‘Mandy’ Shows Nic Cage Off His Chain
Nicolas Cage is an integral part of 21st-century entertainment. His work prior to the new millennium was fascinating, to be sure, but the early 2000s in particular are a showcase of a desperate man acting his way out of crippling debt.
His purchases of more than half a dozen exotic homes, an island, dinosaur fossils, and one of the most eclectic wardrobes in Hollywood have kept Cage in a constant pursuit of work, and thanks to his recognizability and superbly entertaining acting style, he’s been able to stay off the streets.
The effect this has had on the entertainment industry is good and bad at the same time. On the one hand, Cage is now accessible to some smaller filmmakers who might not be able to afford him if it weren’t for his need to be in several projects every year.
But it also means that he can get swooped up by any number of terrible direct-to-video trainwrecks.
Cage’s performance in ‘Mandy’ falls on the positive side of the spectrum. It’s the new film from madman director Panos Cosmatos, whose strange choices of onscreen color and hyper-specific style are all in perfect proportions this time around.
[Spoiler Warning]
Cage plays a man whose beloved SO gets abducted and killed by a local cult. The fight for revenge involves mystical weapons, a chainsaw sword fight, and lots of yelling.
Little did we know that Nic Cage is so well-suited to all of these things. He’s a perfect fit for a movie like this, that ultimately doesn’t take itself too seriously. And if the audience is willing to sink into the absurdity, it offers some of the best, and simultaneously goofiest, Cage acting we’ve ever seen.
Comcast Buys Broadcast Network, Sky
U.S.-based entertainment and communications corporation Comcast has purchased European entertainment company Sky, for a reported purchase price of $39 billion.
The other major contender in the bidding war for Sky was Disney. Both Disney and Comcast have spent the last few years determined to purchase as much of the entertainment world as they possibly can.
Disney’s recent purchase of a controlling portion of 21st Century Fox left Comcast dangerously close to falling out of the race for control of the future of entertainment.
Now, industry analysts are proposing that Comcast’s purchase of Sky keeps those interests safe, at least for the near future.
Many of these recent deals have been pursued as part of an industry-wide interest in the possibility of online content streaming, which has become an increasingly crucial component of the entertainment industry, with more and more users opting to consume television and movies via streaming rather than traditional cable or satellite television services.
