Nicolas Cage looks for all the world like a man drawing his pension early and letting it all hang out. Here he is on the beach wearing a Hawaiian shirt, warm beer in hand, with scraggly shoulder length hair (squint and you might mistake him for The Dude in The Big Lebowski). But no, this guy is a cold-hearted killer, battering out the brains of a mob goon with a dumbbell as if he is swatting a fly. “The grandpa! He keeps killing everybody!” the goon’s colleague complains in a caveman growl.
The funny thing is, in his performance as a former government hitman, Cage dials it down nicely, keeping his freaky at a gentle 6 out 10. The film cruises along on his charm; it’s otherwise a totally disposable but mostly entertaining action comedy drama with a really stupid plot and a few good laughs.
