There is one thing is this that this bromance gets completely, and BEARably right.

This film is pretty honestly marketed that it’s for Nick Cage fans.  I’m not one, and I went anyway.  I survived to tell this tale, so that you, other non-Cage fans, might have an opinion on if this might get you into the dude or not.  For me it did not.

I would’ve said I’m just kinda “meh” on Cage.  The truth is he’s just not in that much I’ve ever been interested in seeing.  He’s in over 100 films and from his imdb I can only count off around nine or so that I know I’ve seen… and even of those I have no real fond memory of his performance.  But I know there’s all sorts of people obsessed with him and that’s why we have this film where he plays himself.  I’m completely prepared to accept this version of Cage as real – I don’t care enough to un-research the truths it’s now told me.

It’s a film that starts strong with a good comedy premise.  Then it quickly loses its wind for me.  I can dig layered meta if it’s coming out, like a Deadpool wink to camera, but this was inward looking navel gazing.  It’s a film about making a film that’s the film about the story of the guys making the film.  Sure, there’s a bit of real life drama in it.  But it’s a character film, and I’m a plot-girl.  There’s even a line in it where they’re discussing their new movie and how one of them wants character and the other plot and I knew which side I was on.

Tiffany Haddish is criminally underused.  Pedro Pascal has a lovely face and is funny, I guess.  Nicholas Cage is every bit as meh as I ever found him.  My partner laughed a heap.  I did not.

My favourite part of this, which I was aware of going in, is that it name drops Paddington 2 (2017) as one of the greatest movies of all time.  And on this the film and I agree – Paddington 2 is possibly one of the most perfect feel-good pieces of human goodness that has ever been made.  It is a movie of happy-crying joy, full of all the feels.  And that’s what made TUWOMT even more frustrating… they know good content and then don’t even attempt to deliver something similar.

https://www.thedigitalfix.com/unbearable-weight-of-massive-talent/nic-cage-really-likes-paddington-2

If you like Nicholas Cage and get what are probably a gazillion references to his films, you’ll probably enjoy it.  If you find him meh, don’t expect there to be enough other stuff going on to balance that out.  

Either way, the take-home is everyone should watch Paddington 2.

J* gives it 3 stars.