The 1990s were a fantastic time for Nicolas Cage and a decade that featured some of his greatest film roles. After building up his reputation throughout the 1980s, this was the era that Cage really broke into the mainstream to become a household name and one of the biggest movie stars Hollywood had ever seen. Not only did this period feature his Oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas, but Cage also proved his skills as a major action hero in a number of now-iconic movies, including Con Air and Face/Off.
Many of the best Nicolas Cage movies were released during the 1990s, as he proved himself a sternly committed actor willing to take serious risks. While there were some truly disappointing releases during this decade, the fact that Cage was willing to fail and come back swinging proved him an actor of great determination and ability. The 1990s was a fascinating time in the history of cinema, and it’s a testament to Cage’s unique appeal and tireless work ethic that he excelled across action, comedy, and drama during this time.
19 Deadfall (1993)
Nicolas Cage as Eddie King
With an abysmal 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Deadfall was truly the bottom of the barrel when it came to Nicolas Cage movies in the 1990s. As a lackluster thriller co-written and directed by Cage’s brother Christopher Coppola, Deadfall was just one in a career full of forgettable movies from Coppola, and it failed to recapture the spirit and appeal of the film noirs it was influenced by. While most actors would try to ensure audiences forgot about such a major failure, Cage shockingly reprised his role as Eddie King in the equally terrible spin-off straight-to-video release Arsenal in 2017.
18 Trapped In Paradise (1994)
Nicolas Cage as Bill Firpo
Despite boasting a talented cast including Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey as three hapless brothers, the Christmas crime comedy Trapped in Paradise was one of the most forgettable entries in Cage’s filmography. With a story involving the Firpo brother’s wayward plans to rob a bank on Christmas Eve, Trapped in Paradise boasted a few laughs but was so predictably uninspired that it failed to make any impact. This was a box office failure for a reason and best avoided by all except Cage completionists.
17 Snake Eyes (1998)
Nicolas Cage as Detective Rick Santoro
While the idea of Nicolas Cage teaming with the legendary Scarface director Brian de Palma sounded ingenious, the resulting film was less than stellar. Snake Eyes cast Cage as a detective investigating a political assassination at a boxing match in Atlantic City that had very little to offer in terms of originality or engagement. Snake Eyes was a stylish thriller that featured an interesting performance from Cage; however, the talents of its actors and director felt wildly underutilized.
16 Fire Birds (1990)
Nicolas Cage as CW2 Jake Preston
Fire Birds was just one of countless Top Gun ripoffs that failed to live up to the lofty expectations set by the iconic Tom Cruise movie. With Cage as Jake Preston, Fire Birds involved helicopter pilots training to battle a drug cartel in South America, a disappointing romantic subplot, and a serious lack of urgency. Although the strong visuals stopped Fire Birds from taking a total nose-dive, it just felt like an unoriginal and extended advertisement for impressionable young viewers to consider joining the U.S. Army.
15 Kiss Of Death (1995)
Nicolas Cage as Little Junior Brown
Kiss of Death was a worthy film noir remake of the original 1947 film that maintained the essential character dynamics of its story while updating it for the 1990s. Released in the same year as Nicolas Cage’s Oscar-winning performances in Leaving Las Vegas, this was yet another testament to his skills as a scene-stealing actor of great skill. As the psychotic mobster Little Junior Brown, Kiss of Death was a prime example of Cage’s unique style that exemplified why he’s built a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most unpredictable performers.
14 Amos & Andrew (1993)
Nicolas Cage as Amos Odell
Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson teamed up for the underrated buddy comedy Amos & Andrew. With Jackson as a wealthy playwright who was mistaken by police for a thief and Cage as the real criminal who the cops brought in to try to cover up their racist mistake, Amos & Andrew was a subtle social commentary full of clever dialogue and some great onscreen chemistry. While the class consciousness and racial themes of Amos & Andrew were sometimes awkwardly juxtaposed with sitcom-style comedic sequences, this was also part of the charm of this forgotten gem of 1990s action moves.
13 Zandalee (1991)
Nicolas Cage as Johnny Collins
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Although Nicolas Cage’s straight-to-video erotic thriller Zandalee received negative reviews upon release, looking back on it today, it has all the tenets of a classic Cage guilty pleasure. With a strong supporting cast including Steve Buscemi and Marisa Tomei, as well as newcomer Erika Anderson in a spellbinding performance as Zandalee Martin, this story of illicit affairs and criminal behavior was a hilariously campy romantic tragedy. With plenty of steamy action and a toxic love triangle, Zandalee was a lot of fun and didn’t pretend to be more than that.
12 City Of Angels (1998)
Nicolas Cage as Seth
As a loose remake of Wim Wender’s West German classic Wings of Desire, City of Angels casts Nicolas Cage as an angel falling in love with a mortal woman and wishing to be human. While it lacked the intense emotion and philosophical depth of Wender’s original, City of Angels was a melodramatic story that shamelessly aimed to tug on viewers’ heartstrings and was highly effective for those willing to give themselves over to it. City of Angels was a truly love-it-or-hate kind of movie that featured some great onscreen chemistry between Cage and his co-star Meg Ryan.
11 Guarding Tess (1994)
Nicolas Cage as Agent Doug Chesnic
While pairing Nicolas Cage with the legendary cinematic icon Shirley MacLaine may seem like an unusual combination at first glance, upon further inspection, it was a match made in heaven. With incredible on-screen chemistry together, Cage played the Secret Service agent tasked with protecting the former First Lady, played by MacLaine. Along the way, the pair develop a powerful bond in a movie that showcased Cage’s talents in pure comedies and was yet another example of MacLaine’s star power, even as she entered her later years.
