Latest / Cage Match: A Roundabout Way of Meeting Nicolas Cage / Adaptation vs Army of One
Transcript
- 0:00Oh, God. Oh, my God.
- 0:13I got who's going to who's going to take their shirt off first?
- 0:17Oh, my money's on Nick, because I'm the fat one.
- 0:21I mean, I'm I'm I'm a speaking of insulation.
- 0:25I'm a I'm a beefy boy.
- 0:27I'm just more compact, beefy, packed beef.
- 0:32Mm hmm. Please don't start on that line.
- 0:36It's going to be hard not to. Yeah.
- 0:39So is this where we say welcome back?
- 0:41Welcome. It's your first time.
- 0:44Yeah, Dick move.
- 0:45There's only two episodes and you go to the second one and you don't even listen
- 0:48to the first. Yeah, it's not like there's a long list that you have to get through.
- 0:52No, we're not asking a lot.
- 0:54Now, anyway, welcome back to Cage Match, Colin, a roundabout way of meeting Nicholas Cage,
- 1:00the podcast where every episode we take two
- 1:05films of America's finest, most hardworking actor
- 1:10and pit them against each other.
- 1:12And we will decide ultimately what the best Nick Cage film ever is.
- 1:18Yeah, definitively definitively.
- 1:20There's going to be no question about it.
- 1:22No. Oh, hi. I'm Sean with my cohost Nick.
- 1:27I'm Nick and our producer Peter. Hi.
- 1:30So this week we are discussing two fine films,
- 1:36but you're in for a treat because you get an extra cage for the price of two.
- 1:41We're doing adaptation and Army of One.
- 1:45So do you want to give us the first movie?
- 1:47Well, like, you want to. Sure. We can jump right in.
- 1:50And adaptation. Yeah, let's just bang this out.
- 1:52All right. So I don't think it should take us that long to talk about this.
- 1:55Yeah. Adaptation is a 2002 film starring Nick Cage
- 2:01and Nick Cage. Nick Cage plays a fictionalized version
- 2:06of real life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
- 2:10and then fictional fictional twin brother Donald Kaufman.
- 2:15Charlie Kaufman write off the heels of writing.
- 2:19Being John Malkovich has to adapt a film about.
- 2:24Orchid, the Orchid Thief is the name of the book.
- 2:27It's a book by Susan Orlean.
- 2:29It's about another real life person. Yeah.
- 2:33Fictionalized in this, which I got to say, that's the most wild shit about this.
- 2:38Like, did Susan Orlean and John LaRouche actually
- 2:42buy off on this or just like give away?
- 2:44We will get we will get into this. I have I have notes.
- 2:48So Meryl Streep plays Susan Orlean.
- 2:50Charlie Kaufman trying to write this screenplay.
- 2:54Can't write the screenplay.
- 2:55Everything's going to shit. He's circling the drain.
- 2:58Can't get a girlfriend.
- 3:00Can't even sack up to meet Susan Orlean to get any idea of what he is.
- 3:04Supposed to be writing all the while his layabout twin brother
- 3:10is taking a screenwriting course and writing the worst, best action film ever.
- 3:17And just immediate success sells it, gets a girlfriend,
- 3:21has all this unearned confidence that just gets him through life.
- 3:26So Charlie asks his brother to help out on the screenplay
- 3:29and they wind up stalking his prey like to get a better idea for this film.
- 3:35They start watching Susan Orlean
- 3:38follow her down to where was it?
- 3:41Florida, Tallahassee, something Louisiana, somewhere swampy.
- 3:45It felt panhandling. I think it's Florida.
- 3:48Florida sounds right to find out that she's mixed up with.
- 3:52Yes, because it's the Seminole tribe.
- 3:54Boom. Yeah. Florida State or whatever.
- 3:56And she's mixed up with growing these orchids.
- 4:00This is a sports radio podcast now. Sorry.
- 4:02Growing these orchids for drug purposes
- 4:06and having an affair with John LaRouche played by Chris Cooper,
- 4:11who is a character.
- 4:13He's certainly something there.
- 4:15We'll get into more detail as we kind of discuss the film.
- 4:18Yeah. Do we want to just do that now? Yeah.
- 4:21I mean, we're done recapping. That seems like the perfect time.
- 4:23Yeah, that's probably probably good. That's Nick.
- 4:26Oh, man.
- 4:28This was a tough one for me because it was literally like just watching
- 4:33Cotton Mouth. It was just hanging out with him,
- 4:38a friend of ours who's super kind of in his head for like two hours.
- 4:44Yeah. I mean, literally, you are listening to his inner.
- 4:47Yeah. Inner thoughts.
- 4:49But it was a really well written movie.
- 4:52It's a really well structured movie.
- 4:55I understand why it's such a highly regarded movie,
- 4:58and I liked watching it.
- 5:00It's just stressful to me. I get that.
- 5:03I mean, he is not a.
- 5:06Relatable protagonist.
- 5:09Other than right now, how sweaty he is at the beginning.
- 5:13Oh, my God, he's very relatable.
- 5:16It is warm in Seattle today.
- 5:19I mean, I personally loved this film.
- 5:21I haven't seen it since like 2004, but it's so good.
- 5:26It has so much fun stuff and just.
- 5:28You get a lot of like cage on cage action with him acting against himself
- 5:33and also just masturbating a lot.
- 5:35Oh, yeah. Yeah, that that happens.
- 5:39But just watching him spiral and trying to write this book
- 5:43that has no central right.
- 5:45Write a screenplay about a book that has no central plot and circling
- 5:49the drain, trying to figure out what it's about.
- 5:52Yeah, there's no action, no drama.
- 5:54It's just about looking for a flower.
- 5:58Somebody get shot.
- 6:00No, like, I mean, in the in the movie that he's trying to write a screenplay.
- 6:05Yes, there's none of that. Yeah.
- 6:07No, there's no action, but we find out there's plenty of action behind the scenes
- 6:11as Susan Orlean is having an affair, getting down with.
- 6:18I mean, I think the real star character here is John LaRouche, just like the
- 6:22star character here is John LaRouche, just walked out crazy guy missing.
- 6:29He's missing his front teeth.
