35mmReviews

Welcome to a new Top Ten Tuesdays blog post! This week I've decided to bring my top ten selection on Actors, starting with Nicolas Cage.

Nicolas Cage is one of those actors that you either like it or not, but you can't deny that he's actually a pretty good and versatile actor. He's deinitely one of my top favorite actors in Hollywood, especially, on great action/thriller films.

Note: The films have been placed in NO particular order. Let's be honest... It has been extremely difficult for me to choose just ten films out of my large list of favorite films. Right?

10

Leaving Las Vegas

Synopsis: An avowed alcoholic, Ben drank away his family, friends and, finally, his job. With deliberate resolve, he burns the remnants of his life and heads for Las Vegas to end it all in one final binge. On the strip, Ben picks up a street-smart hooker named Sera in what might have been another excess in his self-destructive jag. Instead their chance meeting becomes a respite on the road to oblivion as something connects between these two disenfranchised souls.

Personal Comments: Such an amazing film! One of his best performances on his career, worth of his Oscars and Golden Globes Awards for Best Actor that year. Amazing cast and an excellent plot, so worth to watch.

9

Face/Off

Synopsis: An FBI covert terrorism expert, through advanced plastic surgery, assumes the identity of his arch-nemesis, a sadistic terrorist. Things get complicated when the terrorist awakens from surgery, faceless, and forces the doctors to attach the FBI agent's face. Both characters then carry out one another's lives in a game of cat-and-mouse--the FBI agent pretends to be the terrorist while trying to locate and dismantle a nuclear weapon, while the terrorist assumes the role of FBI agent and family man.

Personal Comments: What makes this film one of my favorite ones, is not just Nicolas Cage's great acting performance, but the superb supporting cast, led by John Travolta. An amazing action film to watch!

8

Gone in 60 Seconds

Synopsis: Randall "Memphis" Raines long ago abandoned his life of crime, but after an ominous visit from an old friend, he finds he has no choice but to return to what he does best--stealing cars--in order to save his brother's life. It all comes down to one night, 50 cars and a mafia contract. A true automobile afficionado, Memphis has a burning passion for cars. He knows and loves every nut and bolt, every gleaming piece of chrome. Memphis is a car thief of legendary proportions. No fancy lock or alarm can stop him; your car will be there and gone in 60 seconds. Though he's always eluded the law while boosting every make and model imaginable, will his rusty skills be enough to rescue his brother from a particularly dangerous high stakes caper?

Personal Comments: One of the greatest (if not the greatest!) Nicolas Cage's films within the last decade. The film had it all: An impressive cast, action, speed, horse power, romance, suspense... And a great direction. A pretty good remake from the original film in 1974.

7

National Treasure

Synopsis: Benjamin Franklin Gates has spent his whole life searching for a fortune few dare to believe exists. This is the legendary KnightsTemplar Treasure, rumored to be the most awesome bounty in human history, and hidden somewhere in America. For six generations, the Gates family has chased after clues left behindby America's Founding Fathers and scoured the nation in search of the treasure. Now the maverick Ben Gates has made a breakthrough. At last, he knows where the ultimate hint to the treasure's location lies--a hidden map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. As knowledge of the map spreads to a ruthless adversary, Ben is faced with a terrible dilemma. Either Ben must be first to steal America's most sacreddocument--one guarded by the most sophisticated security in the world--or let it fall into dangerous hands. In a race against time, his rivals and the authorities, Gates teams together with his tech-whiz friend Riley and the alluring, but unwitting, National Archivesconservator Abigail Chase to accomplish the unthinkable. Will they succeed in pulling off one of the most ambitious heists of all time? Will the Declaration of Independence lead Ben closer to the treasure? From the ventilation shafts of the National Archives to the catacombs beneath New York City--the answers are revealed as Ben Gates unlocks the mystery behind America'sgreatest national treasure.

Personal Comments: I really enjoyed National Treasure I and II, even though, if I had to choose between the two of them, there's no doubt that the first one was far better than the second one. A pretty creative and entertaining story and plot with such an amazing cast. An adventure so worth to watch!

6

Ghost Rider

Synopsis: A motorcycle stuntman, Johnny Blaze, makes a pact with a dark force, selling his soul to save his girlfriend. When the bargain goes sour and the girl isn't saved, Blaze is transformed, gaining raging superpowers. Based on the Marvel comic series.

