Nicolas Cage, indie film star, Hollywood lead and out and out nutter.Yes but he was the king of bombastic action. The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off; the holy trinity of slo-mo macho action and pun.
All three are from the Die Hard blueprint; Die Hard on Alcatraz, Die Hard in the air and Die Hard with another fellah's face.
You want massive explosions? you got 'em. Spent bullet casings cascading? check. Ed Harris, John Malkovich and John Travolta on scenery chewing villain duties? Indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-pIwA-E-UY
John Cusack, Joan Allen and Sean Connery add the intellect as the directors try to out volume each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlg-VRc6TbY
Bad Boys may be sexier, Point Break may be dumber, Lethal Weapon has more chemistry Speed a higher concept and The Long kiss goodnight has the female take but as an awesome threesome Cage has the set.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px8U9fx8TXw
In these three pyrotechnic masterpieces we get a car chase in San Francisco involving a yellow Ferrari, a Hummer and a cable car. A slow motion shoot out to the sound of Somewhere over the Rainbow. A plane crash along the strip in Las Vegas as well as doves, bombs,face transplants, magnetic boots, Colm Meaney in a rage, Steve Buscemi as the Marrietta Mangler, Cage as a priest, helicopters, sports cars, speed boats, shot guns, automatic weapons, Military madmen and a bunny rabbit.
Mayhem, stirring orchestration, impossible shooting skills and perky one liners. But don't forget the overblown emotion and humanity laid bare, to bring a tear to the eye.
The action movie for actions sake has been overdone and exhausted by Michael Bay, Wolfgang Peterson, Simon West and Joel Schumaker. The Bourne Movies and new Bond have gone the grittier route, but for all out dumb bombast and action Mr Cage has the credentials with these three celluloid cacophonies . As the strap line for the Rock says:
"Weapons cocked, targets locked, get ready to rock!"