- 6:31Obsessed with whatever strikes his current fancy.
- 6:35At the beginning of the movie, it's orchids halfway through its online
- 6:39pornography and the making of online pornography.
- 6:43Mm hmm. I don't forget the most important one.
- 6:47Dutch mirrors.
- 6:49Oh, I did forget about that.
- 6:54This is supposedly a comedy.
- 6:56Yeah, I kind of think that we got this miss categorized.
- 7:01It should have been better suited in the fucking weird area.
- 7:06I think it's sold as a comedy.
- 7:08I mean, it definitely is sold as a comedy.
- 7:10That's how it's listed. It's sort of a dark comedy.
- 7:13You know, Wikipedia classifies it as such.
- 7:15IMDb classifies it as such.
- 7:18Did I laugh?
- 7:21I have a couple.
- 7:22I had one particular one.
- 7:28When Donald gets launched out of the car.
- 7:34Yeah, it's a it's a good scene.
- 7:36Just at first, very ragdoll style.
- 7:43Any specific scenes speak to you on this film, Nick?
- 7:46It's a hard one because it's not really told in a good
- 7:49and a very linear fashion either.
- 7:50It cuts around a lot like favorite scenes.
- 7:53I don't know if I have like a scene that really kind of struck me.
- 7:58I enjoyed the cleverness of La Roche
- 8:00when they were talking with that sheriff in the beginning.
- 8:05Oh, yeah.
- 8:06And, you know, it was kind of funny, but it's kind of one of those
- 8:09where it's like, oh, ha ha, this guy, he knows his way around this issue
- 8:15and he's going to talk around the cops and everything's going to be hunky dory.
- 8:20And it's like, oh, OK, that's what you get.
- 8:23See, that was the weird one for me.
- 8:24So watching Charlie made you think of our buddy Cottonmouth.
- 8:29But La Roche just made me think of my friend who got really into meth.
- 8:33Oh, yeah. Just that very, you know, I know a lot about everything
- 8:37and can talk my way out of any problem.
- 8:40But meth, apparently, he wears a fedora now, I didn't told.
- 8:43Boy, I didn't think you could get lower than meth.
- 8:47But fedora, those are two things I generally don't put associate with each other.
- 8:53Imagine how fast he can skank.
- 8:59That one got me.
- 9:00If only adaptation had writing like that.
- 9:04I think we do need to talk, though, about like Nick Cage with Nick Cage.
- 9:08Oh, I do want to say, speaking of writing,
- 9:11it's it's funny that this movie adaptation
- 9:15has Donald Kaufman listed as a co-author.
- 9:19So it's written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman.
- 9:22This movie is meta as far.
- 9:24Yeah. For the Academy Awards, it was both Charlie and Donald that were nominated.
- 9:30Fake twin brother Donald. Yeah.
- 9:33But like, just let's talk about the fact that, yeah, Nick Cage is acting
- 9:37against Nick Cage for large chunks of this film.
- 9:40Yeah. And it works really well.
- 9:43And those are the best parts.
- 9:44And those are those parts are pretty funny.
- 9:46Watching Donald try and like write this.
- 9:50The premise of Donald's movie that he's writing is it is a crime thriller
- 9:56where a kidnapper kidnaps a woman and the detective is trying to find her.
- 10:02But they're all the same person.
- 10:05Yeah, that's the twist at the end.
- 10:06There's a great I don't remember the full quote,
- 10:09and it's not my favorite quote of this film.
- 10:10But there's a great quote about when Charlie's like, How would you even film that?
- 10:14And Donald's just like, can camera angles.
- 10:19All right, because it's a she's locked herself in the basement or something.
- 10:23Yes. No, but there's so much good just back and forth there.
- 10:28And when they're in the swamp, like running for their lives,
- 10:30they have a really great moments together.
- 10:33And you find out that Charlie's never been happy
- 10:37because he's never done anything.
- 10:39And Donald is just happy in the fact that the brief moments of happiness
- 10:43he's had, even if they've been taken away, were still his.
- 10:47So he could live with that.
- 10:50Yeah, he has a nice moment where he talks about like liking somebody.
- 10:55But, you know, he's not worried about if they don't like him back
- 10:58because that's their deal.
- 11:00Not his. Yeah.
- 11:01I was like, oh, that's a sweet sentiment.
- 11:03I mean, kind of.
- 11:05I mean, I get it in a soft headed sort of way.
- 11:08I can say soft headed.
- 11:10I'm pretty sure we can say soft headed.
- 11:12It doesn't really mean anything. I'll look it up.
- 11:14Yeah. Google it.
- 11:15Oh, I'm trying to think who any other noticeable notable people.
- 11:20Well, speaking of just like the Nicholas Cage, Nicholas Cage
- 11:25back and forth the first time we meet Donald, I really enjoyed that scene.
- 11:30He's just like laying on the ground.
- 11:33And Charlie's just having a hard day.
- 11:36And Donald's like, oh, I want to talk to you about this thing.
- 11:39I figured out what I'm going to do.
- 11:40But I have to lay down my back.
- 11:42He's just laying on the floor trying to do this scene with himself.
- 11:47And it's just great. I did enjoy that.
- 11:50Well, I think my laughs came less from the dialogue and more situationally.
- 11:57Yeah. What did you guys think of the writers workshop?
- 12:03Oh, God, what's the name of the what was the name of the guy?
- 12:07Oh, the author, the McKee or something like that.
- 12:09Brian Cox is the Robert McKee, who is apparently a real person as well.
- 12:14We can get into that later.
- 12:16I thought that was great.
- 12:17The whole like fuck voiceovers.
- 12:20Yeah, this movie ends on a voiceover and then is well,
- 12:23calls back to McKee saying fuck voiceovers.
- 12:26McKee's going off and saying like, oh, don't don't use a voiceover.
- 12:30Don't use a deus ex machina.
- 12:32Like, don't when Charlie's trying to work on this script,
- 12:37he goes through a whole list of shit.
- 12:40Not to include in this because he wanted to avoid all the Hollywood tropes.
- 12:43So he's like, don't make it a heist movie.
- 12:47Don't include drug running, sex, guns, car chases, profound life lessons.
