Underrated Nicolas Cage Movies Critics Got Wrong

Nicolas Cage is, as the Slept-On Cinema hosts put it, the hardest-working actor we have. Three of his movies they have defended on the show show why the critics missed the point.

Snake Eyes (1998)

Rotten Tomatoes: 40% critics, 35% audience. Stan said this was the sub-50 score that shocked him most of any movie they had covered. Cage steals every scene, and Brian De Palma's camerawork is the draw: a roughly 20-minute opening take, split-diopter shots and POV shots, all in a real-time structure. Read our Snake Eyes review.

Knowing (2009)

Rotten Tomatoes: 35% critics, 42% audience. A genre-defying movie that keeps changing type, from disaster film to mystery to thriller, and ends with aliens. The hosts say people who want to know what kind of movie they are watching cannot handle it. It opened at number one, and the plane-crash and super-flare set pieces still land. Read our Knowing review.

Drive Angry (2011)

Rotten Tomatoes: 47% critics, 37% audience. A straight-on grindhouse vengeance movie, shot in 3D, that delivers exactly what you expect. Stan's line: it should be critics 30, audience 98. The hosts blame the low audience score on people not knowing how to watch grindhouse and on seeing it flat instead of in 3D. Read our Drive Angry review.

Questions people ask

Why do critics underrate Nicolas Cage movies?

Often because the movie is stranger, louder or more genre-mashed than expected. The ones above all reward viewers who meet them on their own terms.

Which one should I start with?

Snake Eyes for craft, Knowing for big ideas, Drive Angry for pure fun.

Keep going

More guides: 25 Best Underrated Movies of All Time and Underrated Movies to Watch Tonight.