At first glance, Nicholas Cage's packed imdb page is just a dizzying a collection of random titles. But when you throw in five wives and extravagant spending habits, a pattern begins to emerge.
It seems over the past 20 years, the actor's has alternated between paying his bills, sating artistic ambitions and playing up to a growing cult fanbase. All the various Cages along with a new one - the self-deprecating comic - appear in his latest movie.
Here the winner of the 1996 Best Actor Oscar (Leaving Las Vegas, now seems a very long time ago) plays actor Nick Cage, an actor saddled with exactly the same CV as its star.
Nick is overworked and up to his eyeballs in debt, but is still dreaming of another critically acclaimed hit.
After failing to land his "dream role", he's visited by his disappointed younger self (a digitally de-aged Cage in a Wild At Heart wig) who attacks his later career choices with quotes dubiously attributed to jazz legends.
"Sometimes, it's the notes you don't play!", he screams at his older self.
"Miles Davis was a heroin addict," yells back the bearded Nick.
After getting hammered at the birthday party his teenage daughter (Lily Sheen), his long-suffering ex-wife (Sharon Horgan) gives him another talking to.
Nick decides to retire, but in action movie tradition decides to take one last job to pay off his debts.
Super-rich, super-fan Javi (Pedro Pascal) has offered to pay Cage $1 million to appear at his birthday party in Mallorca.
But shortly after arriving, he's taken to one side by two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) who suspect Javi is the arms dealer responsible for the kidnapping of a politician's daughter.
Will Nick go undercover and free the girl from Javi's sprawling mansion?
This is a deciding moment and not just for Nick. If Charlie Kaufman's brainy script for Adaptation starred your favourite Nicolas Cage, you won't like what happens next.
From here, writer-director Tom Gormican's self-aware satire suddenly turns into a sweet and extremely silly buddy action comedy.
Nick wants to save the kid but gets caught in a bromance with Javi's movie-mad Spaniard.
Pascal is hilarious, Cage is having a ball and the script is packed and in-jokes aimed at right-thinking film buffs.
There's some great physical comedy on show here but it really had me when Nick puts his ego aside to come to terms with the greatness of Paddington 2.
In cinemas now
