Army of One

Is the depiction of Pakistan good? Probably not. Is the biography accurate? Let's say "inspired by real events". Is this the best comedy of the year? Probably not.

But, Nicolas Cage is above his own average, there is a story to tell and supporting cast do a decent job. In a sense the movie captures the spirit of the character if not the facts, the pacing is acceptable and eventually your viewing experience will be pleasant even if uneventful. Photography and editing are decent and the overall result is a slightly better than average comedy.

It's a full six and a third adjusted to seven to counterbalance the over criticism of my exigent fellow reviewers. There's a lot worse around!

Now, I've tried to carefully avoid mentioning Russel Brand (GOD) so far. That's because his acting is really terrible and his small but essential part brings down the whole to an annoyed five at best. What I've done is to imagine Steve Carrel playing God the whole time and trick my brain. No, I did NOT use drugs, it's a natural brain self defence technique.

Right, now I have to state that I wasn't aware that this was actually based on real events. Yeah, I had not heard about the guy who actually underwent this trek to find Bin Laden himself.

But anyway, I sat down to watch "Army of One" with my better half, because my wife is a fan of Nicolas Cage. I, however, am not a fan of his, not in any way; I think he has one expression for every scene and every character - and that is constipated.

I will say that Nicolas Cage impressed me tremendously here with his performance in "Army of One". It was good to see him in a role such as this, and get to see a more diverse and offbeat side to his acting. I was actually genuinely impressed with what he pulled off here. And this is easily the second best performance of his entire career, with the best (in my opinion) being "Matchstick Men" from 2003.

The story in "Army of One" is about a fairly unstable civilian who decides to set out to find Bin Laden and bring him to justice, since the American army had no luck in doing so.

Now, I do like Russell Brand, but I didn't think he was the right cast for this movie. It was just a bit too off to see him in this movie. He is a funny guy, for sure, but he is better at comedies of a whole different genre.

"Army of One" is actually a very enjoyable movie, and it is a movie that is fun and turned out to be entertaining. I was surprised with how good I found the movie, so I can actually warmly recommend that you take the time to watch "Army of One", whether or not you are a fan of Nicolas Cage. It is a movie that tells a good story.

Nic ("Ghost Rider") play Gary Falkner, a middle aged dude that seems insane but isn't and sort of reminds you of a strange uncle that you don't personally have but imagine many people do. He can't stop talking or expressing himself, is extremely confident in himself, and fails at almost everything as he alienates everyone. His high pitched nasal rantings about whatever pops into his head are always earnest and never just performance for the sake of common decency.

Nic may be known for some crazy over the top acting moments but this performance is almost believable especially once you see some clips of the real Gary Faulkner and realize how true to the guy it is.

The movie itself is a pretty unique story just as it was when it really happened. Gary believes that God has visited him and wants him to go capture Osama Bin Laden himself. In the film Russel Brandt ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") plays God but even so it's never totally clear whether God is actually talking to him or if it is a figment of his overactive ego.

Of course, as you might expect, a single individual traveling to the middle east to capture the most sought after man in the world will run into some problems not the least of which is his girlfriend Marci. Obviously, she thinks he's nuts and encourages him (read pleads with him) to stay home and give up on his holy calling. There ends up being a lot of interior soul searching for Gary as he tries to figure out how to balance his very real (to him) beliefs and the rest of the world that tells him to ignore a part of himself that he just can't ignore for very long.

I'd love to say that this film transcends and becomes an exploration of the ideas of belief, perception, purpose, and calling but it just never does. He goes back and forth a few times and then things get resolved in a pretty standard way.

I know I'll watch this film a few more times someday but strictly as a chance to show someone a crazy Nic Cage performance that has a few solid laughs in it not as an I'm-in-the-mood-for-a-great-film movie night.

Based apparently on a true story of some All-American Lunatic going off on his own to hunt down and kill Bin Laden. There are several problems, one being that he travels to Pakistan although Bin Laden was in Afghanistan at the time. Oh well. I watched the first half of this film and thought it was pretty funny. The following evening I watched the second half and was incredulous at the fact that I had enjoyed the first part. This is because, half way through, it seems that the budget ran out and so, off he goes to "Pakistan" which I don't think was actually Pakistan. All the things that happen in "Pakistan" simply aren't believable. A white American guy goes wandering about Pakistan and isn't killed or kidnapped? Oh yeah sure. I think not. During the second half, Cage's overacting, which was merely an annoyance earlier, becomes so damned annoying that it required an effort of fortitude to sit and watch the entire piece of rubbish to the end, hoping that somehow, it would redeem itself with a wonderful ending. Let me disabuse you of that idea: No it doesn't.

There's Hollywood action star Nic Cage. There's multifaceted, serious actor Nic Cage. And then there's wacky, experimental Nic Cage.

Nic Cage goes back to his roots in smaller quirky comedies and explodes off the screen in every scene. He's in almost every scene and, while the script is mediocre, Cage elevates what would've been a forgettable C-movie into a fun and funny B-movie. This is proof that Cage is better than ever and capable of A+ material. Hope this is a sign of a comeback.

Its no Raising Arizona or Vampire's Kiss, but its good fluff. I think it was directed well enough but the script was too bare and the editing was a little sloppy. Cage has the most meat with his role and none of the other performers have much to do but react to him, instead of play off him. Would've been great to see Cage riff with these very funny and improv style performers, especially Rainn Wilson. Cage will make more comedies tho.