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“Is that supposed to be me?

It’s… grotesque“

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Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage, channeling his iconic characters as he’s caught between a superfan and a CIA agent. This genre-bender movie started off strong, but it ended in a very mediocre manner. The comedic elements worked. Cage playing basically himself was the ultimate case of over-indulgent narcissism on display, but it worked because a lot of his lines were quite funny.

What was also effective was the dynamic between Pascal and Cage. Pascal even steals the movie at times from Nic as he was outstanding. Effortlessly funny and very likable, he played this superfan of Cage, leading to many hilarious lines of dialogue. The two share such a fun bromance that elevated the entire movie for me.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story was very unappealing. Whenever the film moved away from the central bromance, it suffered as a result. The crime action elements were thoroughly uninspired and unnecessary. What’s even worse is that the movie tried to riff on them, but it only became the thing that it made fun of, which to me is not a successful parody at all.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in its third act exemplifies everything that I dislike in modern blockbusters – overly frenetic pacing, uninteresting action scenes and tiresome spy thriller scenarios. None of it was interesting and I was bored with it quickly.

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Cage’s alter ego was also fun and the entire first half held great promise due to a larger emphasis on comedic dialogue and scenarios, but the second half squandered all of that potential with that tiresome crime action story. And tonally speaking, the movie is an utter mess. It’s very badly directed and paced. The Spanish mafia story was a total flop and the supporting characters, especially villains were thoroughly forgettable.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is an action comedy that is an utter mess in pacing, directing and structure. The first half worked because Nic Cage and Pedro Pascal were so much fun together. That bromance was very funny and the dialogue was solid. However, the second half squandered all that potential with the unnecessary crime action elements that made the movie become the very thing that it sought to parody, which was a really unfortunate turn of events.

My Rating – 3