In 2022, Nicolas Cage played Nicolas Cage in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” a delightful comedy outing that saw the veteran star come across as what /Film’s Jacob Hall described as “often nuanced, generally restrained, and painfully, awkwardly human.” That’s quite an accomplishment for Cage, who has been known for anything but his restraint in the last couple of decades. Even when he starred in the most terrifying horror movie of 2024, “Longlegs,” he played the mysterious and creepy serial killer with an over-the-top relish. I went into that theater wondering if we’d see some kind of uncharacteristic restraint on Cage’s behalf, but after he started scream-singing five minutes into the movie I thought, “Nope!” Not to say his performance was bad, but if you saw him in David Gordon Green’s 2013 effort “Joe,” you might too be hoping for more of the quietly brooding older Nic Cage and less of the gonzo performances he’s become known for.
“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” certainly gives Cage room to go off the rails in an effort to reclaim some ownership of his perpetually-memed facial expressions and line deliveries. But his performance in the film clearly had enough nuance to make the film more than further off-the-wall Cage nonsense.
Co-written and directed by Tom Gormican, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” sees Cage play a fictionalized version of himself whose acting career is on the rocks. The divorced actor begrudgingly accepts an offer of $1 million to appear at super-fan Javi Gutiérrez (Pedro Pascal)’s birthday party, only to end up on an odyssey that sees him working for the CIA to try and uncover the truth about Gutiérrez and his alleged arms dealing/kidnapping of a politician’s daughter. Cage embraces his movie role personas to get the job done, making for full-on meta commentary on the actor’s own life and career that also happens to be one of the best comedies of the last few years. Now, the film has hit Netflix and viewers have seemingly taken to its meta stylings, sending the film shooting up the charts just a day after it debuted.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent takes over Netflix
By the end of its theatrical run, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” had managed to pull in $29 million worldwide on a $30 million budget. Not exactly a huge financial success, then, but the critics were at least pleased. The film currently enjoys an 87% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 318 reviews. That makes it one of Nic Cage’s highest-rated films of the last five years (and as you might expect, he’s been in a lot of them during that time). Even “Longlegs” isn’t as highly-rated as Tom Gormican’s action comedy.
As such, it’s nice to see a critical success doing well on the Netflix charts, which are so often full of some of the worst streaming dross in the entire streaming sphere. (Kevin Hart’s “Lift” was number one on Netflix this time last year…)
“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” arrived on Netflix January 16. 2025, and proved to be an immediate hit. At the time of writing, the movie is number four on the U.S. most-watched film charts. According to FlixPatrol, a site that aggregates viewing data from all the major streaming platforms, the film debuted in the fourth spot on January 17, just a day after it hit the service. That bodes well for Nic Cage’s comedy reaching the top of the charts, perhaps before the week is even out.
Can Nic Cage reach number one?
At the time of writing, a French action thriller is number one on Netflix. The Rodolphe Lauga-directed “Ad Vitam” is essentially a French version of “Taken,” which considering the fact that Liam Neeson has been making his own “Taken” rip-offs ever since starring in the original, seems like fair play to me. Unfortunately for Nic Cage and his action comedy, “Ad Vitam” has been number one in the U.S. for a full six days. Not only that, but viewers around the world have also sent it to the top of the charts in various other countries, making this one heck of a challenge for “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” to overcome.
But considering the film debuted at number four just a day after it hit the service, perhaps it will be the thing that finally topples Lauga’s actioner. In order to accomplish such a feat, however, Cage and co. will also have to overcome perhaps an even more powerful enemy in the form of the Minions. “Despicable Me” and “Despicable Me 2” currently occupy the second and third spot on the Netflix U.S. charts respectively, and they’ve been there for some time, too. If “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” can leap these two juggernauts, then, it will be yet another win for one of Cage’s best modern efforts. What’s more, it will be a nice little reminder that Netflix can serve up more than formulaic actioners and movies that would otherwise have been forgotten direct-to-DVD duds — just like when Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic “Interstellar” soared on the Netflix charts to kick off the new year. Solana Token Creator
