OMD’s Pop Culture Corner - Army of One

While a man could make excuses about how life gets in the way of exercises in vanity such as this one, that wouldn’t be entirely true. To be frank, there just hasn’t been much in the realm of popular culture that has inspired me to want to write about it.

That. Has. Changed.

There is no point in putting this off. Watch this trailer.

Nicolas Cage’s career of late might not be as illustrious as it was in his heyday. The cinematic landscape has certainly changed, making it more and more difficult to get a greenlight for a film, and theatrical releases are increasingly rare for marginal films. Theatrical releases have become even rarer for Nicolas Cage vehicles.

That said, there is still the odd Cage project that recalls the great heights he has reached in the past. Joe was an under-watched gem from Southern gothic storyteller David Gordon Green. Werner Herzog’s masterpiece Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was one of the best films of the Aughts and of Cage’s career. Knowing was a solid apocalyptic tale from underrated director Alex Proyas. When you look deeper at his more recent output, the results tend to actually be solid when Cage is in the hands of a better director like the aforementioned Green, Herzog, and Proyas or Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass).

Having directed the bulk of the Sacha Baron Cohen vehicles along with a bunch of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, it would be hard to argue against Larry Charles having the comedy chops to deliver on this movie. Turning Nicolas Cage loose on a role like the one in Army of One looks like a stroke of genius.

Hell, it was enough to get me to write one of these.