- 12:54The characters growing, overcoming obstacles or learning to like each other.
- 13:00And literally every one of those things happens throughout this movie and all
- 13:04like neatly compact in the end where it's Charlie writing the ending to it.
- 13:10So he just crams everything he didn't want in the movie into the last like 30 minutes of it.
- 13:15Oh, well, so the movie and the movie starts off with this.
- 13:19The world the universe is created, you know, plants spreading.
- 13:23It's spring up from dirt.
- 13:26Fish walks on the land.
- 13:27You see a baby's head crowning, which did not need.
- 13:31But 41 minutes into the movie, when Charlie gets his bout of inspiration,
- 13:36he writes that exact opening to his script.
- 13:40Yeah. If you've ever watched the Detroiters, it's a lot like the scene
- 13:44where Tim Robinson and Sam What's His Face
- 13:47take a bunch of uppers and brainstorm a commercial.
- 13:53It's just like that.
- 13:55He gets all sweaty.
- 13:56He's talking into a recorder and then I think he throws a chair at a window.
- 14:01I can tell you my biggest laugh from this film, speaking of Deus Ex mocking
- 14:04and how not to introduce in the film Deus Ex alligator.
- 14:08Yeah, they're being chased through the swamp.
- 14:10La Roche has Charlie dead to rights
- 14:14and alligator just pops out of the water and just mercs La Roche.
- 14:20Yeah, it was very incredible.
- 14:23There's examples of it in every movie.
- 14:25I don't need to fucking make a reference.
- 14:28You know what it looks like when a big animal eats a small animal.
- 14:33And then Meryl Streep shows up and just is crying because her hillbilly lover is dead
- 14:38after being directly responsible for Donald's death.
- 14:42Yeah.
- 14:43And tells Charlie to shut up, you fat fuck.
- 14:49Yeah.
- 14:50It's really the twisting of the knife.
- 14:52He wore a fat suit for this movie.
- 14:54Did he?
- 14:55Yeah.
- 14:56See, I figured he would have just gained the weight.
- 14:58No commitment to the bit.
- 14:59You know, he never breaks character on set, but...
- 15:02Which character?
- 15:04All character.
- 15:06So he's both Charlie and Donald the whole time.
- 15:09Is that true though about him not breaking character?
- 15:11He stays in character real hard while he's on set.
- 15:14I did not know that.
- 15:15Yeah.
- 15:16Oh my God.
- 15:17That makes Army of One.
- 15:19That makes Army of One real rough.
- 15:21What's-your-face, Marcy from Army of One, talks about that in an interview about him.
- 15:28He just stays in character.
- 15:30Before we get to Army of One, there are some real interesting things around adaptation.
- 15:36Oh yeah, there's lots of great things.
- 15:38First and foremost, Charlie Kaufman was hired to adapt a screenplay of The Orchid Thief,
- 15:45got massive writer's block, couldn't figure it out for all the reasons he couldn't in the movie,
- 15:51so wrote this instead.
- 15:53Didn't tell his producers he was doing this, just assumed he was going to be fired and never work in Hollywood again, and turned it in.
- 16:03That's crazy.
- 16:04That's pretty ballsy, but I guess if you're just up against a wall and you've got a deadline,
- 16:12at least this was somewhat connected to what he was supposed to do.
- 16:16You just turn in homework.
- 16:18Yeah, that's fine.
- 16:20It's just weird that you wrote an essay on a multiple choice test.
- 16:24Pretty much.
- 16:26Oh, but directed by Spike Jonze, who went to bat for this script.
- 16:31I hadn't realized how few movies he's actually full on directed.
- 16:36Yeah, it's not many.
- 16:37Four.
- 16:38Yeah, it's not many.
- 16:39It is not many.
- 16:40Not good with names and stuff. What's he done? Tell me and the audience.
- 16:45Being John Malkovich was first, obviously tied with Charlie Kaufman, then adaptation, then Where the Wild Things Are,
- 16:52and then lastly and most recently was Her with Joaquin Phoenix.
- 16:57He also did a really awesome short film, Where They Come From, or Where Do They Come From.
- 17:04It's all about where a pair of old sneakers you find in the gutter really come from.
- 17:09I won't spoil it for you, but Google it.
- 17:11It's on YouTube.
- 17:12It's amazing.
- 17:13Other fun fact, Susan Orlean was not okay with this when she found out what this was.
- 17:19Saw the script and was just like, No, you cannot do this.
- 17:24But apparently came around on the idea, but was genuinely worried this would completely ruin her reputation.
- 17:31Right.
- 17:32And I mean, yeah, not a great character in the film.
- 17:38Yeah, I guess if you're like a writer for The New Yorker, you don't want movies coming out about you shacking up with toothless Floridians.
- 17:46While doing a bunch of weird green blow.
- 17:49Yeah, which I mean, at least Meryl Streep did a great crazy strung out Susan Orlean.
- 17:57Yeah.
- 17:58Well, I assume it's great.
- 17:59I don't know what Susan Orlean's actually like, but I'm assuming a lot like the performance.
- 18:04La Roche and Orlean were on the phone together.
- 18:07They were both really high on orchid.
- 18:09Oh, yeah.
- 18:10And she had him like match dial tone sounds.
- 18:13Yeah.
- 18:14She just wanted to make a dial tone.
- 18:15Like, don't do anything else, just go, oh, like, no, you're doing it slightly wrong.
- 18:20Oh, sorry.
- 18:22Much better.
- 18:24I mean, you do.
- 18:25You got to give this credit, right?
- 18:26Like three people got nominated for Oscars on this one one pretty damn good.
- 18:32Yeah, no, I don't want to make it sound like I don't like the movie.
- 18:36I do like the movie.
- 18:37It's it's really cerebral.
- 18:39It's good.
- 18:40It's got it took me on a great ride.
- 18:43I really enjoyed watching it both times, but it's stressful.
- 18:47It is very it's a stressful film.
- 18:49Yeah.
- 18:50If you have anxiety, it can be upsetting to watch this.
- 18:55I know.
- 18:56That's all I got.
- 18:57It's a fun movie.
- 18:58I do have I mean, I do have other things.
- 19:00Oh, all right.
