Sonny

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Landon J @Minxsykitty 11/29/2024 I enjoyed this despite it's goofy characteristics at times. Some overacting and nonsensical character actions (for better realism or worse). A great little character piece with a not so happy ending. A fantastic Nic Cage cameo worth watching for alone. See more 09/02/2019 One of my favorite Nicholas Cage performances. See more 12/18/2017 Great acting by Franco! See more 01/26/2015 The movie lost me the moment Nicolas Cage (the film's director) shows up....being Nicolas Cage. See more 06/04/2013 Well this was incredibly disappointing. It seems like it should have had quite a bit going for it: Nic Cage directing, James Franco starring and New Orleans as the setting. But really, it seems that Nic Cage can't direct, Franco gives a pretty restrained performance in this and New Orleans is barely shown at all in the movie, and when it is, it doesn't do much to add to the atmosphere. The story is lame, I didn't care about any of the characters, and it just felt all-around vacant, like there was nothing here that really wanted you to get invested in the movie. The only reason I'm rating it so high is for Nic Cage's cameo, and that's only a few minutes long out of this almost 2 hour long movie (it really didn't need to be that long, that was another problem). Anyway, Nic Cage plays this rich coke-fueled pimp dressed in a hideous yellow suit, and for the couple minutes he's on screen, that's the high point of the movie. And even that was one of his more forgettable characters. So yeah, I can't really recommend this to anyone. Not to Cage fans, not to Franco fans, not to fans of seeing New Orleans in cinema...it's just an overall dud. See more 04/11/2013 Yes, it's terrible, a bad film. It's funny though, it's often unintentionally funny and sometimes it's clearly supposed to be but it's a relatively enjoyable experience if you allow yourself to mock every aspect of it and avoid it's attempts at trying to be a real movie. The script is terrible- I can almost see why Cage worked on this movie- it's got some similarities to some of Cage's older stuff, Wild At Heart for example and a few others but they aren't particularly good movies, they tend to be undercooked and generally ambitious failures. They have potential though but this one is too ridiculous to have any real chance at being good, or even average. I sense a lot of Rumble Fish in this one with Franco's similarities to Dillon but Rumble Fish is pretty interesting and has some great performances- this does not. There's not much to say about Cage's directing- if his aim was to bring out great performances then he failed, if he was aiming to make it look stylish then its acceptable but nothing special, maybe he was aiming for something intentionally ridiculous and funny. (that sounds like a long shot but it's really not- the best performance in this movie is his five minute cameo as a coke-addicted pimp and it's absolutely ridiculously beautiful in all it's glory) Even if that is what he was going for though, the performances don't reflect that (Blethyn does and Stanton does a great job at bringing some seriousness to the table without ever seeming to take himself too seriously) but Franco is deadly serious and it's pretty laughable, I don't mean to bully him- he has done some good work but this reminds me of his poem: a deeply serious portrayal of something that's utterly ridiculous. I fear Franco just doesn't have the warning in his head that tells him when something sucks basically. I dunno, he's probably not a bad guy and his acting is technically good but in this case it's overly-serious and not right for the film at all. (He got a D in acting school, I can say this shit so get off my back fangirls.) Suvari's performance is harder to judge- I think she is closer to the mark of seriousness while capturing the right tone for the film but her character is typecast and limited so there's no real development to judge. The script is the real failure out of everything though, it's simply terrible, the premise is fine and there's some intentionally funny moments and I can see how, if the tone was correct, some of the script would have worked but no, just no. There's some themes that are kind of interesting but they are barely even touched on, you have to make them up for yourself- you have to imagine how the film could have worked and that's not a good sign. Overall this is a failed project- quite the train wreck for everyone involved really and a terrible choice of film for Cage to start directing- I'd be interested to see him working with something good and see what he brings to the mix (I feel like all he did here was the brilliant cameo and telling Franco to break things a lot- which Franco didn't do very well). It's just a disappointment really- it looks like it'd be worth watching but there's nothing special there. See more Read all reviews

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