Feb 03 2011
The Nicolas Cage Matrix
(click to enlarge)
For some reason, no actor today generates as much fascination as Nicolas Cage. The man has had a storied and diverse career, yet is also the punchline to an infinite number of jokes. A lot of that has to do with his hair, which we’ve focused on previously, or sometimes it’s his freakout, which again we’ve showcased.
But now we have a new way of analyzing his work in the form of the Nicolas Cage Matrix from TheShiznit. It’s a chart that rates Cage’s various role base on four crtieria, “Brilliant, Rubbish, Serious and Mental.” This is UK-made, so Brilliant means “good,” Rubbish mean “shit” and Mental means “crazy.” Serious means “serious.”
As you can see, he’s all over the map, though I think the greatest number of his films are definitely in the “Serious + Rubbish” quadrant. There are a few slip-ups, like I’m pretty sure Raising Arizona should be on the Mental side, but it’s a cool chart nonetheless.
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As I said on /Film, Lord of War should be much, much, much higher on that list. That is one of the best films I have ever seen.
Happy to see ‘Adaptation’ so close to the upper border.
Gotta agree, Lord of War should be at the top of the good movies.
The Wicker Man should have a 5th section devoted to itself. I’m pretty sure he read the script for that one and said “you know, I think I’ll do this movie just to fuck with people.”
I love you how have to explain what Brilliant means to Americans. It shouldn’t be but it probably is necessary.
Wow! It’s like he has a movie every year!
How come he’s not on the top 10 hollywood earners? just at #20?
Also why does he have money problems a few years ago?
@matthuliz
He spends his money on extravagant things and has a very disturbing addiction with all things Elvis (so much so that he actually married Lisa Marie).
He also does a LOT of small films. He does a big payday film once every year to two years, but most of his films he either does to show he can act (i.e. Bad Lieutenant, Lord of War, Adaptation) or just to have fun (a lot of the non Disney ones he does, like Kick Ass) that pay him very little compared to what he could be making.