- 19:01Go for it.
- 19:02I've been just telling my friends.
- 19:03OK.
- 19:04Once again, this is not a movie originally intended for Nicolas Cage.
- 19:09It was going to be Tom Hanks playing both roles from what I've read.
- 19:13But Nicolas Cage came in for five million dollars again.
- 19:19Hey, and he got both roles.
- 19:22That's two and a half million for each role.
- 19:24I can't really picture this with Hanks playing that.
- 19:28No, neither can I.
- 19:30What was Hanks doing in 2002?
- 19:32He was working on the terminal.
- 19:33OK, why not?
- 19:34Sure.
- 19:35The terminal list with Chris Pratt.
- 19:36Yeah, actually, no, I do know the answer to this.
- 19:38He was doing Catch Me Catch Me If You Can.
- 19:40Oh, yeah, that's that would be the right era.
- 19:42Still airplane related.
- 19:43Weird.
- 19:44Yeah, right.
- 19:45In one scene, Charlie Kaufman plays the double for Donald.
- 19:50But the other stand in is Nicolas Cage's actual brother, Mark Coppola.
- 19:56Fun bringing, you know, family in and those Coppola's need, you know, need all the help they can get.
- 20:01Yeah, they're a struggling, struggling family.
- 20:04Struggling winery.
- 20:06Speaking of finances, this movie cost about like 19 million to make and it made like 22 million.
- 20:11So pretty bad.
- 20:14That's a shame.
- 20:15I mean, it is an arthouse film, though, so it's not.
- 20:17It did break that hundred thousand mark, which is it did beat Jiu Jitsu's hundred thousand.
- 20:24Yeah. All right. Is that the hurdle that movies have to clear?
- 20:27Yeah. Can you clear the Jiu Jitsu mark?
- 20:30I always am curious about these movies, why they decide to release them when they do, because this came out in
- 20:35early December and just got washed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
- 20:43And then two weeks later, the Lord of the Rings, the Twin Towers, the two towers.
- 20:49Oh, yeah.
- 20:54He's in a 9-11 movie.
- 20:56It's like I said, I liked it.
- 20:59Nick, do your favorite quote from this film?
- 21:02I did have a favorite quote from this movie.
- 21:05Donald on the ground just saying, I can't believe I got shot.
- 21:10Isn't that fucked up?
- 21:13And then Charlie just saying, shut up. Stop laughing.
- 21:18So mine is Donald while brainstorming and writing his film with his girlfriend in the room talking to Charlie saying,
- 21:27I'm putting in a chase sequence so the killer flees on horseback with the girl.
- 21:32The cops after them on a motorcycle.
- 21:34And it's like battle between motors and horses like technology versus horse.
- 21:42Yeah, Donald is really the best character.
- 21:45Donald is great.
- 21:47Probably why he doesn't exist.
- 21:52I do want to see Donald's movie, though.
- 21:55It sounds kind of like even if it was like a 30 minute short, that'd be pretty rad.
- 21:59Yeah, I'm into it.
- 22:00I mean, I assumed it would have been directed by Sean Alon.
- 22:03But yeah, by and large, I still really enjoyed this film.
- 22:06It's got a lot to like and yeah, there is a lot.
- 22:09I recommend it.
- 22:11It is a good movie. I enjoyed it as well.
- 22:14So Nick Cage staying in character all the time.
- 22:17This is oh my God.
- 22:20That sounds awful for this next film, Army of One from 2016.
- 22:25Nick, do you want to do you want to sell our listeners on this film?
- 22:29Yeah, this is pretty much everything I have on the film.
- 22:33And it's about Gary Faulkner, part time, sometime construction worker
- 22:40and unemployed handyman just meets up with an old high school crush,
- 22:47then gets a message from God telling him that he needs to go to Pakistan
- 22:54to kill Osama bin Laden.
- 22:57Capture Osama bin Laden. Oh, yeah. Sorry.
- 22:59Now shot, not kill. Yeah, that's right.
- 23:01But yeah, capture Osama bin Laden.
- 23:03Bring him back for justice and stuff.
- 23:06I think the important thing that was missing from that synopsis is that this is
- 23:10largely based on a real guy and accurate to the story as far as I know.
- 23:17Yeah, it's a wacky. Yeah.
- 23:21But it is another terrific character role.
- 23:26It definitely is a character role.
- 23:28And hey, man, that's not a character that somebody just like, I think, makes up super easy.
- 23:35This guy, he was something. He was.
- 23:38It's OK. So let's just let's just say the voice is terrible.
- 23:43I don't know. I found it soothing.
- 23:46Do I have to be that guy?
- 23:47Do I have to be the guy that defends the people with bad voices?
- 23:50I mean, at this point, I think you have to. Yeah, it was it was rough.
- 23:53I did get used to it after a while.
- 23:55But boy, when it first came on, I was like, what is this?
- 24:00You know, I heard that voice and I was like, oh, fuck.
- 24:03I identify with this so much as he's just like,
- 24:06he's got a bad kidney and he's getting dialysis and he's just sitting there.
- 24:11He's like, you know, what's fucking wrong with this country?
- 24:14Oh, my God. That is the voice. Fuck. Yeah.
- 24:17Yeah. That's why I feel attacked right now.
- 24:20Fuck. Well, that's that's all my jokes out the window.
- 24:25No, it's OK. You can you can lay it on me.
- 24:28No, it's tough.
- 24:30I'm getting more why it's a shame this movie isn't better because it should have been better.
- 24:35When we get into who was behind this, it should have been much better.
- 24:39What you mean, like who directed it?
- 24:41You mean the director of Borat or Religulous or Bruno or the Dictator?
- 24:49Because this is what this guy's done.
- 24:52He's also was involved in the like 2001 tick show entourage Kirby enthusiasm.
- 25:01He's got a pedigree like a Dalmatian.
- 25:04It's spotty. I'm not saying it would be.
- 25:06I'm not saying it would be a great movie, but it should have been a lot better.
- 25:10Well, especially if you think like the cast is actually not bad.
- 25:13No, no, it's got a pretty good cast.
- 25:15It's got like in Rainn Wilson in it.
- 25:18Paul Scheer, Will Sasso. Yeah.
