Having been replaced by Bruce Willis as the most prolific former A-lister on the VOD action thriller circuit, Nicolas Cage appears to have made a concerted effort to forego the tedious genre films that characterized his output for the better part of a decade to instead star in the most insane projects that come across his desk. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent could be his wildest yet.
That’s saying a lot, considering over the past year and a half he’s battled aliens in martial arts sci-fi Jiu Jitsu, traveled into a supernatural universe with a bomb strapped to his testicles in Prisoners of the Ghostland, and found himself trapped in a haunted amusement park where the animatronic mascots are possessed by the spirits of a satanic cult in Willy’s Wonderland.
Once you know the plot synopsis for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, though, you’ll completely understand why it comes burdened with so much bonkers potential. The Academy Award winner stars as down-on-his-luck actor Nicolas Cage, facing financial disaster after his once-lucrative career has hit the skids. This forces him to accept a million-dollar offer to attend the birthday party of Pedro Pascal’s superfan, where he reenacts some of the most iconic scenes from his back catalogue, including moments from Con Air and Face/Off.
However, not all is what is seems, and the diehard Cage enthusiast is actually a drug kingpin with ties to organized crime. Naturally, Tiffany Haddish’s CIA agent recruits Cage to infiltrate the villain’s lair and draws him into an action-packed adventure that also puts his family in danger. Honestly, that sounds awesome. While the film was originally scheduled for March 2021, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has been given a new release date of April 22nd, 2022, which feels like a million miles away.
