” Scally says.

Now, to be honest, I would just go to a different beach.  I’m not a surfer.  I’m not even that much of a swimmer.  I do, however, enjoy laying out on a nice beach or by a big swimming pool.  One thing that I’ve learned is that, when the cult arrives, you leave.  Seriously, there’s always somewhere better to go.  Any place that does not have a cult will be infinitely better than a place that does.

The Surfer’s son agrees with me and suggests just going to another beach but that’s not an option for the Surfer.  The Surfer is obsessed with Scally’s beach and he’s determined to surf it.  It was on that beach where the Surfer made his best childhood memories.  It was on that beach where his father died.  The Surfer sends his son back home and then the Surfer literally moves into his Lexus.  He sleeps in the parking lot and he keeps an obsessive eye on the beach.

People come and go.  The Surfer meets the Bum (Nic Cassim), who claims that Scally is responsible for the death of both his dog and his son.  A local cop comes by and is quickly revealed to be a member of Scally’s cult.  The Surfer become more and more disheveled.  He loses his money.  He loses his car.  He runs into his real estate agent (Rahel Romahn) but the agent says that he’s never seen the Surfer before.  The Surfer starts to hallucinate and can no longer keep straight who is who.  What at first seemed like an intense midlife crisis and a desire to reclaim one’s youth starts to seem like something much more troubling and potentially psychotic.  Everyone tells The Surfer to leave.  Everyone tells him that he’s never going to get his house and he’s never going to surfer the beach.  But, like the Bum, the Surfer is a man obsessed.

The Surfer is an intriguing film.  At first, it seems like it’s going to be another Nicolas Cage revenge film.  Then, it becomes a surreal head trip, one that leaves you wondering just who exactly Cage’s surfer actually is.  Unfortunately, the film loses it’s way during its final third and instead becomes a rather mundane thriller.  That said, the cinematography is gorgeous and, if you’re a fan of Cage’s unique style (as I am), this film allows him a chance to get totally unhinged.  I wish the film had stuck with its surreal implications rather than chickening out during the final third but still, The Surfer and Nicolas Cage held my interest.

Fire Birds (1990, directed by David Green)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The South American drug cartels have been getting too aggressive so the American government decides to take them out with Apache helicopters.  Missions leaders Tommy Lee Jones and Dale Dye know that these helicopters are the ultimate weapons of death and that things could go terribly wrong if they recruit the wrong pilots.

So, of course, they get Nicholas Cage and Sean Young to fly them.

Fire Birds was an attempt to redo Top Gun with helicopters.  It does actually improve on Top Gun in that it gives the pilots an actual villain to fight.  The drug cartels and the German mercenary (Bert Rhine) that they hire are good B-movie villains and an improvement on the faceless and apparently nationless bad guys who showed up at the end of Top Gun.  What Fire Birds cannot improve on are the flying sequences because fighter planes are just more exciting than to watch than helicopters.

The best thing about the movie is that it brought Nicolas Cage and Tommy Lee Jones together and their acting styles mesh far better than I think anyone would expect.  Sean Young is about as believable as a helicopter pilot as you would expect her to be, which is to say not at all.  There’s a reason why Young’s best performance was as a robot.

“I.  Am.  The.  Greatest!” Nicolas Cage says in the movie and he sounds convinced.  Fire Birds makes the case that Cage is the greatest when it comes to making something bad watchable.  This movie would be thoroughly forgettable if not for his presence and the same can be said about a lot of other movies as well.  But, Tommy Lee Jones can lay claim to the “Greatest” title as well.   Five years after Fire Birds, Tommy Lee Jones would tell Jim Carrey, “I cannot sanction your buffoonery,” and the passage of time has shown that Jones knew what he was talking about.  Nicolas Cage and Tommy Lee Jones should make more movies together.

Happy 71st Birthday, John Travolta!!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I couldn’t let today go by without recognizing John Travolta. I’ve enjoyed so many of his films over the years, especially movies like GREASE, BLOW OUT, PULP FICTION, and GET SHORTY. But the movie I probably love the most is FACE/OFF. I remember watching it at the movie theater back in 1997 and thinking it was the best movie ever. It came out at a perfect time when I was obsessed with John Woo, and I was still enjoying Travolta’s mid-90’s comeback. I still watch FACE/OFF at least once every year.

Enjoy this excellent scene from John Woo’s FACE/OFF!

