La sentinelle

This is a dark movie. Not only for its content; it's literally dim for most of the movie. I guess it's meant to provide an atmosphere that parallels what is happening in Evan Lake's (Nicolas Cage) mind, and the murky atmosphere is one of the few things Dying of the Light has going for it. The plot is this: Lake works for the C.I.A. and is experiencing some mental twitches in his old age like hallucinations, lapses in memory, and the works, which obviously isn't ideal for a C.I.A. operative, so he has to go rogue. He has flashbacks to a mission he was part of that scarred his psyche - he was tortured for information, and flashbacks to this scene happen over the course of the movie, and Evan won't stop until he finds and kills his former captor. Nicolas Cage carries this movie on his shoulders because his character is really the only semi-developed part about it. Granted, one interesting character is not nearly enough to save this gloomy mess of a film.

I can't blame writer/director Paul Schrader because he and the producers had some sort of fallout and the producers ended up changing a bunch of stuff in post-production, so I blame the producers. The editing is horrendous, the action sequences are intermittent and awkward, no character other than Cage's is interesting in the least, some scenes are too melodramatic, others are just dull. I mean you can tell this movie has more layers than it lets on, but it never goes deep beneath the surface like you want it to. It plays it relatively safe and straightforward despite having an interesting premise and an empathetic protagonist.

Now, Nicolas Cage can definitely pull off the salt-and-pepper look. Especially when he goes full on Arab (or whatever it was) with a badass goatee and tinted glasses. He really encapsulates the part of Evan, and it's by far the deepest and most flawed character Cage has portrayed in a while. The problem is that we don't see enough of him. We don't have a chance to get attached to this character on more than a surface level because the pacing of this movie is so terrible. On a scene-by-scene basis, it's extremely hard to keep track of what's going on, of what's important and what isn't. It just becomes a headache after a while and you just want to see Cage kick some ass, and he kind of does, for like a minute anyway.

The climax is incredibly underwhelming. It's just like, here, this is the end. There's no impact. No reason to care. The antagonist is garbage. Cage's sidekick is boring. None of it is memorable. The movie has so many cool ideas that it alludes to (Evan's dementia and how it impacts his work) that are never delved into deeper. I wanted to hear more monologues from Cage - more scenes of just him battling his psyche. Anything to pull this movie from boredom. Unfortunately, it never happens.

This movie isn't worth it. Even for die hard Cage fans such as myself, Dying of the Light is hard to sit through despite an engaging performance by Cage. Any time Cage is off-screen, the movie loses all intrigue. That's not a good sign. If only a director's cut was able to see the light of day, then maybe the Dying of the Light wouldn't be such a tedious mess. As it stands, it's just a very forgettable misfire of a film.

This isn't a spy movie it's a disaster movie and the disaster is the movie. The only high points are when the no longer remotely sexy but nevertheless intelligent and interesting Irène Jacob appears. It makes you realize that there is a woman who has Helen Mirren or Charlotte Rampling potential (that's the interesting part). Some may object that Mirren and Rampling are still hot. Then Jacob is definitely your gal. Me, I enjoy their conversation, not their decrepitude.

Anton Yelchin is totally miscast and his part is a train wreck. First he's a nerdy eager beaver goody two shoes then he suddenly becomes a totally unconvincing cold Rambo killer, except when he has to physically engage the bad guy, at which point he reverts to the nerdy 70-pound weakling. His mousy baby face is suited to neither of those roles and he doesn't manage to pull off the innocent-looking tough guy act; in fact it seems never to have occurred to him to try.

As for Nick Cage, he takes his usual gawky, brooding, bipolar demeanor to its logical conclusion and totally loses it, both as the character he plays and the way he plays him. He is all over the place.

The movie as a whole has a Walmart look, as if the producers anticipated that it would bomb and cut costs to the bone. No doubt that's why it is located in, or rather outsourced to, Romania.

The rest of the cast and the thin, thin plot of the movie, the less said the better off we are all.

Nicolas Cage has done quite a lot of movies recently. Not all have a certain quality, so considering that, this movie is not that bad. It's improbable and unlikely and a lot of other things too, but when you hear his speech (full of clichés, but nevertheless) almost at the beginning of the movie, you can't help but see the actor shining through. There is still fight left in this "old dog" (no offense to Nic, quite the contrary actually).

Talking about fight, this is about stubbornness and unlikely allies (Yelchin, whose true motives remain unclear to me, other than him being nice ... maybe Cages character reminds him of his dad?), but also about figuring how to let go (or not) of the past. There are some nice touches to this, that can make it worthwhile, but you'll have to decide if this is something you wanna watch (make-up effects are good on Cages face)

Like most Nicolas Cage flicks, the movie lies somewhere on the boarder line of very good and very bad. This one is leaning on the broader of very very bad.

As much as I love a Nicolas Cage movie, one has to always question if I really want to see Nicolas cage in a Nicolas Cage movie. This movie about a aged CIA agent who gets to go after his supposedly dead arch enemy before he retires. Although, unlike most action movies this guy gets to live a pretty awesome two days before retirement scenario, but it may have been a better movie if we did not have to rely so much on the Nick Cage school of bad acting.

In all fairness, it was not Cage's fault that the story and the film making were very dull, and uninteresting. Just his fault that he did the film for a paycheck and seem to pretty much be phoning it in, along with Anton Yelchin you was using the same phone.

Yeah, see something else of stay home.

It is well Known, or maybe only well Known Among Film Geeks, that this Film has been Disowned by Director Paul Schrader and other Principals Involved in Making this Movie, and it is, Among Other Things, a Film Fanatic's Frustration.

The Director has Advised that No One See this Film.

One has to Question the Sanity of Producers that Hire the likes of Edgy Existential Film Artists and then Decide it is too Edgy and Existential for the Box Office, take the Thing Out of Their Hands and Tinker with it like a Naughty Kid Pulling the Wings off Flies. Shame Shame.

What the Movie Going Public is left with is Not a Bad Movie. enough of Schrader's Fingerprints Remain to make it an Offbeat CiA Thriller. What Doesn't Remain is the Cinematographers and Directors Visual Palette as it was "Digitally Manipulated". Shame Shame.

Nic Cage, in another Self-Realized Performance that Cannot be Ignored. He manages to be just a Heartbeat from Over-the-Top and it is usually a Fascination to Behold. If Cage does Anything Anymore it is a Willingness to Work.

The Movie may not be Appreciated for what it is, as Opposed to what it Could Have Been, it is still Worth Catching, as is all of Their Work, both Schrader and Cage are Interesting, No Matter the Product.