13 Comments
Dec 13, 2023·edited Dec 13, 2023

I haven’t read your article yet, but if you don’t discuss that one Community episode where Abed does a Cage impression (sort of an orgasming mule) I will be sorely disappointed. It’d be a giant missed opportunity.

Ok here I go

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This is a great idea that I wholeheartedly support. A few years back, I wrote an article about Rob Zombie and his affinity for setting films on or around Halloween, so each time he puts out a new one, my Letterboxd review is a de facto continuation of that article.

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founding

Keith, I loved AGE OF CAGE, and this appendix addendum is just what I was hoping for this Christmas! I've only seen one of the films here yet, but I will be sure to add two or three more soon. (Does anyone else think Cage looks a whole lot like Russell Crowe in that "Retirement Plan" still?)

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If this is going to be an annual thing, that's my subscription renewal guaranteed... Overall, Saint Nic has had (much) worse years - not seen it yet but DREAM SCENARIO looks like it could be a genuine gem on the MATCHSTICK MEN tier, while SYMPATHY and BUTCHER'S are worthy options for a latter day, deep-cut Cageathon.

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Well this just made my end of year viewing list longer. Already planning on watching Dream Scenario, but adding Sympathy for the Devil and Butcher's Crossing as end of year musts...

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Also I'll say how impacted my partner and I were by Unbearable Weight - we had just watched maybe 10 nic films that i created as a syllabus leading up to the film's release, then missed it in theaters, then sat on it/ weren't that motivated to watch it because I think we had some misgivings/assumptions. So some of it could have been low expectations, but we had SO MUCH FUN watching it, and found it surprisingly sweet/moving. Feels underrated maybe because of the silliness/ in joke-ness/meta-ness of it, but I thought really well executed.

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Also... I'm ashamed to admit I still haven't seen Mandy... really need to get on this. I do this sometimes with films I'm really excited about. Just waiting for the perfect rainy day or something?

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author

Mandy’s amazing. Seeing it in the theater was the primary inspiration for the book.

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I watch it every year around Halloween, probably my favorite Cage performance

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Ha! I have been hoping this was in the works ever since reading the book back in February. An extremely necessary addendum to an indispensable Cage resource.

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founding

This is wonderful - I like to think I'm pretty on the ball with new releases, and I've heard of half of these. I often return to the appendix to Age of Cage and am so glad it will live on. It's been a good run of late for film listing appendixes; Werner Herzog's Every Man for Himself and God Against All (incredible title) lists his entire filmography with quick descriptions (very handy), and Matt Singer's list of hidden gems he discovered while researching Opposable Thumbs is as fitting a tribute to film critics as they come.

Without planning to, I rewatched Dream Scenario while living out a Lost in America fantasy in Mesquite, NV - Cage's performance and the film played much better for me on a second look. It all felt a little more aggressive outside my usual downtown Montreal confines... a woman yelled "This movie's r*tarded!" at the screen after the pivot to alt-right joke. It's a tribute to the theatrical experience I guess.

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As I'm in between-meetings limbo, and to lend even an atom-sized bit of legitimacy to willingly watching a lot of pretty terrible films, I humbly offer my own AGE OF CAGE rankings:

****: Vampire’s Kiss; Face/Off; BL:POC-NO; Joe; Mandy; Pig

***1/2: Birdy; Moonstruck; Wild at Heart; Red Rock West; Leaving Las Vegas; Bringing Out the Dead; Adaptation.; Matchstick Men

***: Rumble Fish; Racing with the Moon; The Cotton Club; Peggy Sue Got Married; Raising Arizona; Honeymoon in Vegas; It Could Happen to You; Kiss of Death; The Rock; Con Air; Snake Eyes; The Trust; Mom and Dad; Color Out of Space; Butcher’s Crossing; Sympathy for the Devil

**1/2: Firebirds (Wings of the Apache); Deadfall; Guarding Tess; 8MM; Gone in 60 Seconds; The Family Man; Windtalkers; National Treasure; Lord of War; World Trade Center; National Treasure: BoS; Knowing; Kick-Ass; Drive Angry; Dying of the Light; Snowden; Jiu Jitsu; Prisoners of the Ghostland; TUWOMT

**: Trapped in Paradise; City of Angels; Sonny; The Weather Man; The Wicker Man; Next; Season of the Witch; Justice; Trespass; Stolen; The Frozen Ground; The Runner; Dog Eat Dog; Army of One; Looking Glass; Between Worlds; Running with the Devil; Kill Chain; The Old Way; Renfield

*1/2: Zandalee; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin; Ghost Rider; Bangkok Dangerous; The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; Ghost Rider: SoV; Tokarev (Rage); Pay the Ghost; Southern Fury (Arsenal); The Humanity Bureau; The Retirement Plan

*: The Boy in Blue; Outcast; Left Behind; USS Indianapolis; Inconceivable; A Score to Settle; Grand Isle

1/2*: Amos & Andrew; Vengeance; 211; Primal; Willy’s Wonderland

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The Flash, what a mess

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