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- Nicolas Cage has appeared in 106 feature films, and that number goes up every year, seeing as he never seems to stop appearing in movies. He's one of the most prolific American actors working today, and every few months on average, there's a new title for Cage fans to enjoy... or at least tolerate, given they're not all winners. The horror-comedy Renfield (April 14) is one of his most high-profile films in recent memory, and presents a good opportunity to go back over his filmography and investigate some of his more obscure movies.
Nicolas Cage's body of work is as varied as it is thrillingly inconsistent and unpredictable. The legendary actor has been working steadily for about 40 years now, and has racked up more than 100 film credits in that time. It averages out to almost three films a year, with these various roles including being a film's lead, a supporting player, and also some wonderfully bizarre cameos (where he'll still usually manage to steal the movie).
The following films are among his most obscure roles: the least known of the lesser known. According to the film-themed social media site, Letterboxd, they rank among Cage's least viewed films, and as such, may only appeal to the actor's most devoted fans. They go to show that when you've been consistently active in the film business long enough as an actor, you're bound to feature in some real oddities here and there.
Updated on April 13, 2023, by Jeremy Urquhart:
Nicolas Cage has appeared in 106 feature films, and that number goes up every year, seeing as he never seems to stop appearing in movies. He's one of the most prolific American actors working today, and every few months on average, there's a new title for Cage fans to enjoy... or at least tolerate, given they're not all winners. The horror-comedy Renfield (April 14) is one of his most high-profile films in recent memory, and presents a good opportunity to go back over his filmography and investigate some of his more obscure movies.
15 'Never on Tuesday' (1989)
Never on Tuesday is a movie that's only really remembered for its Nicolas Cage cameo. The film as a whole is technically about three people passing time while stranded in the desert after a car accident, with the film's best moment arriving early on, as Cage plays a very strange man who offers to help the trio.
He pulls up in his car, reveals his bizarre haircut and even more bizarre prosthetic nose, offers help in a high-pitched, out-of-breath voice, realizes his help isn't wanted, initially laughs at this, then seems to start crying, and then gets back in his car and drives off. It lasts less than a minute, but is such a wonderfully wild moment that it needs to be seen to be believed. Despite its brevity, it deserves to be ranked among Cage's most over-the-top performances.
14 'The Best of Times' (1981)
The history of The Best of Times is interesting, and arguably keeps it from being a "proper" Nicolas Cage movie. It was shot as a pilot for a TV show that was never picked up, but stands at almost 50 minutes, qualifying it for feature length. Its isolated nature as a one-off pilot gives it the feel of a short TV movie.
Anyway, it's notable for being one of the earliest films or TV shows to star Nicolas Cage, who was only 17 years old, and featured as part of an ensemble cast of teenagers who would have starred in weekly comedy-drama, slice-of-life episodes, had the show been picked up. It's worth it for fans of Cage, as a curiosity piece (it also stars a very young Crispin Glover, a few years before he got recognition for movies like Friday The 13th Part IV and Back to the Future).
13 'Amos & Andrew' (1993)
Amos & Andrew is an action-comedy that contains humor that perhaps hasn't aged fantastically, but still holds up as a surprisingly decent Nicolas Cage film, considering its relative obscurity. It's also notable for starring the great Samuel L. Jackson, just one year before he'd really blow up as a star, thanks to 1994's Pulp Fiction.
The plot involves a police mishap regarding Jackson's character, and Cage's character - a criminal who wants to do anything he can to get out of his jail cell - being sent in to remedy the situation. From there, it turns into a fairly by-the-numbers buddy comedy, but it's perfectly watchable for those willing to put up with some 1990s cheese, and Jackson and Cage do make for a great pairing.
12 'Christmas Carol: The Movie' (2001)
There are probably too many movies to count that are based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and Christmas Carol: The Movie is yet another one to add to the pile. Unfortunately, this retelling of the iconic story about a greedy old man coming to understand the spirit of Christmas is not worth adding to the yearly rotation of great Christmas movies.
Nicolas Cage has voice-acted in a surprising number of films throughout his career, but 2001's Christmas Carol: The Movie would have to be the most obscure of them all. He voices Jacob Marley, a ghost who tells Ebenezer Scrooge about how three other ghosts will visit him, and his role is pretty brief. Even for Cage completists, this one's probably not worth sitting through.
11 'The Runner' (2015)
A strangely reserved and grounded film for Nicolas Cage, The Runner sees him playing a politician who has to stay on top of complications in both his personal and professional life, all the while dealing with the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.
While it seems as though Cage may be playing a real-life politician at first, The Runner's story is fictional, despite using the background of an actual event. It's an odd film, as a result, and given it's a straightforward character drama, it doesn't offer many thrills or over-the-top moments to satisfy most Cage fans, who probably expect at least one memorable outburst per film.
10 'Fire Birds' (1990)
Few films borrow as heavily (and blatantly) from one previously-released film as Fire Birds does. In this case, it really does just feel like an inferior riff on 1986's Top Gun, which of course was an immensely popular film, making it perhaps understandable why Fire Birds came out the way it did.
Instead of fighter jets, Fire Birds contains attack helicopters, focusing on the lives of those who pilot them, with Nicolas Cage being the protagonist. That's really the only plot difference between this and Top Gun; otherwise, it feels dangerously close to an unofficial remake. The action's not particularly good, and Cage doesn't get much to do. This one's very obscure for a good reason.