RIP David Lynch (1946-2025) 🙏 – A personal reflection…

Posted on by Bradley Crain

It was around 1986 or 1987, and I was around 13 years old. I had never heard of David Lynch, but I was at this video store at the Park Plaza mall in Little Rock when I came across a VHS tape of BLUE VELVET on sale for $1.99. The description looked very interesting, and it had Dennis Hopper in it. I recognized Hopper because he was in one of my favorite movies at the time, HOOSIERS. My dad was a high school basketball coach, so basketball was my life up until I graduated high school. Somehow, I was able to talk my mom into buying it for me. BLUE VELVET was probably the strangest film I had seen up to that point in my life, and there was no doubt that I didn’t understand what was going on in some parts of the film, but I was still mesmerized by it. I became an immediate fan of Lynch.

For the next decade or so, I was on the lookout for anything new from David Lynch, whether it be the TWIN PEAKS T.V. series, or even more importantly to me, WILD AT HEART, with Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. I’d watch the man’s work all by myself in my home in Toad Suck, Arkansas. It felt like I was in a gang of 1, as I’m not sure there was another person in my community who had any clue who David Lynch was, or who appreciated his work. But that was okay. I enjoyed his films and that’s all that matters.

I haven’t kept up with David Lynch that much over the last few years, but I’ve always recognized what a unique talent he was. Rest in peace, sir, and congratulations on a life well lived!

Quick Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (dir. by Jon Turteltaub)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice may be one of Disney’s better Live Action features. Borrowing from a small segment in Disney’s Fantasia, it builds a pretty cool story and still manages to pay homage to the original in it’s own way. Executive Produced by and starring Nicolas Cage, the film reunites him with his National Treasure director, Jon Turteltaub.

In the Dark Ages, the great wizard Merlin fought a major battle against the evil Morgana (Alice Krige, Star Trek: First Contact). At his side were his three apprentices, Veronica (Monica Bellucci, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Horvath (Alfred Molina, Prince of Persia) and Balthazar (Nicolas Cage). When Horvath betrays Merlin, both he and Morgana are defeated, contained in a layer of nesting dolls. Veronica is also part of the doll as she sacrifices herself to keep Morgana at bay. In order for Morgana to be destroyed, however, this can only be done by the Prime Merlinian, a Sorcerer of unimaginable power. To find the Prime Merlinian, Balthazar is given a ring for him to use.

When young Dave Stutler encounters Balthazar in his curio shop, we find that the ring does react to him and he may very well be the Prime Merlinian. Dave accidentally frees Horvath from the nesting doll and is saved by Balthazar before the pair of sorercers are trapped in an urn. 10 Years Pass (to the day), causing an event where both Horvath and Balthazar are freed. Can Balthazar train Dave (Jay Baruchel, Goon) in time to defeat Morgana, especially when Dave’s attentions are more focused on the girl of his dreams, Becky(Teresa Palmer, Netflix’s A Discovery of Witches)?

Thoughout his career, one of Cage’s magical traits is that he fully throws himself into a role. Not so much ‘method’ as maybe a Jeremy Strong (which may be more over the top), but he brings his own style to the mix. There isn’t a Cage character that isn’t enriched by the performances he brings to the table. For The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, he’s slightly subdued, but still carries the moxie he had in fllms like Face/Off, The Rock or even Mandy. He does make for a good father figure in this film.

Of course, the supporting cast is great. Molina makes for a nice villain in Horvath, with Toby Kebbell (Rock-n-Rolla) as an evil apprentice. Baruchel’s performance is pretty similar to what he did for How to Train Your Dragon, which made him perfect for this.

Building off of the National Treasure films, there’s as much humor in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice as there is adventure. After all, we are dealing with a tale of magic and wizards. There’s a cool car chase and a nice final confrontation. The connecting scene to Fantasia is a cute one, with magical brooms and mops trying to clean the workshop was a nice touch. The main theme of the story is just learning to believe in oneself and trust in what you’re capable of.

Lisa Reviews An Oscar Nominee: Moonstruck (dir by Norman Jewison)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Nominated for Best Picture of 1987, Moonstruck is a film about love, romance, New York City, and being Italian.

Loretta Castorini (Cher) is a widow and a bookkeeper who lives with her parents, Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) and Rose (Olympia Dukakis) in Brooklyn.  When her boyfriend, Johnny (Danny Aiello), asks Loretta to marry him, Loretta says yes even though she knows that, while she likes him, she’s not really in love with him.  After he proposes, Johnny reveals that he has to go to Sicily to see his “dying” mother.  He asks Loretta to pay a visit to his estranged brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), and invite him to the wedding.  Loretta, a strong believer in family and the importance of following tradition, agrees.

