Banking on his real-life reputation, Nicolas Cage plays a version of himself, an aging struggling actor and divorced father who is so desperate for a paycheck that he agrees to a vague invitation to be a paid celebrity guest to billionaire Pedro Pascal. Unexpectedly, he finds himself in the middle of a drug cartel’s power struggle and he must use skills learned during some of his most iconic roles to survive. I love actors who are willing to poke fun at their public perception and this is wonderfully entertaining because of it. The scenes with Cage and Pascal are delightful as Nick’s apprehension gradually builds to friendship and affection for this unknown entity.   

A deathbed promise has lonely baker Robert Carlyle attending a dance class run by Mary Steenburgen to search for John Goodman’s childhood sweetheart. A very uneven bit of filmmaking that is only sold on its performances, it seems that the story is made of a half dozen ideas cobbled together incongruously. The one clever piece that it has going for it is working in director Randall Miller’s much earlier short film which allows Elden Henson to portray two characters at vastly different ages.