Crude but Effective

The overprotective Neanderthal caveman Grug (Nicholas Cage) finds his match in daughter Eep (Emma Stone) who is anything but amenable to being kept indoors (or in a cave, as it may be). It takes the intervention of the inventive and vastly evolved boy Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a precocious early man who invents fire, prognosticates the end of the world - fairly cataclysmic and disruptive tectonic events - that force  The Croods to change their habitation and their very way of life. Without the intensity of the likes of Wall-e and Finding Nemo, The Croods is nevertheless an effective and exciting watch and quite the unmissable one for children this summer

13.5/20

Robber, Robbed

Master of heists Will Montgomery (Nicholas Cage) does what he needs to do and injures fellow partner in crime Vincent (Josh Lucas) in an attempt to flee a crime scene without any collateral damage. Will however does not make it far, and, after eight years of incarceration, looks forward to being re-united with daughter Alison (Sami Gayle). Vincent has other plans, however, and a highly skeptical FBI led by Tim Harlend (Danny Huston) does not help either. With a little help from ex-con-woman Riley (Malin Akerman), Will races against time and the ghosts from his past. Stolen is your average unmemorable entertainer that is easy on the eye and your time, without even remotely aspiring towards the spectacular

11.5/20

Moneyed Family
Nicolas Cage perhaps finds it more difficult to portray an investment banker than A Family Man. And therein lies a tale. The conflict was all too real, the first part of the movie unconvincing. No, Nicholas Cage does not come across as a man who works through 13 barren years and Christmas Day with nary a whimper. While a pleasant movie as movies go, herein lies its big failure – the protagonist does not transcend both roles - investment banker and family man - equally convincingly. Not quite a great movie

Raising Eyebrows




Raising Arizona seals it for me - I now count myself among the bonafide fans of the Coen Brothers. Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter are on opposite sides of the law - come together in an unlikely marriage and an equally unlikely heist to snatch a kid from a set of quintuplets. Over sevaral escapades with escaped convicts, bounty hunters, psychotic storekeepers and bosses with questionable morals, the couple are struck by a fit of remonstrance and get round to "doing the right thing". The movie has an undercurrent of morality running through it quite unlike the unmitigated eccentricity of O Brother Where Art Thou. This would be the best starting point into the Coen Brothers for its balance of quirkiness and convention, the latter in exploring conventional themes of family life