- 25:21Also, Paul Scheer's character's name is Pickles. Pickles. Yeah.
- 25:24Pickles. Great name. Gary Faulkner's best friend.
- 25:27This movie starts off as the most cage thing ever.
- 25:34The first scene of the film is Gary Faulkner hang gliding over Pakistan with a katana.
- 25:43It's an American flag. American flag hang glider.
- 25:46American flag like hang gliding goggles and a sweet ass beard.
- 25:52A boombox hanging from the hang glider playing some like surf rock.
- 25:58Yeah. Generic surf rock. Something you can really enjoy hang gliding to.
- 26:01Yeah. And that's how it starts.
- 26:04And it's really all downhill from there. Yeah.
- 26:07Like the next scene is him as a child running with a balloon, then getting bullied
- 26:13and then hearing the voice of God telling him his balloon stick was his righteous sword.
- 26:19And then we cut to Nick Cage and Tidy Whitey's living in a construction site.
- 26:24Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't have money, so he's just crashing in construction sites that he's worked on.
- 26:30It's pretty good. Then goes to an American flag sleeping bag.
- 26:35American flag sleeping bag. Because he's a patriot.
- 26:37He is a patriot. Let's not forget.
- 26:39I think the first big scene is him at the bar with Pickles and Roy, played by Will Sasso,
- 26:45where he gets into it with a Marine because he's complaining how, you know, the Army hasn't caught
- 26:50and the military hasn't caught Osama Bin Laden yet.
- 26:53And a Marine, you know, starts giving him shit.
- 26:57So he challenges him to a knife throwing contest. Yeah. Just whips out a big ass.
- 27:01Gary challenges the Marine. Yeah. The Marine has nothing to prove.
- 27:06But it's great. The Marine throws the knife, hits the dartboard. Everyone's duly impressed.
- 27:12Gary lines up, throws the knife and just hits this dude. Will Sasso. Will Sasso.
- 27:19And apparently it's not the first time. Not again, Gary.
- 27:23Third time he's hit him with this knife. Apparently always comes back with just a bruised ego.
- 27:31It's awesome. It's a great scene. There's like it's a great scene.
- 27:35That's the start. There's a lot to like at the start.
- 27:39Then he meets he's at the Home Depot, mansplaining everything that you can only buy American made.
- 27:45You don't want to buy a French toilet because it can't handle a strong American shit.
- 27:49Well, let me tell you one thing. When you work in construction,
- 27:52you know that you know more than everybody at Home Depot.
- 27:56It's all right. Fair. I can't I can't argue with that.
- 27:59No, I know nothing. Everybody I know less than any Home Depot, especially you, Clem.
- 28:06I hope you hear this someday. Don't sue us Home Depot or Clem.
- 28:11Fuck it. Come at me, Clem.
- 28:14That's going to be a bit that's going to be on a T-shirt.
- 28:16Come at me. Clem is going to be our first T-shirt. Yeah.
- 28:20But no, I mean, like it was a great scene, too, though. I agree with you.
- 28:24Yeah. And then he meets up with his old high school crush,
- 28:27who apparently used to have a crush on him. And she's got like an American flag tramp stamp.
- 28:31It's not just an American flag. It's a Bruce Springsteen American flag.
- 28:37He somehow slides into her DMS.
- 28:40Shows up. Well, he's you know, voice aside, he's a charming guy.
- 28:46He's so charming. Well, yeah. You know what? He's an authentic American male.
- 28:53And it's all right. That's fair. I'm not going to deny you that.
- 28:57And then she has the weirdest request for going out with her, which is find me.
- 29:01Oh, yeah. Her only request to for someone to date her is for them to stalk her and show up at her house.
- 29:08Yeah. Well, it sounds like she's pretty busy.
- 29:10So it could have been just been like a nice way of just being like, sure, I'll go on a date with you,
- 29:16but I don't got time for weeks. So you're going to have to just find me.
- 29:20And then he does and never leaves and just brings ice cream for her mute child.
- 29:26Gary's unstoppable love for this child. Yeah.
- 29:32Like he is such a nice guy. Like he's always doing things.
- 29:35He helps rebuild like he tears out their ramp.
- 29:40Yeah. Their wheelchair ramp for their house because it was shit.
- 29:43And he goes and builds a new one for them.
- 29:45But it takes him a really long time because Gary's got, you know, admission from God and other things.
- 29:51But he's a nice guy. He builds them a wheelchair ramp.
- 29:55He brings her gifts like he plays along and he doesn't do anything to kind of come down on her for her disability.
- 30:05And it's like, it's a really nice guy.
- 30:07We I think we forgot to mention, though, who plays God in this film, Nick?
- 30:11Oh, it's Russell Brand, obviously. Everyone's vision of God.
- 30:15Yeah, usually. I mean, Russell Brand literally looks like just walked off the street and they just pointed a camera at him.
- 30:20Yeah, they didn't do anything to kind of like, well, they put like little like godly hand wrappings on him.
- 30:26Again, I think he just walked off the street with that.
- 30:28Oh, maybe. But yeah, Gary gets going for dialysis because he's got bum kidneys and he's told he tells everybody in the dialysis center what it is just on every subject.
- 30:41Yeah. But then gets a visit from God to track down Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
- 30:50Bring him back to America for justice and stuff for justice and stuff.
- 30:54God speaks to him a couple more times, despite telling me never going to talk to Gary again, because Gary's apparently a fuck up who needs God's help.
- 31:02But God will only help those who help themselves.
- 31:04Well, that's tough love God. And Gary needs a little tough love.
- 31:08Also, God sells him a katana on the home shopping network for a penny.
- 31:12Yeah. Well, OK, we're really jumping a bit.
- 31:15So like God tells Gary to go stop Osama bin Laden and he's like, OK, well, obviously I need a plan.
- 31:25Thinks about it and he's like, OK, I'm just going to go down to San Diego.
- 31:28I'll buy a sailboat for a thousand dollars and I'll sail to Pakistan from San Diego.
- 31:35I'll capture Osama bin Laden and bring it back to America.
- 31:39Boom plan. And he's confronted with the fact on a couple of occasions that he doesn't know how to sail.
