Arsenal

Actie

Beschikbaar voor VOD: 16 maart 2017

Regie: Steven C. Miller

Cast: Nicolas Cage (The Bad Lieutenant, Drive Angry, Leaving Las Vegas, Kick-Ass), John Cusack (2012, Drive Hard, Cell, Hot Tub Time Machine), Adrian Grenier (Entourage, The Devil Wears Prada, Marauders), Lydia Hull (Van Wilder, Escape Plan 2), Johnathon Schaech (That Thing You Do, Marauders, The Prince)

Terwijl JP een succesvol bouwbedrijf runt, heeft zijn broer Mikey zich vastgereden in het zielige leventje van een derderangsgangster en is op de shitlist van de meedogenloze misdaadbaas Eddie King (Nicolas Cage) beland.

Dat loopt uit op een ontvoering, losgeld, en erger. Of voert Mikey iets in zijn schild? JP aarzelt niet en zet alles op het spel om zijn broer te helpen. Samen met hun jeugdvriend en agent Sal (John Cusack) gaat JP de strijd aan met King en zijn legertje trawanten.

Regisseur Steven C. Miller (Submerged, Marauders, Silent Night) maakte van Arsenal een meeslepende actiethriller over schuld, boete en broederliefde, met spetterende actiescènes, sfeervolle grootstadsfotografie en een Cage die op magistrale wijze al zijn acteerduivels ontbindt.

Reviews

• Wegotthiscovered.com: The actor gives the kind of performance that awed directors let Brando give at the end of his career: one that's completely OTT.
• Omenly.com: Nicolas Cage (Eddie King) throws around his nuttiness and violent yet amusing reactions in a way that keeps the audience interested.
• Cutprintfilm.com: Any moment Cage is on screen here becomes hypnotic. You're drawn into every single bizarre choice the actor makes, completely uncertain of what he's going to do next. In one of the film's best scenes, Eddie's brother Buddy (Deadfall director and Cage's real-life brother Christopher Coppola) shows up to reprimand Eddie for his sloppiness. What follows is a slow-motion dance of carnage, with splashes of blood flying up into Cage's glorious mustache.
• DallasFilmNow.com: Arsenal frames its relentless beatings doled out by Nicolas Cage against slow-motion effects and a melancholic hymnal of sorts.
• Filmschoolrejects.com: Cage is mesmerizing whether he's talking, sobbing, hissing, or ranting - his War of the Gargantuas reference is especially endearing.
• Goodefficientbutchery.blogspot.nl: Cage is here to do exactly what you expect him to do: shout, yell, scream, spaz out, and totally Cage it up.
• Joblo.com: Cage's whacked-out performance is what makes ARSENAL worth checking out, with him having a blast throughout. He doesn't phone it in at all, and Cage is always fun to watch when he's in gonzo mode.

The Trust

Thriller

Beschikbaar voor VOD: 16 mei 2016

Regie: Alex Brewer, Ben Brewer

Cast: Nicolas Cage (The Bad Lieutenant, Drive Angry, Leaving Las Vegas, Kick-Ass), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Sin City), Sky Ferreira (Larry Crown, Vampire Academy, The Green Inferno), Jerry Lewis (The King of Comedy)

Jim Stone en David Waters (Nicolas Cage en Elijah Wood) zijn twee agenten met suffe kantoorbaantjes die af en toe een centje bijverdienen met licht illegale randactiviteiten. Maar wanneer Stone lucht krijgt van het bestaan van een mysterieuze geldkluis, lijken hun financiële zorgen voorgoed voorbij. Snel even de locatie bepalen met wat uitgelezen speurwerk, de safe openbreken en lekker de buit verdelen, right?

Wrong. Wat hun garantie op een luilekkerleventje moest worden, ontpopt zich al snel tot een enkeltje richting hel...

