Joe Brody said:
Luke, come on now. Cage is Bruckheimer's everyman of choice -- and while Cage's spouse-selection skills may be suspect, he's a solid leading man. Sure he has his critics, but have you watched either 'Leaving Las Vegas' or 'Red Rock West'?
I have seen
Leaving Las Vegas, but have never seen
Red Rock West. I enjoy Cage's movies. I like the fact that he takes different rolls and does varying genres of movies. However, most of the time his performance seems wooden or hollow. Personally, I don't care about Cage's spouse choosing skills, nor do I care whether or not he he prefers his toilet paper to pull from over the top or from underneath. I
do care if his movies are enjoyable and it helps my enjoyment for him to play a character in which he doesn't seem wooden.
For instance,
Windtalkers. I enjoyed this movie. Why? Because I liked the subject matter. I am glad that a movie was finally made portraying the Navajo code talkers in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. Was Nick Cage good in this movie? No, absolutely not. He was hollow. He didn't make me believe that he had a hearing problem. He didn't make me believe that he was a Marine. Worse than that, he didn't make me believe he was Sgt. Joe Enders. He ran around hosing Japanese soldiers laughing maniacly, in the novel the character was more professional, gunning down the enemy with a quiet hatred.
On the other hand,
Face Off, and
Gone in 60 Seconds he was believable and that believability made those movies that much better for me. He was also good in
The Rock, but his performace was again hollow in
Con Air and
City of Angels.
Nick Cage, in my opinion is good in about every other movie he is in while the rest his performace seems strained and lacking in energy.
Luke
EDIT:
P.S. - Sorry about the novel I just wrote
. 
