Southern Fury

Southern Fury tells the intertwining stories of the Lindel brothers, Mikey (Johnathon Schaech) and JP (Adrian Grenier), who had only each other to rely on growing up. As adults, JP found success as the owner of a construction company, while Mikey became a small-time mobster, mired in a life of petty crime. When Mikey is kidnapped and held for a ransom by ruthless crime boss Eddie King (Nicolas Cage), JP turns to the brothers' old pal Sal (John Cusack), a plain clothes detective for help – IMDB.

For the best part of a decade Nicolas Cage’s name has been synonymous with the words ‘joke’ and ‘laughingstock’ and has somewhat become a figure of ridicule for his tendency to appear in so much garbage that the film industry DVD bin is overflowing with crap Cage films and performances. With Southern Fury, the irredeemable Cage has sunk to a new low with a performance on a new level of awful. Sporting an outlandish haircut, a fake nose, and a colourful wardrobe Cage’s wobbly, hammy performance as gangster Eddie King generates snorts of derision more than fear. What’s most amusing is his monologue where he reads a letter and randomly shouts selected words before descending to a hushed, broken voice.

The only explanation for any film casting Cage is that the film doesn’t take its self too seriously. Any self-respecting film director, wanting to make a good, serious film, will not actually want Nicolas Cage hamming things up in a way that’s off-putting rather than enjoyable engaging. Luckily for Steven C. Miller Southern Fury clearly isn’t a film that even tries to be a remotely serious picture. The film revels in extreme violence and tedious slow motion sequences that gives off an air of a film made with very little in the way of imagination.

One of my pet peeves is slow motion (especally when its overused to the point it loses all effectiveness) and its commonly used in Southern Fury to the extent the hyperstylised violence comes across as incredibly crass. On the positive side the film starts reasonably well as it builds a connection between the two brothers, but the pointlessness of the film as whole just ends up in it being a colossal bore.

1/5