Has anyone noticed that Nicolas Cage has
gotten a sort of stoned-out, glazed look to
him of late? I think it happened right after
he decided that making small, but well-made,
films was beneath him, and that he wanted to
be a Big Star. I can only hope that Family
Man will turn out to be the enormous bomb
that it deserves to be, and Nic will head
back to what he used to do best, i.e. acting.
Unfortunately, first he'll have to suffer
through this perverse and unnecessary remake
of It's A Wonderful Life. Here's the
zany twist: Instead of being a small-town guy
who had dreams of big-city success, he's a
big-city guy who doesn't realize that deep in
his heart he has dreams of small-town family
life. Of course, an angel (Don Cheadle, who's
also working way beneath himself here) comes
along and shows him what his life would have
been like if he had just married his high
school sweetheart (Tea Leone, who is working
right at her level). Since this is already
being marketed as a "Christmas classic"
(read: rehashed, focus-grouped piece of
mindless dog doo) I wonder if anyone can
guess if Cage's character will prefer the
family values world of the suburbs to his
million dollar apartment and endless string
of gorgeous bimbos. Wouldn't it be cool if in
the end he decided he preferred cheap sex and
expensive clothes to a loving wife and
hyper-cute kids? Sadly, that's the kind of
Christmas present that the moviegoing public
is not likely to receive.