Personal Comments: I think the second part of this last decade was one of the weirdest years for Nicolas Cage's career. We've seen him playing in some weird roles and really awful films, even though, there are some of them that were really good and worth to watch. Ghost Rider is one of those films that was entertaining and joyful to watch.

5

8MM

Synopsis: Tom Welles is a surveillance specialist--what used to be known as a "private eye"--but his version of the profession is hardly the stuff to which legends are made. He has modest, home-based practice in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he lives an existence remarkable only for its normalcy with wife Amy and baby daughter, Cindy. Respected but still waiting for a big break that will improve his professional status, Welles spends most of his time on routine cases involving unfaithful spouses and the like. Nothing too dangerous, not too threatening... until a small, innocuous-looking plastic reel of film turns Welles' life upside down, sending him down a sordid and terrifying path into society's darkest corners.

Personal Comments: One of my top favorite thrillers with Nicolas Cage. I still remember watching this film for the first time, not having any idea of what the film was about. The sick and amazing plot, the cast and Nic Cage's great performance simply made this film so worth to watch!

4

Lord of War

Synopsis: Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer. Through some of the deadliest war zones, Yuri struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals, even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, Yuri must also face his own conscience.

Personal Comments: Based on the true story (well, sort of) of Viktor Bout, the most dangerous illegal weapons dealer in the world. Nicolas Cage shows one more time on this film his weird and wild side expressed on his controversial roles. One of my favorite films and story, even though, part of it was fictional, since Viktor Bout was arrested in 2008.

3

The Rock

Synopsis: For years Brigadier General Francis Xavier Hummel, a decorated military hero, has petitioned the United States government to honor his men who have lost their lives in service to their country during highly covert military operations by providing their families the same benefits and tributes due other war veterans. For years his efforts have been scorned. Now, angry and determined to seek justice, Hummel and a crack team of commandos seize control of Alcatraz Island, taking hostage a group of tourists. If reparations are not immediately forthcoming, Hummel plans to launch a battery of rockets charged with lethal V.X. poison gas on the San Francisco Bay area. The city's only hope for survival is FBI chemical/biological weapons expert, Stanley Goodspeed, and a top-secret federal prisoner, John Patrick Mason, who also happens to be the only known convict to have escaped the island fortress.

Personal Comments: If I had to organize the films according with my preference, I would definitely put this one as one of my top three favorite ones. One of those films with Nicolas Cage that I've watched over and over again, and never get tired of it! Most also give credit to Sean Connery's acting performance in this film, superb!

2

The Family Man

Synopsis: Jack Campbell is a Wall Street trader living the high life in New York City. When Jack, who has forsaken all for the pursuit of money, becomes involved in a grocery store holdup, everything changes. He awakens the next morning, on a snowy Christmas day, lying in bed next to a wife--Kate, the college sweetheart he dumped when his career ambitions took hold--whom he never married, and in a house with two kids he never had. Now living in New Jersey in an alternate suburban universe, he has a chance to see how his life would have turned out had he married Kate and raised a family. Jack soon begins to feel strangely comfortable in the new role of loving husband and father, finding himself happy in the life he would have led had he made different choices as a young man.

Personal Comments: A great romantic drama film to enjoy watching it with your family. Nicolas Cage plays such a great role in this film with a pretty entertaining and unique story, supported by an amazing cast. Tea Leoni makes it worth to watch as Nicolas Cage's wife in the film.

1

Con Air

Synopsis: When a group of the most dangerous and notorious prisoners in the United States penal system are transferred to a new super-maximum security facility, parolee Cameron Poe hitches a ride on their Con Air transport flight only to find himself embroiled in a meticulously planned mid-air hijacking masterminded by Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom. On the ground, it's up to U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin to avert the takeover and prevent his overzealous superiors from blowing the aircraft and its passengers to oblivion.

Personal Comments: Have you ever watched "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People?" This film has a pretty funny scene when Simon Pegg is talking with a group of people and asks them: What's the greatest film ever made? Con Air! It has everything in it... Action, comedy, thriller, and even John Cusack for the gays! Anyway, this is certainly ne of the best films with Nicolas Cage, not just for the amazing supporting cast, but the script. Another great classic that can't be missed!