No-one could ever accuse Nicolas Cage of not having a sense of humour. He plays himself for most of this, depicting a somewhat fallen star whose agent (Neil Patrick Harris) finds him a gig for $1m to go to the birthday party of his wealthy Mallorcan superman "Javi" (Pedro Pascal). Lack of options force him to travel and he quite quickly befriends his adulatory, spring screenplay writer, amigo. Snag - well Tiffany Haddish ("Vivan") is the CIA on the island, and she tries to co-opt him onto a cunning plan to trap "Javi" - whom she believes to be a criminal kingpin behind the kidnap of the daughter of a politician. What now ensue are some quite fun escapades as the actor has to turn his hand to skills he would do off pat if he were in front of a camera, but not so readily in "real life" - and it turns out that he isn't half bad, either. Is "Javi" really the baddie? Will Cage rise to the challenge? All is revealed in this amiable parody of not just many of his own films, but of espionage and action drama in general. It's got some car chases, fancy locations, power boats and a room with a waxwork that would not have looked out of place with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. A bit ripe at times, the dialogue is peppered with plenty of wittiness and Cage plays the exasperated, then terrified, then motivated actor with aplomb and with his tongue in his cheek. Pascal makes for a fun foil keeping the bromance bubbling along nicely, and with Sharon Horgan delivering well as his long-suffering ex-wife ("Olivia") this is a well paced and enjoyable adventure romp.
