Nicolas Cage’s best comedy is blowing up Netflix’s charts

In 2022 Nicolas Cage played Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Burden of Massive Talent. a delightful comedy outing in which the veteran star came across as what /Film’s Jacob Hall described as “often nuanced, usually understated and painfully, awkwardly human.” It’s quite an achievement for Cage, who has been known for anything but reticence over the past couple of decades. Even when he was filming scariest horror movie of 2024 longlegs he played the mysterious and creepy serial killer with extreme gusto. I went into that theater wondering if we were going to see some uncharacteristic restraint from Cage, but after he started singing five minutes into the movie, I thought, “No!” Not to say his performance was bad, but when you saw him in David Gordon Green’s Joe in 2013, you might also have hoped for more of the quietly brooding older Nic Cage and less of the gonzo performances that he became famous.

“The Unbearable Burden of Massive Talent” certainly gives Cage the opportunity to go off the rails in an attempt to reclaim ownership of his ever-so-meticulous facial expressions and words. But his performance in the film clearly had enough nuance to make the film more than just another inane Cage nonsense.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, co-written by director Tom Gormican, features Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself whose acting career is at an all-time low. A divorced actor reluctantly accepts a $1 million offer to appear at superfan Javi Gutierrez’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party, only to end up on an odyssey where he works for the CIA to try to uncover the truth about Gutierrez and his alleged arms trade/kidnapping of a politician’s daughter. Cage uses his role in the film to make it work, creating a complete meta-commentary on his own life and career as an actor that also happens to be one of the best comedies of the past few years. Now the film is out on Netflix and audiences seem to have taken to its meta-styles, sending the film skyrocketing the charts just a day after its debut.

By the end of the screening in cinemas, “The Unbearable Burden of a Massive Talent” managed to attract 29 million dollars worldwide on a $30 million budget. So it’s not exactly a huge financial success, but at least the critics were happy. The film has now received 87% ratings from critics Rotten tomatoesbased on 318 reviews. This makes it one of the highest-rated Nic Cage films of the last five years (and, as you might expect, he’s been in a lot of them during that time). Even “Leggy” isn’t as highly regarded as Tom Gormican’s action film.

So it’s nice to see a critical success making headway on Netflix’s charts, which are so often full of the worst streaming throwbacks in the entire streaming world. (Kevin Hart’s ‘Lift’ is number one on Netflix this time last year…)

The Unbearable Burden of Huge Talent released on Netflix on January 16, 2025. and immediately became a hit. At the time of writing, the film is in fourth place on the chart of the most popular films in the United States. According to FlixPatrolsite, which aggregates viewing data from all major streaming platforms, the film debuted at number four on January 17, just one day after it hit the service. This bodes well for the Nic Cage comedy, which will reach the top of the charts, possibly before the end of the week.

At the time of writing the French action movie is number one on Netflix. Directed by Rodolfo Lauga, Ad Vitam is essentially a French version of Taken, which, given the fact that Liam Neeson has been doing his own Taken knock-offs since starring in the original, seems like fair game to me. . Unfortunately for Nic Cage and his action comedy, “Ad Vitam” was number one in the US for a full six days. Not only that, audiences around the world have also sent it to the top of the charts in various other countries, making it one hell of a challenge for the Unbearable Burden of Mass Talent.

But considering the film debuted at number four just a day after it was released, it might just be the one that finally surpasses Laugi’s action flick. However, to accomplish such a feat, Cage and company. will also have to overcome a possibly even more powerful enemy in the form of minions. Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 are currently number two and three on Netflix’s US chart, respectively, and they’ve been there for a while, too. If The Unbearable Burden of Massive Talent can leapfrog these two juggernauts, it will be yet another victory for one of Cage’s best modern efforts. What’s more, it’ll be a nice little reminder that Netflix has more to offer than clichéd action flicks and movies that would otherwise be relegated to DVD. Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic ‘Interstellar’ soars in Netflix charts to start the new year.