Dying of the Light (2014)

Evan Lake (Nicholas Cage) was a legend at the C.I.A., but after years in the game, and a particularly horrible experience at the hands of the Taliban, he was diagnosed with dementia, and forced into retirement. Lake is moving on with his life when new information comes to light, that his old nemesis, a terrorist leader long believed dead, is back. Knowing their best chance to catch him is Lake, they turn to him for help, but can he keep it together long enough to complete his mission? This unbelievably was a b-movie, yet a remarkably strong performance for Nicholas Cage, who randomly had to go between C.I.A. legend and confused old man. His performance is aided by the late Anton Yelchin, playing an analyst who admires Lake so much, that he goes against orders to help him with his mission. The whole dynamic between the man at the end of his career on his last mission, and the boy at the start of his career on his first mission, really added something different, that you don't typically see in espionage films. Dying of The Light really does have a lot to like about it, but one must remember, it is an espionage film and a direct-to-video one at that. The writing isn't spectacular and parts of it are more than somewhat confusing. They also throw in a lot of Evan's flashbacks and delusions at the completely wrong times, which really did start to bother me as the film got more intense. Overall, I did enjoy this film, I thought the acting was terrific, and I loved the dynamic and chemistry between the two leading men, despite the obvious age difference. Dying of The Light certainly isn't a perfect movie, but it's still an entertaining one.

I am always up for a good movie about the caustic incompetence agency. This one offered a different angle, being more about a man suffering an aggressive brain degeneration disease and wanting desperately to avenge his torture from twenty-two years before. One must ask why it took him twenty-two years to develop what overnight becomes an idée fixe, but I guess that was the point of his having this particular brain disease, which causes alterations in judgment and hypersensitivity and overreaction. Nicolas Cage plays the CIA agent undergoing rapid brain degeneration, and he is pretty convincing. How he finds his aggressor is quite a bit less so. It's another case where only through a major contrivance on the part of the script writer is there even a story here to portray. When he finally finds himself in a room with the man who tortured him, Cage suddenly changes his mind—apparently also because of his brain disease! But then when a group of goons come after him and end up harming his friend, the former CIA agent suddenly realizes that he must do what he came to do and goes back to kill the guy, which is only accomplished after a bloody and ugly contest between the two. So, yes, there's some action here, but this production doesn't come close to the Bourne trilogy.

A film which will always be best known for the fact that towards the end of 2014 it's director/writer Paul Schrader (writer of such classics as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver), producer Nicolas Winding Refn and stars Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin campaigned against its very release due to what they felt was a severe case of studio interference in their product, Dying of the Light is an incredibly "random" film that has moments of utter madness in an other wise unspectacular plot that creates a film that could've benefited from allowing it's zanier elements to take hold to ward off the feeling that this is in fact, an incredible boring thriller.You get the sense that at it's very core Light wanted to be a much more kookier tale, a vision no doubt concocted by the unique minds of Schrader and Winding Refn, but whatever Light was intended to be the studio clearly got spooked by what is was seeing. If, as we've been lead to believe, the studio did in fact lock the creators out of the editing suite there can be some form of excuse as to why Light feels like such a generic and uneventful tale of revenge and a man's battle of personnel and more physical demons. This generic nature of the tale is the predominant feature of the film but we get slight moments of madness and downright bizarre dialogue that will be source of long standing joy for Cage fans, that makes Light a must see for fans of the wild eyed maniac.With a prosthetic ear and typically noteworthy hair, Cage's performance as dogged CIA agent turned rouge revenge seeker Evan Lake is often a joy to behold. From Lake's speech to a room full of new recruits, a sitting on a cold bench in the heart of a Russian winter "Don't try to put a bib on me!" or a casual sniffing of a fern plant, Cage is allowed to let loose on occasions here and it creates an undeniably fun and hilarious turn in what was no doubt supposed to be a serious role with musings on everything from national pride to dementia commentary. It's in Cage's off kilter performance that Light could've been something truly special in an off the chart way but it's not hard to see why the studio could sense that it may have just been too much for the world to handle.With a seen a million times before revenge tale of CIA agent vs. the big bad (here a sick, chair bound terrorist), Dying of the Light has been made to feel like a safe and uneventful thriller that so dearly wanted to be something let loose from the chain. There are moments of pure madness that against better judgement one can recommend, but in the end this is a lesser "Crazy Cage" film that fans of his particular line of work would be better suited to watch a repeat viewing of Wicker Man for their kick of looney.1 and a half anti Obama rants out of 5

Dying of the Light featuring Nicolas Cage, well that's the reason I chose to watch the movie. I'm used to seeing Nicolas Cage typically play himself in every film and I'm typically sure of what to expect; so I didn't feel that watching this movie could be any different. Now Dying of the Light had a great story idea and the acting for the most part was sort of fair, not great. The issue with this film is it seemed to not ever get to what it was aiming for. It's not a bad movie, though it is one of those films that is hard to hold your attention.Dying of the Light did have some really good potential it just didn't come through, great attempt.