A Suspenseful Ride
Summary
Sympathy for the Devil has the usual scene stealing performance from Nicolas Cage who overacts to a hilarious degree here which just makes this such a fun time. It has some twists, shoot-outs and a decent fight at the end to keep the runtime nice and brisk.
Plot: After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.
Review: I’ve been meaning to watch Sympathy for the Devil for a while now and this week I finally had time to catch up with it. It stars Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman and feels a little reminiscent of Collateral with Cage playing the psychotic passenger and Kinnaman the driver under duress.
If you’re not a fan of Cage’s hilarious overacting then this may not win you over, but I love when he is at his scenery chewing best which he is here. At times he is almost menacing as his character is deranged and unpredictable; it could have been a different film with someone other than Cage, but this role belongs to him and he makes it his own. Joel Kinnaman is one of my favourite actors today as he can be versatile going from vulnerable to scary within seconds.
Sympathy for the Devil is more about suspense than all-out action, but it still has plenty of violence, some explosions and even a fight between Joel and Nic. It’s a fast paced 90 minutes and say what you will about Cage’s acting, but he’s never boring in any movie. There are few people more entertaining than him when he just unleashes Crazy Cage and it’s his utter insanity that elevates this movie. His speech about boogers is just so bizarrely funny, that you’re sitting there thinking “WTF?”
The film is very atmospheric and has some nice twists; I love the sequence outside the diner where everything is in flames and it’s like a battle in Hell between Nic/Joel.
Overall, Sympathy for the Devil has Nicolas Cage at his deranged best, but Joel Kinnaman is also well cast as the put upon Driver who may not be quite so innocent. In terms of action we get some shoot-outs, moments of sudden violence and a climactic fight scene too. Cage’s overacting will put some off, but for me it just added to the entertainment factor.