Between Worlds

The story follows Cage, a down-on-his-luck movie actor haunted by the memory of his deceased career. He meets Julie, a spiritually gifted movie producer who enlists Cage in a desperate effort to find the lost profits of her comatose studio. But the spirit of Cage's dead career proves stronger, possessing the young woman's film budget and determined to sabotage her unfinished movie with the straight-to-DVD curse.

5/10 So bad it's entertaining.

This film is not like most others. That is a good thing if you consider most others are either Disney or Riefenstahlesque Superhero movies...

Great acting, Potente is a solid actress, Cage was Cage (a good thing), Penelope Mitchell was intense and I did not now Lydia Hearst was also an actress! The supporting cast was on point and seemed fleshed out. Good job!

The story was interesting, the execution was good. Here and there one could see that the production had some budget constraints, but everybody did a pretty fine job of working with those limitations.

Cinematography and lighting were unconventional but gave the film a nice look and feel and were thankfully consistent. Editing was solid, there was only one edit that broke the flow (a double take on Cage).

It was a film for me.

Nicolas Cage is an odd one, he's a household name, AAA star yet for the last few years he's been doing a vast number of straight to DVD movies and the majority have been truly awful.

Between Worlds see's him play yet another unhinged character where he can let out vintage crazy Cage who finds himself in a relationship with a girl who has a daughter that's recently come out of a coma. Supernatural-esque stuff follows and though the concept is fairly sound the execution isn't.

Also starring Franka "Run Lola Run" Potente and Penelope Mitchell the movie demonstrates a degree of acting that you simply shouldn't be seeing at this level. Many performances are awful and Cage is most certainly not on point here, at several points he almost lowered himself to his infamous "Not the bees" level.

As far as his b-movies are concerned this is one of the worst, I cringed, I facepalmed, I questioned Cage's career track once again.

The Good:

Franka Potente

Concept is okay

The Bad:

Awful acting

Poor pacing

Whole thing felt rushed

"Between Worlds" is yet another crazy Nicholas Cage movie in which he pulls out all the stops on his deliberate overacting, and manages to score some points.

This has something to do with a mother played by Franka Potente who can briefly visit and alter things in the afterlife while being strangled (!). Cage plays a substance-abusing trucker grieving the tragic loss of his family. He stumbles upon Potente while she's being choked by a bruiser in order to "save" her comatose daughter. Cage "rescues" her only to become part of her life, and ends up asked to choke her himself. He begins a torrid affair with her and moves in with her and the daughter when the young woman comes home from the hospital. Since he's just had his truck seized by bill collectors, this couldn't come at a better time. But alas - the daughter has somehow become possessed by the spirit of Cage's dead wife! And also wants to sleep with him!

If this sounds ridiculous, be assured that it is. And it gets even more so. But the cast and especially Cage play it in a rough, gutteral working class way that makes it interesting. All the way to the explosion of stupid violence and melodrama that is the ending. And somewhere in all this there's a message about how one should not mess around with the supernatural.

If this were played straight with middle class or higher characters it would be just another dullish ghost movie. But since it is played manic with working poor ones, it remains watchable and different. Sort of like if Charles Bukowski wrote a ghost movie. It's terrible with its totally out-of-control ending, but, intentionally or not, is a funny watch a good deal of the way through.

One reviewer here makes fun of Potente's "on and off" German accent as if he thinks she's trying to hide it. But her German nationality is mentioned during the film's dialogue, and the reviewer obviously wasn't paying attention. As a German acting in a nutty movie made in Spain that is portraying a setting in the American South, she does a good job.

This is viewable on Netflix and is recommended for viewers looking for something flawed but somewhat creative in its own strange, perhaps accidental way.

Was it awful on purpose or by accident? It was like watching a car wreck - mesmerized by how bad it was. Join me please in properly rating this at 1.