BEFORE: OK, before going any further, we've got to have a talk about what constitutes an "appearance". In the past I've counted some questionable things to keep my chain going, like an actor appearing in a non-speaking role, like seen in the background in a party scene, or seen sleeping on a train (true). But in those cases it was REALLY that actor, just making a cameo. Now, in this new world of digital deep-fakery, I have to wonder if a digitally manipulated set of pixels that APPEARS to be that actor should count. "The Flash" pulled a couple of tricks at the climax of the movie, including digital appearances by past actors like Adam West and Christopher Reeve, who are no longer alive. So...was it them? Or just a bunch of pixels arranged to LOOK like them? How do I treat that, does that constitute an "appearance"? My heart says yes, but my brain says no.
But a little research tells me that Nicolas Cage DID film scenes for this movie, he showed up and put on a motion-capture suit, probably, and then the digital team got to work manipulating that footage - so I'm going to count that as an "appearance", and he carries over from "The Flash" to today's film, "Arsenal". That's one thing sorted.
But my original plan was to go from here to "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse", since Cage voiced a character in the first "Spider-Verse" film, he played Spider-Man Noir. While this character apparently appears in the sequel, there were reports that the actor was NOT hired to reprise his role. Wikipedia states that they used "archival sound" for the character's dialogue, but IMDB is not listing Nicolas Cage as part of the cast - perhaps they will later. But what is "archival sound"? It could be a repeat of Nic Cage dialogue from the first film, or an out-take that wasn't used before. They used outtakes of Paul Newman's dialogue from the first "Cars" film for his character in the third film, after he was deceased. Or perhaps the filmmakers used another actor who sounds a lot like Nic Cage, just so the character could say one line, and the bean counters couldn't justify hiring an A-list (?) actor just to say one line. It's all unclear to me, because I haven't seen the film yet (but it is "discount Tuesday" at the theater where I used to work, so perhaps I will learn more later today....)
I can't take the chance of breaking the chain - so I reworked my order a little bit, added one new film from Netflix to be my outro from this little Nicolas Cage mini-chain, and moved another Netflix film up from August to July, and the chain remains unbroken. This just moves "Across the Spider-Verse" a couple links down the chain, I get there through a different link, and then I don't have to worry about whether they used Nicolas Cage's voice or not. All good?
THE PLOT: A Southern construction worker attempts to rescue his kidnapped brother from the mob.
AFTER: It's funny, I could tell just by looking at the cast list what production company made this movie - the same one that made all those Bruce Willis and Nic Cage cheapo action films that I watched last year. "First Kill", "Hard Kill", "Extraction" and so forth. (And from those films, I learned that Jonathon Schaech is who they call when Frank Grillo isn't available...) They must use some kind of random title generator or something - come on, "Arsenal" is really a terrible title, it tells you NOTHING about what's going to happen in a movie. OK, an arsenal is a bunch of weapons, so we can assume there will be guns in the film, but surely there MUST have been a better, less generic title for this film.
On top of that, it's got the most basic plot possible - a mobster kidnaps, or pretends to kidnap, an ex-con that he knows, and tries to get money from the ex-con's brother for his return. I guess maybe there's some intrigue because the ex-con appears to be in on the scheme at first, and then later the mobster kidnaps him for real, and also his daughter for good measure. The younger brother takes matters into his own hands, there's a final shoot-out, end scene. Big flipping deal - I won't remember this movie in a month's time, that's for sure. Heck, I forgot about this movie WHILE I was watching it.
It's just a weird set of priorities, that's all. We're shown certain things as if they're very important, and then they're just...not. As a boy, Mikey sees the body of his uncle, who committed suicide. So what? This never has a larger meaning in telling us who Mikey is, except that he then gives his little brother JP a bunch of quarters to play at the arcade, so he won't see the uncle's body. Then later, in the back room of the arcade/bar/pool hall, Mikey sees mobster kill a guy in the most complicated way possible (involving a lead pipe and a baseball bat for some reason). So Mikey agrees to never tell anybody what he saw, and then tells JP to never go back to the arcade. Go to the arcade, don't go to the arcade, would you make up your damn mind?
Flash forward to adulthood, and Mikey's getting out of jail while JP is running a construction company (The synopsis on IMDB says JP is a "mobster", but this isn't accurate. How good can a film possibly be if nobody takes the time to get the IMDB plotline correct?). JP loans Mikey $10,000 to get his daughter braces, but Mikey instead takes the money and buys drugs to sell for a profit. Hey, maybe that's a smart business plan, who's to say? His daughter might need both braces and a college education, just saying. But them somebody sneaks in at night and takes the drugs, maybe somebody working for the original seller, that's all just a bit unclear. But either way, Mikey "owes" the mob now, in particular Eddie King, the guy who Mikey saw kill somebody in the arcade all those years ago. The way Eddie King sees it, Mikey already "owes" him because he let him live back then. So now this leads to the fake kidnapping scheme, which becomes a real one when the fake one doesn't work.
I guess this is just how things go down in Mississippi - there's a detective character, too, who never really acts like a detective, he keeps saying, "Well, I'm not gonna bust him..." so I guess he gets paid well to not do his job? But his knowledge of the streets does come in handy when it's time to take down the mobster through very non-legal means. Then of course, there's Eddie King, played by Nic Cage in a bad wig, fake nose and a terrible accent. All part of the game, I guess, but by no means is this an A-level film like "Training Day" or "American Gangster". For that matter, it's not even a B-level film like "Frozen Ground" or "Fire with Fire".
But hey, we survived our encounter with the mob, so by all means, let's celebrate with a picnic and some fireworks....
Also starring John Cusack (last seen in "Identity"), Adrian Grenier (last seen in "Marauders"), Johnathon Schaech (last seen in "Reprisal"), Lydia Hull (last seen in "Empire State"), William Mark McCullough, Abbie Gayle, Kelton DuMont (last seen in "Logan"), Zachary Legendre, Megan Leonard (last seen in "First Kill"), Shea Buckner (last seen in "Escape Plan: The Extractors"), Tyler Jon Olson (ditto), Dylan DePaula (last seen in "The Campaign"), C.J. LeBlanc (last seen in "Project Power"), Christopher Coppola, Christopher Rob Bowen (last seen in "Acts of Violence"), Tamara Belous (ditto), Robert Harvey (last seen in "That's My Boy"), Todd Jenkins, Catherine Ashton (last seen in "Geostorm"), Sean Paul Braud (ditto), Heather Johansen (last seen in "The War with Grandpa"), Carrie Jo Hubrich, Vivian Benitez,
RATING: 3 out of 10 Biloxi Shuckers
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