CAGE UNCAGED: THIS HERE ZIPPER MASK IS A SYMBOL OF MY INDIVIDUALITY

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CAGE UNCAGED CAGE MATCH: WILD AT HEART & 8MM 

"The Difficult Follow-Up". 

Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the textbook for cool, edgy nihilists (teenaged and otherwise) with 1995's SE7EN, directed by pod fave, overexposing messiah David Fincher. For fans, Walker's spiritual and numerical follow-up, 1999's 8MM was something of an event! Nicolas Cage as a PI hunting down the origins of a bonafide snuff film? Sign us up with a gallon of hand sanitizer and five needed showers with NIN blaring afterwards! Then the studio and director, Joel Schumacher, as fascicle as ever,  got involved making significant changes and, 21 years later, Walker hates this movie and wants it remade. Walker was paid 1.75 million (dollars!) for the script and that didn't make things a wee bit better?  Can Cage elevate the uneven material like he has so many times before (and after)?

David Lynch was a cult figure in the 80s, given carte blanche by producer Dino De Laurentiis after the infamous Dune (1984) debacle. Lynch made 1986's Blue Velvet as a result, one of the greatest films of the decade and one that found him fully in control of his own distinct style. Then Twin Peaks exploded in 1990 and his weirdness reached full zeitgeist in the mainstream for a few months.

So his film follow-up to Blue Velvet, 1990's Wild at Heart, based on Barry Gifford's slender novel of the same name, with Nicolas Cage as leading man along with Laura Dern on a sexy, crazy road trip? The anticipation (amongst fans of a certain age) was unbearable! Then it came out and fans (of a certain age) were all "Huh? What's with the Wizard of Oz stuff?" How does it look thirty years later? Is Cage the greatest actor Lynch has ever worked with?  One of the legendary directing stylists ever paired with our favorite actor! Then what makes this so difficult a follow-up? Listen and find out. Maybe it isn't!

Explore the breadth of Cage in the 1990's as he goes from cult icon coveted by great directors in 1990 to full-fledged Oscar winning leading man by 1999 coveted by bland corporate studios for blander blockbusters. Does Cage keep his credibility intact?

WILD AT HEART: 00:04:04

8MM: 00:50:00

Theme Song by: Howling Fantods

Our fourteen remaining Cage Films:
Bringing Out The Dead, City of Angels, Con Air, Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas, Joe, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Moonstruck, National Treasure II, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes

EPILOGUE: WILLY'S WONDERLAND