Y'see, whilst I agree about almost everything else that Cage has done, I think he has to be excepted (in my universe, anyway) as I enjoyed 'Raising Arizona'. It was just - as they sometimes annoyingly say - 'a romp'. Nothing more.

Right - I'm off again now, so you can all slag off 'Raising Arizona' 'til the cows come home.

Having nominated Costner, I do have to say I like A Perfect World when I saw it. Not sure how well it holds up, though.

I like Raising Arizona, Clive. I also liked Wild at Heart an awful lot back in the day although I fear I wouldn't if I saw it again.
There's stuff to be said for him in silly thrillers like Con Air and Face/Off. But when he starts with the whiny awful thing eg in Leaving Las Vegas (HATEFUL film) then he's one of the most annoying actors in the world.

My theory on Cage is that he was fine in everything until he made The Rock (and he wasn't bad in that), but that film made him such a hot property that he realised he didn't have to act any more and could make more money taking any role he was offered than by selecting his films carefully.

Before The Rock, he was in Raising Arizona, Red Rock West, Wild at Heart and Leaving Las Vegas. That's not a bad CV. It's all the stuff since that has corrupted him.

8MM is actually not a bad film at all either.

Tom Hanks has been in lots of films that were very good, just not as good as so many people think - Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, that one where Leonardo Dicaprio plays a brilliant forger, to name three that come to mind.

Will Ferrell is good in the one where he hears Emma Thompson narrating his life. That's a good film overall. Too bad I can't recall the title.

Catch Me If You Can

edit: is the Leonardo di Caprio one. The Emma Thompson one is Stranger Than Fiction.

Which was kind of fun, in spite of the dire Hanks.

I wish to nominate Jim Carrey.

I can't stand Saving Private Ryan after the opening sequence. Spielberg at his most nauseating (AI apart).

I think the opening sequence just makes the following hour of sickly jingoistic crap even worse.

The most romantic dialogue I've ever heard in a movie involved Nicolas Cage, in Valley Girl, and he was a decent romantic lead in It Could Happen to You. 8MM, though--I felt like I needed to wash my brain out afterward.