10 Honeymoon In Vegas (1992)
Nicolas Cage as Jack Singer
Honeymoon in Vegas was a Nicolas Cage rom-com in which he played Jack Singer, a private detective who promised his mother on her deathbed that he would never get married. However, this promise tested his relationship with Betsy Nolan Singer (Sarah Jessica Parker), and even though the two decided to tie the knot, a $65,000 gambling debt meant he was forced to allow another man to spend the weekend with his fiance. This outrageous screwball comedy kept things light and breezy throughout and was an enjoyable showcase of Cage’s strengths as a comedic leading man.
9 It Could Happen To You (1994)
Nicolas Cage as Charlie Lang
Nicolas Cage played a New York cop who half-jokingly promised his waitress that if he won the lottery, he’d share the winnings with her in It Could Happen to You. While this seemed like it had more than a one-in-a-million chance of happening, it actually came true, and Charlie Lang was forced to give up half of his $4 million cash winnings to a woman he’d only just met. Inspired by a real news story, It Could Happen to You had a charmingly unique concept that made it stand out as Cage’s best comedy of the 1990s.
8 8MM (1999)
Nicolas Cage as Tom Welles
The dark thriller 8MM saw Nicolas Cage play a private detective investigating the sinister world of snuff films who encountered a sadistic tape of a man brutalizing and torturing women. With a talented cast including Joaquin Phoenix and James Gandolfini, 8MM was a return to form for director Joel Schumacher after the failure of Batman & Robin that may be too sadist and heartbreakingly cynical for some viewers. However, 8MM was also a highly effective look at depravity and the deepest recesses of twisted morality in this world, where Cage represented the last remnants of mankind’s better nature.
7 Red Rock West (1993)
Nicolas Cage as Michael Williams
The neo-noir Western Red Rock West is a real contender for Nicolas Cage’s most underappreciated film that, despite boasting a whopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, rarely gets discussed alongside his best-known work. As a well-acted, incredibly smart, and over-the-top thriller, Red Rock West explored a drifter being mistaken for a hitman in a rural town, only for the real hitman to later emerge. With a desolate desert setting, a rich atmosphere, and fantastic performances from Cage and Dennis Hooper, Red Rock West has been laying dormant, just waiting to be rediscovered by a new audience.
6 Con Air (1997)
Nicolas Cage as Cameron Poe
The year 1997 was an incredible time for the action movie career of Nicolas Cage, as it was jam-packed with three now legendary performances. Perhaps the most outrageous of these was Cameron Poe in Con Air, a paroled criminal caught in the middle of an airplane hijacking while being transferred. While Con Air didn’t win any awards for believability, it was one of the most high-octane action movies ever made and was a non-stop thrill ride categorized by style and wit.
5 Wild At Heart (1990)
Nicolas Cage as Sailor
Writer and director David Lynch won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his strange and surreal romantic crime drama Wild at Heart. With Nicolas Cage playing Sailor, one of the most unique and idiosyncratic characters in a career packed with unusual roles, the actor’s over-the-top mannerisms were perfectly suited to Lynch’s dreamlike sensibilities. Although Wild at Heart received mixed reviews upon release, its reputation has only grown in the year since. Now, its strange characters and sexually charged energy have made it one of Lynch’s most fun films, with Cage acting as the perfect vessel for its unique energy.
4 The Rock (1996)
Nicolas Cage as Dr. Stanley Goodspeed
The Rock was perhaps director Michael Bay’s greatest movie, as its over-the-top nature perfectly encapsulated everything that was great about his unique action movie-making style. With Nicolas Cage as the FBI agent, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, The Rock involved a rogue general threatening to unleash rockets filled with nerve gas upon San Francisco, along with tourists being held hostage on Alcatraz Island. This first-rate action thriller kept the intensity high throughout and was a firm showcase of not only Nicolas Cage’s action hero credentials but also co-star Sean Connery’s undeniable charisma.
3 Bringing Out The Dead (1999)
Nicolas Cage as Frank Pierce
Despite Bringing Out the Dead failing at the box office, this intense movie starring Nicolas Cage as a depressed, insomniac, and burnt-out New York paramedic stood as one of Martin Scorsese’s most underrated movies. With a screenplay by the Taxi Driver and Raging Bull writer Paul Schrader, this highly atmospheric pontification on compassion and the absurd, outrageous, and ethereal experiences of ambulance drivers was highly misunderstood upon release. Cage himself even called Bringing Out the Dead one of the best movies he’s ever made in a 2022 interview with Rolling Stone.
2 Face/Off (1997)
Nicolas Cage as Castor Troy/Sean Archer
When it comes to Nicolas Cage action movies, it’s impossible to top the over-the-top absurdity and high-octane, action-packed fun of Face/Off. This action classic saw Cage literally swapping faces with his co-star John Travolta in an intense game of cat and mouse that saw him play both the hero and the villain of the same movie. Face/Off featured highly stylized violent action sequences from director John Woo and two sternly committed lead performances that meant it stood as perhaps the greatest action movie of the 1990s.
1 Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Nicolas Cage as Ben Sanderson
Nicolas Cage won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his deeply effective performance as the raging alcoholic with a death wish, Ben Sanderson, in Leaving Las Vegas. As a truly shocking and terribly sad depiction of a Hollywood screenwriter determined to drink himself to death, Leaving Las Vegas became a dark love story when Ben found comfort awith a prostitute, played by Elisabeth Shue, as together they softened the pain of their suffering. With intense humanity and a truly passionate performance, anyone who questions Nicolas Cage’s acting skills will immediately be silenced by the power of Leaving Las Vegas.
Source: Rolling Stone