- 31:46Yeah. And not I mean, a really enjoyable line from later in the movie is just Gary saying, you know, thinking back,
- 31:58not knowing how to sail really was a big setback to this whole plan. And it's like, yeah, because you crash your boat and ended up in Mexico after like a week on sea.
- 32:09But I think you guys you missed on the fact that Matthew Modine is his doctor, who's a pretty good actor.
- 32:15And that's for some reason in this movie. Oh, yeah.
- 32:18Gary, Gary Collins, his doctor out of the money. Yeah.
- 32:23And he's going to get married for the boat, his liver doctor.
- 32:28He tells him it's for an engagement ring so he can marry this girl.
- 32:34Definitely not for a boat to sail to Pakistan.
- 32:37So his second plan is to because he can't fly to Pakistan.
- 32:42So he's going to hang gliding to Pakistan.
- 32:46And he's going to go to the hang glider store while at the sporting goods store, asks the guy selling the hang glider how many pieces they should cut on the plane.
- 32:57The guy's like, you know, yeah, it's supposed to come in a piece, one piece.
- 33:02He also asked the guy what some really sweet hang glider music would be.
- 33:07And the guy's like, I don't know, Tom Petty.
- 33:09And he's like, wrong answer.
- 33:11Yeah, let's I want to back up real quick. He went he flew to Israel.
- 33:16That's right. To hang glide from a mountain to Pakistan.
- 33:21And once again, I pulled up a map. These are not adjacent countries like they're not even close.
- 33:30He would have had to be in the air for like a week on a hang glider to get that far.
- 33:36But his whole thought was like, if he crashed, he would just land in the Dead Sea and float because he doesn't know how to swim, which again goes back to the boat thing.
- 33:46What? Yeah. So he crashes his hang glider and then shows back up at Marzies broken and battered.
- 33:55Yeah. There's a portion in the middle of the movie where it almost feels like kind of the montage of Gary goes, tries a wacky plan.
- 34:05It doesn't work. He comes back to Marcy and you see the strain on the relationship as it continues to happen because she likes him and she wants him around.
- 34:15But his mission for God always takes precedence for him.
- 34:20He goes back and forth. He has a couple like a little personal crises as he thinks about like quitting.
- 34:27And then God comes back and tells him that he's an idiot and God doesn't like quitters.
- 34:33So him actually getting into Pakistan finally, because he has to go and get special special visa, special visa.
- 34:41And the guy's just like, no, I'm not going to give you that.
- 34:46And he goes off on his rant about how he's gone to Pakistan to capture Osama bin Laden and bring it back for justice.
- 34:55Yeah. And the guy just shrugs and stamps, stamps the paperwork and sends them on his way, which is I feel is just assisted suicide at that point.
- 35:04And then goes on his way. And then we have a weird 15 minutes of him just bombing around Pakistan.
- 35:09Yeah. You really see like how aimless his mission was and like how he had no plan.
- 35:15He's just in town in Pakistan asking people about the bearded one.
- 35:20I'm also how aimless this movie is. This is really the slope. This is the slope.
- 35:25Yeah. But looking for baby boy.
- 35:28I think it's the part that probably is the most accurate. Yeah.
- 35:33I think it's the part that has the least embellishment.
- 35:36Are we also do we also assume that the scene where he totally sorted some guys to death in an alley is probably also real?
- 35:43I think it's likely. I mean, that's a weird scene is all I'm saying.
- 35:49Yeah. I think it's funny that like he's just like bumbling American Batman in Pakistan just like has a sword and not getting his dialysis, not getting his dialysis, obviously having hallucinations.
- 36:06My favorite of which is when he hallucinates MTV's Cribs Osama bin Laden.
- 36:11Yeah. The next sword fight that we've talked about previously happens in this movie.
- 36:17Yes. So he bumbles around Pakistan for a while.
- 36:22A friend of his slash security guard for the hotel he's staying at gets gunned down in the street and he assumes it was Osama coming for him.
- 36:31So chases this guy into the hills, falls down from exhaustion or just not getting dialysis for like a month and is immediately hang gliding over Pakistan.
- 36:42Yeah. Sees Osama bin Laden down there is coming for him coming for you, Benny boy.
- 36:49And then they then he wakes up in a cave on his dialysis machine across from Osama bin Laden also on a dialysis machine because he did require dialysis.
- 37:00Yes. Yeah.
- 37:02Authenticity.
- 37:03This movie knew exactly when to end. And it's right now.
- 37:07Like they're like no one's sticking around for any more of him like bumbling around. Let's just put him in a cave together.
- 37:13So yes, they have their sword fight.
- 37:15Yeah. So one of two Nick Cage sword fights.
- 37:18Yeah. Osama bin Laden, Nick Cage, katana sword fight after getting dialysis in a cave.
- 37:26It's a great moment.
- 37:28It is.
- 37:29For Americans.
- 37:30I also love when they both just like swing the katanas at each other and they hit each other swords and they both just drop their swords like how that hurts.
- 37:37Oh, yeah.
- 37:39As anybody who has not practiced in swinging a sword will do the first time.
- 37:45I mean, I would know I've never swung a sword.
- 37:47No, I imagine it's like rebar and I've swung rebar around.
- 37:51It's just metal in your hands. It just hurts.
- 37:53Yeah.
- 37:54You got soft hands.
- 37:55But it was a fun sword fight.
- 37:57It was a good one.
- 37:58It was a fun little like action scene, which this movie had plenty of decent action.
- 38:05Yeah. Like I said, there's a lot in this movie that should have been better.
- 38:10We do get to see him masturbate.
- 38:12So that's both movies Nicholas Cage masturbates in and plays fictional versions of real people.
- 38:18Mm hmm.
- 38:20So, yeah, after his fight with Osama, he wakes up in a hospital bed and is immediately sent back to America.
- 38:30No charges filed.
- 38:31Yeah. Well, so the CIA or whatever had been looking for him because they'd been hearing about an American samurai who is just terrorizing this neighborhood and they couldn't find him.
- 38:42And eventually, so they find him, they send him back and.
- 38:46Gary goes home and makes up with mercy, swears his mission is over.
- 38:50He just wants to be a be a family man.
