Guarding Tess

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Farah R Nicholas Cage and Shirley Maclaine's chemistry saves this weird movie that starts as a quirky comedy and then abruptly becomes a thriller. The genre switch makes the narrative feel uneven, but there's enough heart to make it enjoyable. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/25 Full Review Audience Member Cage and McClaine are a dynamic duo but the film has such drastic tonal shifts it feels imbalanced. It should’ve been more of a quirky buddy comedy. So much of these quirky and dramatic scenes don’t mesh very well with each other. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/11/24 Full Review ed w ***** cast & script, a roller coaster of smiles & tears Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/12/23 Full Review John R SPOILERS This is such an odd movie. In terms of tone, it starts off as a situational comedy, morphs into a romantic (?) comedy and then becomes a crime thriller for about 15 minutes before taking on the tone of a sports movie right after they win the big game (with a hint of romantic comedy coming back in right at the end). It was extremely jarring to have the old lady kidnapped, and then a scene later have Nic Cage screaming in a hospital room that there's no time as he blows off the driver's toes one by one (the only moment in the film where Nic Cage truly shines in all of his brilliance). Then, for some reason, he isn't immediately removed from duty and gets to be the hero of digging his protectee out of the hole in the ground where she's been hidden. There's also the whole brain tumor thing. Like, way to bury the lead! And then never have it come up again. Just genuinely weird. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/16/22 Full Review Audience Member Not sure how I never saw this growing up but figured I'd get in a previously unseen Cage movie before hopefully seeing Unbearable Weight tonight. For most if the runtime this movie felt like the kind of standard, "safe", family style comedy I'd expect to see in the mid 90s with Cage playing his role pretty straight. Then about three quarters of the way through the film takes a hard right tonally, as Cage starts to give his character a little more flair, and of the sort only Nic Cage can. While likely never becoming a memorable film for me at this stage, the rating definitely improved with the final act. 5.5/10 Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member With lockdown we rewatched this for about the 10th time. It's a funny movie and Shirley MacLaine is very good in it. It's subtle, it's not a blow things up Nick Cage action flick so don't expect lots of action. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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