Ten Weird, Wild and Wonderful Nicolas Cage Double Features to Stream

If you haven't watched Nicolas Cage pour a bottle of vodka over himself while growling with sorrow and menace, have you truly lived? If you haven't seen him milk an alpaca, get creepy about eating peaches or lend his voice to a black-and-white film noir-style Spider-Man (yes, really), then you probably should ask yourself the same thing. And if you haven't witnessed him chase a terrible CGI white jaguar around a hijacked ship, well, you know you now want to after reading that sentence. That's the thing about Cage — sometimes his films are fantastic, sometimes they're terrible, but he's always compellingly, intoxicatingly watchable.

It's little wonder, then, that he's about to step into the most talked-about role of the year so far: Joe Exotic, in a dramatised series based on the Tiger King figure's life. It's a slice of casting made in internet heaven — and an excuse for Cage to really go over the top. But, that's still some time away. If you've currently got a Cage-sized itch that desperately needs scratching, there's plenty to watch from his 100-plus on-screen credits in the meantime. With that in mind, we've picked out 20 of his weirdest, wildest and most wonderful flicks, paired them up in double features, and basically planned out your next ten nights of movie-watching. Consider this the isolation viewing marathon you didn't know you needed.

MANDY AND COLOR OUT OF SPACE

One features Cage as a heartbroken lumberjack wreaking havoc with a chainsaw while chasing down demonic bikers. The other initially puts him in kooky dad mode, until a strange meteor unleashes mayhem and monsters — and Cage's unhinged best, of course — on a rural property. If these descriptions didn't already make it obvious, when it comes to excellent recent Cage flicks, both Mandy and Color Out of Space sit at the top of the pile. They also provide quite the mind trip filled with psychedelic visuals and vivid soundscapes, all thanks to filmmakers Panos Cosmatos (Mandy) and Richard Stanley (Color Out of Space).

Mandy is available to stream via YouTube and iTunes.

Colour Out of Space is available to stream via iTunes. Read our full review.

CON AIR AND FACE/OFF

If you're a Cage-loving movie buff, then you probably know exactly when cinema reached its peak. Back in June 1997, two films hit the big screen within weeks of each other, delivering a double dose of Cage action, chaos and craziness that people still watch and rewatch today. Yes, Con Air and Face/Off made their way to cinemas in the same month — and yes, that's a whole lotta Cage to soak up in a darkened room in short succession. In Con Air, he plays a former army ranger-turned-paroled convict who's trying to head home when his prison flight is hijacked by fellow criminals. In Face/Off, he's a sociopathic terrorist who switches faces with the FBI agent (John Travolta) on his trail. Unsurprisingly, neither film is subtle.

Face/Off is available to stream via iTunes.

Con Air is available to stream via and iTunes.

RAISING ARIZONA AND ADAPTATION

Often, when you're watching a Cage film, laughter is inevitable — even if you're not watching a comedy. So when Cage flexes his comic chops on purpose, the results are usually genuinely spectacular. In the case of Raising Arizona, Cage and the Coen brothers make a perfect pair. Also mighty fine: the movie's premise, following an ex-con and his wife's zany scheme to kidnap a baby (and a quintuplet at that) so that they can start a family. With Adaptation, Cage pairs up with Being John Malkovich's Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, and they also make quite the team — as you'd expect with Cage playing a version of Kaufman, as well as Kaufman's fictional twin brother.

Raising Arizona is available to stream via YouTube and iTunes.

Adaptation is available to stream via iTunes.

WILD AT HEART AND MOONSTRUCK

Speaking of Cage and great director combos, Wild at Heart boasts one of the best. The movie David Lynch made between Twin Peaks' initial run and the series' big screen prequel and sequel Fire Walk With Me, it features one of Cage's greatest performances — because Cage playing one half of a couple on the run (opposite Laura Dern), singing Elvis tunes and navigating a Lynchian crime-romance flick is what dreams are made of. The actor also dabbles in affairs of the heart in Moonstruck, this time as an opera-obsessed baker who falls for his brother's (Danny Aiello) fiancee. It's the movie that won Cher a Best Actress Oscar, too, as the object of Cage's affection.

Wild at Heart is available to stream via iTunes.

Moonstruck is available to stream via YouTube and iTunes.