- 38:53Then, you know, all the news outlets show up on our house on our doorstep.
- 38:57Mm hmm.
- 38:58Then cut to.
- 39:00Again, sorry.
- 39:02Another thing from this movie is the protagonist questioning who was going to play him in the script of the movie.
- 39:10And he's like, Nicholas Cage can play me.
- 39:12Everybody tells me that Nicholas Cage and Conair looks a lot like me.
- 39:17It's like, oh, Jesus.
- 39:19And we did end up with two of the most meta Nick Cage movies.
- 39:22I guess the new one is pretty meta, too.
- 39:26But it's surprising that we ended up with these head to head just randomly.
- 39:31Yeah. Yeah, no, it was.
- 39:32I mean, it was really convenient that we got two movies where he plays fictionalized characters of real people.
- 39:40But just to wrap up the movie, the Barack Obama speech, we got him.
- 39:46Oh, yeah. And then, you know, Marcy is clearly happy that this dumbass reek and end.
- 39:52And Gary just loses his shit about how why don't they show us the body?
- 39:58Yeah, they never caught him. He's still out there.
- 40:00Full conspiracy theory. Planning his next sojourn.
- 40:03Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the movie, you get a little splash of text that tells you Gary is looking to use the move or the money he receives for this movie to buy a new kidney so he can continue his mission.
- 40:18Which, boy, I don't think there's a lot of money in this for Gary.
- 40:23Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm sure like he got paid something. I don't know how much a kidney goes for, but I got like half off of a kidney, at least.
- 40:33But we do have in his story option.
- 40:35Yeah, we get to see some of actual Gary on like he was on the view. Yeah.
- 40:40And he has a very normal speaking voice.
- 40:44It's not as affected as Nicolas Cage is for sure. But Nicolas Cage obviously gave us a great character.
- 40:52It definitely rambled for a while and then suddenly ended.
- 40:56And a little crisis of identity in the last third, for sure.
- 41:00But yeah, I don't this movie doesn't is his character supposed to be funny because how absurd he is.
- 41:08Are we supposed to like root for him? Is he actually a hero?
- 41:11Yeah, the problem really is that just nothing really happens.
- 41:16There's no resolution for what Gary is trying to go through. No. And that's unfortunate. Yeah.
- 41:23What do you do? It's an ongoing story. He's still out there fighting the good fight.
- 41:28God bless him. Looking for the bearded one.
- 41:30Bearded one. Benny boy. Do you have a favorite quote?
- 41:35So this has three and I'm going to give them to you in my favorite order.
- 41:42And they're all obviously from the beginning of the movie. All right.
- 41:46The first one is when Gary's on dialysis and I'll try not to do.
- 41:52Now, I'm just going to Gary voice it. Man, this country makes the best goddamn chicken wings in the world.
- 41:59Now, I haven't seen the whole world. I haven't tasted chicken wings in Africa.
- 42:04But I'd be willing to bet the right ball on a broke dick dog that no place makes better wings than they do here.
- 42:13That was my quote. Man. I love that.
- 42:17That's a good quote. It starts off so strong. Yeah.
- 42:22And he's just like fucking at church basically here in dialysis, just preaching to people about his weird ass shit.
- 42:30I love that one. It's not my favorite quote that I like it, but it's not my best.
- 42:35The next two are both out of the Home Depot scene because he's just walking around and like Sean said, he's just giving terrible.
- 42:44It's not even advice. He's just belittling everything at Home Depot.
- 42:50So he's walking past two guys that are just looking at two by fours.
- 42:55He's like, I don't know what you're putting up, but that ain't going to hold it and just walks fast.
- 43:00And it's like, what? And my favorite was just don't buy that toilet.
- 43:06That toilet was made in Africa. Pygmies made that toilet and they take small shits.
- 43:11Your turd, your potty, your poo, as it were, won't bake it past the flusher.
- 43:17That's my favorite. The poo, as it were.
- 43:21And I'm sorry that I have the voice for this. It took me back immediately.
- 43:27I know I tried to do a bit of a deep dive and find any information I could about this movie, and it is it's absolutely tough.
- 43:32There's like nothing out there. The only thing that really made me laugh.
- 43:36I love a good succinct statement. And in Wikipedia talking about reviews, it just said this received negative reviews.
- 43:45Yeah. Yeah. Fucking bad.
- 43:48All right. Well, hit me, Sean. What do you got? You took my favorite quote.
- 43:52Do you want to try to read it in the voice and see who did it better? Now it's all right.
- 43:56I've got it. I got to touch on one thing that I brought up earlier.
- 43:59So I was looking at the music for this. Sean was asking some questions about it and I was looking at the music credits at the end.
- 44:05And I realized that there is one song listed as performed by Nick Cage.
- 44:10And now I have to go back and watch this whole fucking movie to try and find it.
- 44:16And I assume it's performed by Nick Cage as Gary.
- 44:20Well, if you find it, I really would appreciate it if it was our outro music this week.
- 44:25Oh, yeah. I don't know if we get sued for that. Don't sue us.
- 44:28What are you, Charles? Just us making the noises of it.
- 44:32Like, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude. And the theme from Doug.
- 44:36And we can't confirm or deny that. All right.
- 44:39So this gets us to the main main question then. Right.
- 44:42Do you want to explain what we're doing here again just for the listeners and all the people who complain that we just jumped the gun last week?
- 44:47Oh, yeah. The people who tune in at the power mark.
- 44:50So the main sons of bitches, they're taking food out of my kids' mouths.
- 44:55So, I mean, the main thing is that it's a head to head match up.
- 44:58It's bracket style. There's 64 Nick Cage movies. We're going to go through them all week by week.
- 45:04So these guys have to decide the winner. But the rules are made up and they don't matter.
- 45:10Yeah. Yeah. What's the winner?
- 45:13It's adaptation. It has to be adaptation. It's Army of One.
- 45:16My God. I honestly would rather watch Army of One.
- 45:20It's not a better film, though. Doesn't matter.
- 45:25Wow. Episode two. And we've already. Controversy.
- 45:29In this head to head match up, like one of these has to win.
- 45:32I'm OK being an ultimate tiebreaker if we need it.
