2021 is shaping up to be the wildest year of Nicolas Cage‘s career yet, which is really saying something. Having already made his Netflix debut as the host of docuseries History of Swear Words, the eccentric actor’s recent martial arts sci-fi adventure Jiu Jitsu is coming to the platform next month on March 20th.
If you’re not on board with the idea of Cage wearing another ridiculous wig and spouting exposition as the wizened sage of an ancient and mysterious order tasked with recruiting an elite team of fighters to stave off the threat of an alien invasion, then Jiu Jitsu is not for you. The marketing may have put the Academy Award winner front and center, but don’t be fooled, the movie is very much an ensemble piece.
The likes of Alain Moussi, Rick Yune, Frank Grillo and Tony Jaa can more than hold their own when it comes to the fight choreography, but if you take the plunge when it arrives on Netflix, don’t go in expecting high art. Instead, Jiu Jitsu works best if your tongue is planted firmly in cheek, because there’s nothing about the story that makes a lick of sense and the performances are all over the shop, as if everyone signed on to a completely different film but it was still somehow edited together as the same thing.
If Jiu Jitsu doesn’t float your boat, though, then there’s always the option of watching Nicolas Cage batter haunted animatronic animals in Willy’s Wonderland, while self-aware action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is coming to theaters next month and supernatural crime thriller Prisoners of the Ghostland has recently been picked up for distribution by RLJE Films.