In deze duister-grappige misdaadthriller is het genieten geblazen van het verbale vuurwerk tussen Cage en Wood als twee sullen die zichzelf ongewild steeds dieper in de nesten werken. Een heist movie met een existentieel, hilarisch kantje.

Reviews

• Cinemagazine.nl: The Trust is een Nicolas Cage-comeback op meerdere fronten. Niet alleen keert hij voor deze zwartkomische politiethriller terug naar de locatie waar hij eerder successen boekte als Wild at Heart, Con Air en natuurlijk Leaving Las Vegas, ook is hij qua acteerwerk weer bijna ouderwets op het niveau waarom we zo van hem houden. Er zit redelijk wat humor in dit speelfilmdebuut van de gebroeders Brewer, die vooral op het conto geschreven mag worden van Nicolas Cage. Zijn personage is onvoorspelbaar en daardoor altijd interessant. Maar ook Elijah Wood laat zien wat hij in huis heeft, hij deelt een prettige chemie met Cage en maakt zijn karakterontwikkeling geloofwaardig.
• Empireonline.com: Academy Award winner turned direct-to-video staple Nicolas Cage gives one of his loosest, goofiest and most enjoyable performances in years as Stone, a modestly corrupt Las Vegas cop stuck in a crappy administrative job, living with his doddering dad (Jerry Lewis) and lumbered with a partner (Elijah Wood) who'd rather be smoking dope than logging evidence. Cage and Wood make a hugely enjoyable double act (has True Detective season three been cast yet?) in this deceptively dark thriller with comic undertones.
• Variety.com: Cage supplies a stream of tension-defusing laughs while the script steadily applies the screws .. in The Trust, a juicily played heist thriller. Of course, even the most carefully calculated scheme can be counted on to go haywire, and so it does here, with unexpectedly human consequences, in a heist sequence that, while not exactly "Rififi," becomes steadily absorbing as it consumes much of the film's second half.
• TheGuardian.com: Nicolas Cage could very well become the next celebrity target of US police unions for his involvement in The Trust, a slickly executed dark comedy that sees the Oscar-winner play one of the most corrupt cops to grace the screen in recent memory. As the film grows increasingly dark following violent hiccups in their attempted robbery, so does Cage: Stone's odd tics suddenly turn sinister. Simply put, he's a blast to watch. Cage is the rare actor who has the ability to make you laugh one moment, and recoil the next. Not to be outdone, Wood holds his own opposite Cage, grounding the proceedings as an increasingly embittered everyman way in over his head.
• Collider.com: It's engaging from start to finish, Nicolas Cage is a blast to watch, The Trust has strong performances, Jim is as quirky as they come and David doesn't take his job as seriously as he should, but it's clear that they're both smart guys so even though their scheme is incredibly risky, there is a sense that they could pull it off, which keeps the film engaging all the way through. If you take the sit back and relax approach to The Trust, there's a good deal of fun to be had with Cage's wacky performance and it's also easy to get swept up in the heist itself thanks to the need to know whether they pull it off.
• Blogcritics.org: a crime drama which combines the world of CSI: Las Vegas with the violence and dark humor of a Quentin Tarantino film. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Idigitaltimes.com: The Trust takes a bit to rev into gear, but once the heist begins, it's non-stop drama. Cage's Jekyll and Hyde performance is definitely worth watching. It's a solid debut from Alex and Ben Brewer, and I'm excited to see what they come up with next.
• Little White Lies (lwlies.com): Elijah Wood and Nicolas Cage play a pair of crooked Las Vegas cops in this breezy heist caper. For most of the first act, it feels Cage-lite, but the Brewers slacken his leash just enough to drive up the tension as the heist proper begins. The Trust may not break new ground in the genre, but it's a handsomely made example of a tried and tested formula. Cinematographer Sean Porter eschews the garish neon hues of the Vegas Strip for a cooler colour palate, and Reza Safinia's up-tempo score helps to keep up the pace. Cage is on fine form in this slick little thriller.