- 45:35But I think it's better if you guys debate and figure out a consensus.
- 45:38We should have discussed rules for this beforehand. It wouldn't matter.
- 45:41The rules are made up and they don't matter. Yeah. Fuck. You're right.
- 45:44Hoist on my own petard. I mean, we've always been clear about this eventually boils down into which movie do you want to watch more?
- 45:53Because you will watch. Yeah, we're going to have to watch it again.
- 45:57It's true. And yeah, theoretically three to four times. Yeah.
- 46:02Yeah. Three times total view like weeks of it, three episodes of it. Yeah.
- 46:07But I've watched all of these movies multiple times in preparation for it.
- 46:11And I can say that, like, through my watching, like, yeah, I mean, structurally, the script, the acting adaptation was a more complete movie.
- 46:25But I didn't leave the movie thinking about parts of it that I liked.
- 46:32I finished the movie and I was like, oh, OK, that was a good movie.
- 46:37And I did something else. Army of One gave me reasons, good and bad, to think about the movie.
- 46:44And I didn't stop thinking about it. You can't. Yeah.
- 46:47And I think ultimately that wins it for me because I finished it, but it wasn't done with me.
- 46:57That's hard to argue. And OK, I get it. I've definitely thought more about Army of One, but not for good reasons,
- 47:06but mostly because it is so bad. There's just so much more fun to talk about it.
- 47:11But sometimes bad fun. No, I agree. I love terrible things.
- 47:15I see you. Ice Pirates. We need that. That'll be for the page.
- 47:19And we'll just watch it. It says nothing. Yeah.
- 47:22Jujitsu. I mean, I'd rather watch Jujitsu. Really? Yeah. Love Jujitsu.
- 47:28I've had two friends who've watched it because of our first episode and they're still my friends.
- 47:33Yeah, somehow I don't think we're going to get any big converts to Army of One.
- 47:36I mean, that's ultimately what it is for me is I can't.
- 47:38Last week, I was adamant that people should watch Jujitsu. No one should watch Army of One.
- 47:43I disagree. That's up to that point. And even in the end, it's interesting.
- 47:48It's a much more hopeful story. It's made me it made me aware of it.
- 47:54It made me interested in it.
- 47:56Normally a story like this has to start with words like Florida, man.
- 48:00And it's not. He's from Colorado. He's just I don't know. So unique.
- 48:05I like the character. I keep going back and I'm like, maybe it would have worked better for like,
- 48:11I mean, obviously he's a real person.
- 48:14I can't just say this would have been better in like a sketch performance kind of SNL sort of situation, like recurring character.
- 48:22But he seems like the kind of guy that would just pop into your life.
- 48:26It's fucking weird for a little bit. And then he goes to Pakistan and to find it been one.
- 48:32Yeah. And I've had weird people like that in my life. I have, too.
- 48:37And most of them have fucked me over, which is why I don't think I like Gary.
- 48:40That's fair. But I don't think you have a sweet born free like tramp stamp.
- 48:45I don't. My tramp stamps are something very different.
- 48:49I think that's what it ultimately comes down to. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of the perf.
- 48:55There's a lot to be said about his performance, because as we said last week, Cage never stops.
- 49:01He's never doesn't get a half ass performance and he gives it his all.
- 49:05And I just think it was the wrong creative decision.
- 49:09I don't know. It's like you get this blue collar American hero for the audience
- 49:15and you just see him put into situations where like, yeah, he doesn't succeed every time.
- 49:20But when he does, it's what counts. And it's in like building relationships, having a family.
- 49:28I will I will renege on something here.
- 49:30This is ultimately a movie or ultimately a podcast about Nick Cage films.
- 49:35Adaptation is an Oscar nominated performance. Army of one is full cage.
- 49:40In terms of a film that is 100 percent a Nicolas Cage film.
- 49:46It's Army of one, I guess. Oh, that's that hurts my soul.
- 49:51I have to watch this again now. I want it on the record though.
- 49:54Adaptation is a better film. Yeah. Structurally, like critically.
- 49:59Sure. Yeah. I'm sure Nick Cage made five million dollars.
- 50:03That seems to be the pattern. Peter, do you have thoughts on which film should win?
- 50:07You know what? Honestly, guys, like I don't I don't think it fucking matters.
- 50:11I do think that Nick kind of hit on the main point.
- 50:14Like if if this is about like the movie, the Nick Cage movie that you can just watch a million times,
- 50:20then and that's the thesis for our show, then that's the winner.
- 50:24Right. Like what's the thing that you can continue to go back to?
- 50:27And like and we're talking about the best Nick Cage movie.
- 50:30It doesn't have to be critically the best movie. This is true. Right.
- 50:33Like Ghost Rider could be the winner, right? Even though that's not now.
- 50:37No, Ghost Rider Spirit to Vengeance. Sorry. Excuse me.
- 50:41Could be the best movie. So, yeah. All right.
- 50:45That's our second film definitively.
- 50:48And if you have other opinions, I don't care.
- 50:51Yeah, we're not on Twitter or anything. So just write about it into the void.
- 50:56Again, just shout it at your neighbor, but be sure to tell him that it's for Cage match.
- 51:01So he has to listen. Yeah. Cage match. Cage match with Nick and Sean.
- 51:04Yes. Specifically, Gorilla marketing. Yeah, that's right.
- 51:07You know, your complaints about our opinions at your neighbors and tell them where to go to hear said opinions
- 51:12so they can yell them at their neighbors. Yeah. So I'm excited about next week's.
- 51:16We keep saying week, but, you know, things happen. People get COVID neck.
- 51:21I'm excited about it. I'm just a really good kisser. I can't help it. It's true.
- 51:25I didn't get it, though. Nice.
- 51:28So next up is Pig. Oh, critically acclaimed, which you guys have seen.
- 51:34And I have I have not seen it's going to fail because it's going up against his absolute worst rated film left behind,
- 51:41which is like definitely some sort of Christian allegory, ridiculous shit.
- 51:46So have fun, guys. Yeah. We.
- 51:55What does Hayden have pizza pockets? I mean, he strikes me as an uncrustables guy.
- 52:03Fuck you. That's the meanest thing you ever said.