The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Broadly goofy, full of nod-and-wink quips about Hollywood that you may or may not find amusing, and more than a tad-self-indulgent, this is a fun Friday night movie that won’t linger long past the closing credits.

The most meta touch of all is that the star makes the film hard to resist... an actor of weirdly heroic overcommitment saving the day, in duplicate.

Even in scenes riffing on the ’90s action movies that made Cage a household name -- all shoot-outs, car chases, and gunslinging standoffs -- Cage and Pascal are magnetic to watch for their earnestness.

This traditional comic pairing proves to be the film’s main attraction -- and for all Cage’s showboating, Pascal for quite a while looks set to take over as the real star.

The next perfect Cage film may already be in the pipeline, groaning under the unbearable weight of massive talent. For now, you’ll have to settle for this merely intermittently awesome Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

As tongue-in-cheek as the title sounds, it accurately captures the fawning tone of this jokey self-portrait, the sense that Cage is in fact starring in a love letter to himself.

It’s a celebration of Nicolas Cage and his career, and an all-around laugh-out-loud comedy that simply wants you to have fun without being mindless.

For the most part it's down to the sublime buddy comedy of Cage and Pascal that make it work.

As an attempt to lovingly parody the central character’s filmography, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” makes sure to tap Cage’s unbridled energy and dial it up to eleven.

It have an insanely formulaic story, but Gormican subverts enough character arcs to make it enticing.