MOM AND DAD AND MATCHSTICK MEN

In Mom and Dad, Cage is no one's ideal father. Along with Selma Blair as his wife, he's trying to kill his kids. So are all the other parents in town, all thanks to a violent and murderous bout of mass hysteria. That means horror-comedy antics aplenty, as well as a whole heap of over-the-top expressions from Cage. He grapples with being a dad and gives his facial muscles a workout  in the entertaining Ridley Scott-directed drama Matchstick Men, too, although in a completely different scenario. This time, Cage plays a conman who discovers he has a teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) just as he's about to pull off a big job with his protege (Sam Rockwell).

Mom and Dad is available to stream via iTunes.

Matchstick Men is available to stream via iTunes.

KICK-ASS AND SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Still getting fatherly, Cage isn't just a dad in Kick-Ass — he's a former cop-turned-crime fighter called Big Daddy, and he's training his 11-year-old daughter (Chloe Grace Moretz) to follow in his footsteps. Focusing on their run-in with the eponymous wannabe superhero (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), this caped crusader flick isn't always as funny as it thinks it is, but Cage consistently delivers. And, if you've always fantasised about hearing Cage as Spider-Man, he delivers in the sublime and surreal Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He's just one of many webslingers in this animated delight; however he's a great one: Spider-Man Noir, a black-and-white Spidey from a 1930s universe.

Kick/Ass (is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube and iTunes.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video and iTunes. Read our full review.

VAMPIRE'S KISS AND GHOST RIDER

If you think you've witnessed Cage at his most manic but you haven't experienced Vampire's Kiss, we have some news for you: you're wrong. Nothing in the actor's filmography compares to this 80s comedy-horror film. In terms of out-there Cage performances, this is ground zero. You'd expect that with Cage playing a literary agent who starts to believe he's a vampire, and begins acting accordingly. After you've watched it, you'll spot shades of Vampire's Kiss in every other Cage film — including in Ghost Rider, where Cage blazes away as the titular bounty hunter of the damned. Adapting a Marvel comic, Ghost Rider isn't great, but like Vampire's Kiss, it's the type of movie that really has to be seen to be believed.

Vampire's Kiss is available to stream via iTunes.

Ghost Rider is available to stream via Netflix and iTunes.

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL — NEW ORLEANS AND PRIMAL

Let these five words tell you all you need to know about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans: Nicolas Cage and Werner Herzog. One acts, the other directs, and the movie that results — a crime thriller about a corrupt cop — firmly marches to its own beat. It also features a memorable iguana scene, which might've prepared Cage for his role in Primal. There, he plays a big-game hunter stuck chasing a white jaguar around a hijacked ship, all as a deranged murderer also stalks the crew and passengers. One of Cage's most recent movies, it turns out exactly as you expect it does (and with oh-so-much awful CGI).

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans is available to stream via Kanopy and YouTube.

Primal is available to stream via iTunes.

LEAVING LAS VEGAS AND JOE

Never forget that Cage, when he wants to be, is a truly talented actor. His resume often screams otherwise, but an exceptional Cage performance is a sight to behold. Exhibit A: his Oscar and Golden Globe-winning work as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. Exhibit B: his role as a troubled man who gives a similarly tormented 15-year-old (Tye Sheridan) a job in Joe. Made almost two decades apart, this pair of films show that Cage always has a great performance left in him, no matter what else he's been acting in lately. And, while he's better known for his wild and wacky ways, he's impressively attuned to telling bleak tales.

Leaving Las Vegas is available to stream via iTunes.

Joe is available to stream via iTunes.

KNOWING AND DRIVE ANGRY

When it comes to Cage, there's no avoiding the obvious: he has made a whole heap of ridiculous and trashy movies. Lately, they've been going direct-to-streaming — but, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, these kinds of Cage flicks were still hitting cinemas. The Australian-shot Knowing is one of them. Made in Melbourne, co-starring Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn and Liam Hemsworth, and proving a box office hit, it casts Cage as an astrophysics professor certain he's found a code that predicts the future. Or, there's Drive Angry, where Cage escapes hell with a gun stolen from Satan, all so he can get revenge on the cult leader who killed his daughter.

Knowing is available to stream via YouTube and iTunes.

Drive Angry is available to stream via Netflix and iTunes.