With the way his career has been going in recent years, it can be hard to remember that Nicolas Cage is an Oscar-winning actor. It seems that he says yes to pretty much any film he’s offered, and while many of those films have not been bad per se, none of them have been exactly noteworthy. I wish I could say that Cage’s latest vehicle Tokarev looks like it could change the actor’s fortunes, but based on the recently released trailer I have little hope.Â
Tokarev stars Cage as a family man whose criminal past catches up to him after the Russian mob kidnaps and murders his teenage daughter (shades of Taken here). He’s told not to go out for revenge, but Nicolas Cage don’t play by anyone’s rules. Rounding up his old crew, he starts hunting down the men that did this, coming into contact with his old life and beating the hell out of people who try to get in his way.
The trailer features a basic plot overview, a few shootouts and lots of dark, grainy photography meant to instill a sense of just how serious this film will be. The problem is that it looks like every other revenge thriller released over the past ten years; substitute Cage for Jason Statham or Liam Neeson, and you will understand my point. There is at least one requisite Cage-style freakout nearing the end that might at least provide some entertainment value in what seems to be an otherwise grim film.
That being said, Tokarev has assembled a somewhat interesting cast, with Danny Glover and Peter Stormare accompanying Cage into the fray. The director Paco Cabezas has a few films under his belt, including the intriguingly titled Neon Flesh, but nothing of any note. I fear that Tokarev shall go the way of far too many Cage movies these days: only there to put a few more dollars in the actor’s bank account.
You can judge the trailer for Tokarev for yourself by watching it below. Does this look like it could pull Nicky out of the darkness?
