Hater Hall of Shame: Nicolas Cage

Today’s Hall of Shame inductee is the nephew of a famous film director, and an actor who has seemingly played the same role (badly) for the last 15 years or so.

Nicolas Coppola aka Nicolas Cage,  Born January 7, 1964

I am not really in a biographical mood today, so Cage’s background will be short and sweet – unlike a majority of the movies he has been in.  Nicolas Coppola was born in Long Beach, California to August Coppola and Joy Vogelsang; Cage was the youngest of three boys, one of his brothers, Christoper, is a director (of some movies I’ve never heard of) and the other, Marc, is an actor/DJ for WAXQ in New York.  Fame is apparently strong in the Coppola gene cesspool, as Cage is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppolla and Adrian Balboa, and cousin of Roman and Sofia Coppola, Robert Carmine, and Jason Schwartzman.  Nicolas attended Beverly Hills High School, and was probably a frequent patron of The Peach Pit during his four years there; after graduating, he went to UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television.  Cage first appeared on an ABC TV pilot titled Best of Times, a Laugh-In type variety show that also featured Jackie Mason and the freak show that is Crispin “McFly” Glover.  His first movie role was one of the few truly great films he has acted in, and I don’t even know if he had one line - Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).  I will (reluctantly) give acting props to Nic Cage for two of his performances: (1) H.I. McDunnough in The Coen Brother’s 1987 cult classic Raising Arizona, which is one of my favorite comedies, and (2) as twin brothers Donald and Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation.  Other than that, his movies are either watchable inspite of him – The Rock, National Treasure – or conjure up anger upon realizing he wasted hours of your life that you’ll never get back – Wicker Man, Ghost Rider, 8 MM, Snake Eyes, Face/Off, Con Air, and about 20 others. 

Here are the 10 best moments from Wicker Man – funny, but true:

I guess Cage is huge in Japan, or maybe he just needs the yen:

I know the Hall of Shame video section is historically reserved for spoofs or parodies that poke fun at the inductee, but as I said before, Raising Arizona kicks ass: