1984 started on a reasonably high note for our hero, appearing in his second film with the already-established Sean Penn, this time in a co-starring role, playing Nicky, lifelong bud of Penn's Henry "Hopper" Nash.
They race beside steam locomotives. For fun. Because the 1940s were hardcore.
The two are lower-class teenage pin monkeys in early 1940s California, waiting their call-up to go off to war. Nicky is something of a screw-up, horny and hot-headed, while Hopper is more of a sappy romantic, who falls for Caddie, a girl the pair assume to be "a Gatsby girl" who lives in a giant mansion.
Nic Cage - pin monkey
It's a good movie (carrying on the tradition being established early that even if you dislike Nic Cage - which is grounds for findings of clinical insanity in some countries - you have to admit that the movies he's in don't suck) with decent writing and a fairly decent, if a bit well-worn, plot.
The story's well-told, the characters have credibility and the spin they put on the standard poor-boy-meets-rich-girl story is appreciated.
Hustling pool - useful when characters need money, and buddy films need tense, friendship-testing moments.
1984 was a pretty busy year for Cage, with Racing with the Moon the first of three movies.
Also, what's becoming increasingly clear with each movie is that American squeamishness is a relatively new phenomenon - so far, every actual movie (the ABC pilot not included) has had at least one scene of nudity in it.
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