9 'Sonny' (2002)
Sonny is an interesting anomaly within Nicolas Cage's filmography, as to date, this 2002 film is his only directorial effort so far. It stars James Franco as a young gigolo struggling with life, and features Cage in a role that's somewhere between being a cameo and a supporting player.
It takes a while for Cage to show up, but once he does, he ends up being the only thing that makes the film memorable. He plays a pimp whose name is "Acid Yellow," and brings to the role the crazy yet infectious energy you'd expect Cage to provide. The rest of Sonny feels like a fairly generic low-budget drama, but the Cage scenes are worth seeking out.
8 'Zandalee' (1991)
Zandalee is the rare obscure Nicolas Cage movie that deserves to be a little less obscure. That's not because it's a good movie, exactly, but because it's a very interesting one, and does contain a young Nicolas Cage firing on all cylinders, bringing a deranged energy to the movie that's undeniably entertaining to watch.
Plot-wise, Zandalee does more or less boil down to being another love triangle movie, with Cage playing the "bad boy" to Judge Reinhold's more straitlaced character, as they both compete for the affection of Zandalee, played by Erika Anderson. Don't worry about the story too much, though. Most importantly, this is the film where Nicolas Cage infamously demolishes an art studio before covering himself in paint, all the while yelling and crying.
7 'The Humanity Bureau' (2017)
A science-fiction film that might qualify as a thriller if it was just the least bit thrilling, The Humanity Bureau is one of many low-budget, somewhat hastily made Nicolas Cage movies made during the 2010s. Many of them blend together, due to the quantity, so it makes sense for films like this 2017 release to quickly fade into obscurity, in just a matter of years.
The film predicts a bleak future for humanity in 2030, and shows Nicolas Cage trying to survive catastrophic global warming and a recession that's plunged the economy into chaos. It should make for a goofily fun time, but it can't even manage to be so bad it's good. Hard to recommend to anyone, really.
6 'Time to Kill' (1989)
While Time to Kill is far from being one of the best Italian movies of all time, it is notable for being a rare Italian film that stars Nicolas Cage. It's a war movie set in Ethiopia during the 1930s, following Cage as he plays an Italian soldier who gets separated from his fellow soldiers and ends up doing a series of horrible things while trying to get back to camp.
Cage's character here feels like a villain who goes off the rails because there's no hero around to stop him, and viewers are forced to just watch it happen. It's also not nearly thoughtful or nuanced enough to work as a character study of a deeply flawed individual, making Time to Kill an uncomfortable and very awkward movie that probably deserves to remain obscure and all but forgotten.
5 '211' (2018)
Nicolas Cage plays a cop caught up in one of the most difficult days of his life in 211. He's called to tend to a bank heist, which then spirals out of control into a standoff featuring hostages, casualties, and plenty of low-budget action scenes.
The premise is there for 211 to be a decent time, but the execution leaves a good deal to be desired. It feels quite hastily made, and doesn't add much to the already over-crowded cops vs. robbers/heist genres. If it's not quite the worst Nicolas Cage film of the 2010s, then it's at least hovering close to the barrel's bottom.
4 'The Boy in Blue' (1986)
There aren't many sports movies out there about sculling, which can at least make The Boy in Blue stand out. It stars Cage as a man named Ned Hanlan, who was one of the most well-known sculling champions in Canada in the late 1800s (the sport of sculling involves participants using two oars each to race boats).
It's loosely based on a true story, making this a biopic as well as a sports movie. It tracks the ups and downs of Hanlan's career in a fairly straightforward fashion, making The Boy in Blue sort of serviceable in parts, but also completely unremarkable, and as such, unsurprisingly obscure.
3 'Arsenal' (2017)
The nicest thing one could say about Arsenal is that it's a crime movie with a short runtime, and therefore it doesn't waste as much of its audience's time as it could. It focuses on two brothers. One of them gets kidnapped, and so the other (who's also a mobster) has to do what he can to get him back.
On the surface, it looks like it could be a little fun, especially with Nicolas Cage in a supporting villainous role. However, it never pushes things far enough to be entertaining in a funny way, and it's also extremely hard to take much of what happens seriously, leaving Arsenal stuck in the dreaded middle between entertainingly bad and genuinely good.
2 'Racing with the Moon' (1984)
Few actors can rival Nicolas Cage when it comes to over-the-top acting, but Sean Penn on a good day could probably come close. He's an explosive, often theatrical actor, and so the idea of him starring in a movie with Cage is a potentially enticing one.
Unfortunately, Racing with the Moon - which does indeed star the pair - isn't particularly good, and doesn't really deserve to be rescued from obscurity for any reason. Penn's character falls in love, and Cage's character (who's amusingly named Nicky) keeps getting into trouble, with the two also struggling with the fact that it's 1943, and they're about to be shipped off to fight in World War Two. It's not the worst Cage movie out there, but it's also hard to remember and recommend.
1 'Inconceivable' (2017)
Inconceivable is an unapologetically schlocky thriller, and for that reason could be recommended to those who enjoy their so-bad-they're-good Nicolas Cage movies. It follows two mothers who become friends, only for things to fall apart when the older of the two realizes there's something strange going on with the younger one.
It feels like a soap opera for much of its runtime, and at a point, every new scene just continues to heighten the melodrama until it reaches undoubtedly comedic levels. It's very silly and frustrating when watched with any level of critical thinking, but for being so goofy and ridiculous during many of its scenes, it's surprisingly watchable with the right mindset.