A Sacada

Cage has been on a dry run for the past few years. Not only has he been starring in mediocre-bad movies, but he hasn't had a chance to be as fun and eccentric as we know he can be. It's like he's been on downers for a while, and now with The Trust, he finally got off those meds. This is the Nicolas Cage we love - silly, unpredictable, and hilarious. His antics aren't overbearing either thanks to co-lead Elijah Wood, who is the stoner counterpart to Cage and loosely serves as the voice of reason. The plot of The Trust is that Cage and Wood are cops who couldn't care less about their jobs and wind up stumbling across a drug operation that leads them to a secret vault. Then they decide to rob the place.

It starts off as an off-beat comedy. Cage and Wood share a brilliant rapport making it easy to gloss over the film's shortcomings. Then in the third act things become strangely dark and the fun lackadaisical tone drifts away. But until then, The Trust is a pleasant surprise with more depth than you'd think. The film is loaded with issues - the clunky narrative and inconsistent tone - but for Cage fans who are jonesing for a fix, The Trust will surely fill that void and at the very least provide a few good laughs.

The Trust (2016)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Las Vegas police officer Stone (Nicolas Cage) stumbles across some strange paperwork, which leads him to look into a mysterious building. He soon starts to realize that there's some sort of vault inside and he talks another officer (Elijah Wood) into breaking in with him. Soon the two realize it's much bigger than they thought.

THE TRUST comes from directors Alex, Ben and Benjamin Brewer and for the most part it is an entertaining and somewhat captivating heist movie. That's not to say the film is perfect or even a good one but at the same time it's certainly worth watching as a Redbox rental or a free viewing like I did with Netflix. The film has some weak moments at the start and I'd argue some of the humor is flat but there's no question that the final forty-five minutes are very good.

As I said, the worst part of the movie was some of the strange and rather pointless black comedy at the start of the picture. At first I thought I was watching some sort of weak comedy because it was just rather annoying to say the least. Once you get to the heart of the movie, which is the actual heist, you look back at these early scenes and really have to wonder what the point of them were. Once the movie is over you've basically seen a good heist movie yet your brain remembers back to the start of the picture and it really doesn't make much sense.

I'd also say Wood's character changes throughout the film also didn't make much sense. I'm not going to go into spoilers but to say his character was a bit strange would be an understatement. With all of that said, there's no question that the final portion of this movie is very good. Once the two cops get their plan in motion we get a couple surprises along the way and I'd also argue that the drilling sequences were very well directed. Again, I'm not going to spoil how everything ends but there are some good twists that will remind you of the film noirs from the 1950s.

Both Cage and Wood are good in their roles and they certainly help keep you glued into the movie. Cage really stands out with a pretty laid back and entertaining performance, although there's one sequence where he goes ballistic like only he can. The supporting players are nice as well and we get a brief scene with Jerry Lewis. Yes, that Jerry Lewis. Technically speaking the music and cinematography are both very good and this helps THE TRUST as well.

Nicolas Cage is both the butt of movie jokes and a respectable multirole meme, since he's played everything from cult films to shitty flicks (including ridiculous evangelist ones). Lately, he's been very good in stuff like "Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans" (2009) and "Joe" (2014) which was a great modern example of cinéma vérité. In this wonky production, his smarmy opportunist character is even likable, but unsuccessfully flanked by Wood's reluctant partner in crime; while the small-time heist scheme is enjoyable, the succession of events turns out as anti-climactic and disappointing, without much fun or any sort of accomplishment. There's a lack of a third party and a good female lead, besides a heavier dose of irony. The Jerry Lewis cameo was a random surprise, but good for him: I thought he was dead.

I saw the trailer for 'The Trust' a few weeks ago and I thought it looked interesting since I'm a fan of Nicolas Cage. He had a lot of bad movies recently but also a few good under-looked movies (Joe, Frozen Ground, Drive Angry). It's fair to say that 'The Trust' is a good entry in Nicolas Cage's volatile filmography.

The ending might be the weak point of the film, maybe don't go in with too much expectations, but Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood were really surprising. They had a couple of funny moments together, and they were definitely carrying this movie.

I love a movie with a cool soundtrack, and I thought the directors (Alex & Benjamin Brewer) did a nice job setting the tone for this Las Vegas caper movie with great music and funny scenes. Elijah Wood is playing a stoner cop and I thought it was a good role for him. The acting was really on point the entire movie.

The Bobo scene was hilarious, and the whole 'heist' takes different twists and turns.

Even though the first hour is the best part and it falls short in the last 30 minutes, I recommend giving 'The Trust' a try if you like crime/comedy movies, or if you're a fan of Nicolas Cage.

7.5/10

Another deep dive into Netflix has yielded a surprising little gem that starts lighter and funnier than I expected, before sliding into a mess of lies and death. Cage and Wood have great chemistry, bolstered by the sharp patter in the script. It's a steady snowball of tragedy whose plot isn't quite shocking but has plenty of unexpected turns around each corner.