★☆☆☆☆
Nicolas Cage delivers one of his all too frequent cringe-making, extra-screamy, dial-a-psycho performances in this ultra-violent Southern noir. Here, however, Cage is “acting” from underneath a floppy black Roy Orbison wig, a Groucho Marx moustache and, wait for it, a rubber Gérard Depardieu nose. Must I go on?
All right. He plays Mississippi mobster Eddie King, who kidnaps local loser Mikey (Johnathon Schaech) and demands a $350,000 ransom from Mikey’s loyal, arrow-straight brother JP (Adrian Grenier). The rest of the movie is mostly shouting, punching, slow-mo gore and people saying: “Give me my f***ing money.”
A low point is reached when Cage’s brother, the director Christopher Coppola (not a natural actor), appears playing, ho ho, King’s mobster brother Buddy. The two Kings wrestle each