Loretta finds Ronny working in the bakery that he owns.  Ronny is not thrilled to learn that his brother has gotten engaged.  Ronny reveals that he has a wooden hand.  He lost his real hand when he accidentally placed it in a bread slicer while having a conversation with Johnny.  After he lost his hand, Ronny’s then-fiancée left him.  Ronny has never forgiven Johnny for the loss of his hand.  “I lost my hand!  I lost my bride!”  Ronny yells to the heavens.  Loretta, however, immediately understands that Johnny actually hurt his hand to get his fiancée to break up with him.  A conversation at Ronny’s apartment leads to the two of them impulsively sleeping with each other.  The next day, Ronny promises to never bother Loretta again if she agrees to go the opera with him.

What the guilt-stricken Loretta doesn’t know is that her father is having an affair himself and it turns out that Cosmo and Mona (Rose Gilette) enjoy the opera as well.  Meanwhile, Rose finds herself tempted by a lecherous college professor named Perry (John Mahoney).

There’s a lot of stereotypes to be found in Moonstruck.  Of course, passionate Ronny loves the opera.  Of course, the simple but well-intentioned Johnny abandons his fiancée so that he can rush to Sicily to be with his “dying” mother who, it turns out, isn’t dying at all.  Of course, Loretta slaps Ronny and tells him to snap out of it.  (I should note that I’m a fourth Italian myself so I could definitely relate to some of this film.  I’ve never liked opera, though.)  Fortunately, the film’s cast is so perfectly chosen and John Patrick Shanley’s script so adroitly maintains the balance between the broad comedy and the small dramatic moments that it doesn’t matter that all of the characters are a bit stereotypical.  The film comes to a wonderful life.  It’s impossible not love these characters, flaws and all.  Cher and Olympia Dukakis deserved the Oscars that they both won for this film.  Vincent Gardenia deserved the nomination that he received.  Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, and John Mahoney were not nominated but they should have been.  In particular, John Mahoney is heart-breaking in his small role, playing the type of lecherous character that most films would have just portrayed as being a cardboard buffoon.  As for Nicolas Cage, Moonstruck is a film that features both his trademark eccentricity and his ability to show the real and vulnerable human being underneath all of the bluster.  Moonstruck is a film about the search for love and the glory of finding it.  It’s a wonderfully romantic film, even if almost all of that love seems to involve infidelity.  As directed by Norman Jewison, Moonstruck not only celebrates falling in love but also celebrates being lucky enough to do so in New York City.  It’s a love letter not just to its characters but to the city as well.

Moonstruck was nominated for Best Picture but it lost to a far more epic production, The Last Emperor.

 

 

 

Raising Arizona (Dir Joel & Ethan Coen), Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

Happy Birthday, Nicolas Cage. If you’re an older Millennial or Young Gen X, you saw “Raising Arizona” about 100 times on Showtime and HBO because I believe that it was very inexpensive to license. The film was a hard left turn for the Coen Brothers who had major success with “Blood Simple” – a brutal thriller- that turned all women off to Fat Southern Murderers forever. The Coen thrillers tended to have comedic edge after Raising Arizona, but never just a comedy again- until The Big Lebowski. This film is also responsible for John Goodman. Prior to this film he was in mostly small parts, then after this picture- he became a household name in Roseanne.

Nicolas Cage is a made up name. He is Francis Coppola’s nephew and I can’t fault him for mayonnaising his name because my Italian ancestors did as well. However, I believe that he was trying to hide the Coppola name more than his heritage. Speaking of Italian heritage, try “Groking” “Italian American Jersey Girl” in grok. The lady who appears is beautiful, but doesn’t look like any of my Aunts. I feel that I should advocate for my people- We trend good looking and gave you Pizza Friday! Come on, show some love!

The film’s premise is that H.I. McDonnough (Nicolas Cage) is an ex con who is addicted to robbing the same convenience store again and again and again. This may seem strange, but in another life, I did criminal defense and I had a client who would steal the same jacket from the same store every year. Edwina “Ed” (Holly Hunter) is a cop who processes H.I. again and again. Each time, he flirts with her. His last time as a convict in front of her- her fiancé left her. H.I. realizes that he must go straight to get her love.

After his jail time, he returns as a free man to get his love- “Ed”. It works! They have a great life, but they want a child and yet she can’t conceive. The solution: they will kidnap a baby from the owner of Gallery Furniture! If you were from Texas, you would’ve laughed! They get the kid and are pursued by all sorts of people who want to claim the reward for the kidnapped baby.

This very intricate plot is just the first 30 minutes of the film. It is truly funny. I always felt for these character because good people should have LOTS OF KIDS- as many as possible! They shouldn’t have to pay taxes or anything. This film is special to me for another reason: it is when the Boomers were still young and filled with hope. Now, we are losing them and it hurts. This film is a glimpse of what they were like before the grey and how much they yearned for a good family on their own terms.