User reviews

This is a dark movie. Not only for its content; it's literally dim for most of the movie. I guess it's meant to provide an atmosphere that parallels what is happening in Evan Lake's (Nicolas Cage) mind, and the murky atmosphere is one of the few things Dying of the Light has going for it. The plot is this: Lake works for the C.I.A. and is experiencing some mental twitches in his old age like hallucinations, lapses in memory, and the works, which obviously isn't ideal for a C.I.A. operative, so he has to go rogue. He has flashbacks to a mission he was part of that scarred his psyche - he was tortured for information, and flashbacks to this scene happen over the course of the movie, and Evan won't stop until he finds and kills his former captor. Nicolas Cage carries this movie on his shoulders because his character is really the only semi-developed part about it. Granted, one interesting character is not nearly enough to save this gloomy mess of a film.

I can't blame writer/director Paul Schrader because he and the producers had some sort of fallout and the producers ended up changing a bunch of stuff in post-production, so I blame the producers. The editing is horrendous, the action sequences are intermittent and awkward, no character other than Cage's is interesting in the least, some scenes are too melodramatic, others are just dull. I mean you can tell this movie has more layers than it lets on, but it never goes deep beneath the surface like you want it to. It plays it relatively safe and straightforward despite having an interesting premise and an empathetic protagonist.

Now, Nicolas Cage can definitely pull off the salt-and-pepper look. Especially when he goes full on Arab (or whatever it was) with a badass goatee and tinted glasses. He really encapsulates the part of Evan, and it's by far the deepest and most flawed character Cage has portrayed in a while. The problem is that we don't see enough of him. We don't have a chance to get attached to this character on more than a surface level because the pacing of this movie is so terrible. On a scene-by-scene basis, it's extremely hard to keep track of what's going on, of what's important and what isn't. It just becomes a headache after a while and you just want to see Cage kick some ass, and he kind of does, for like a minute anyway.

The climax is incredibly underwhelming. It's just like, here, this is the end. There's no impact. No reason to care. The antagonist is garbage. Cage's sidekick is boring. None of it is memorable. The movie has so many cool ideas that it alludes to (Evan's dementia and how it impacts his work) that are never delved into deeper. I wanted to hear more monologues from Cage - more scenes of just him battling his psyche. Anything to pull this movie from boredom. Unfortunately, it never happens.

This movie isn't worth it. Even for die hard Cage fans such as myself, Dying of the Light is hard to sit through despite an engaging performance by Cage. Any time Cage is off-screen, the movie loses all intrigue. That's not a good sign. If only a director's cut was able to see the light of day, then maybe the Dying of the Light wouldn't be such a tedious mess. As it stands, it's just a very forgettable misfire of a film.

Nicolas Cage is Evan Lake, a dedicated veteran CIA agent in the last stages of his career. He has been riding a desk for the last years and does not like it. The most elevating moments are the motivational speeches he is asked to do for the new CIA agents in training.

When the trail of an old enemy, presumed dead for decades, surfaces and coincides with Lake being diagnosed with a terminal form of dementia, the choice is easy. He is going to settle one last score.

The story has some potential, but unfortunately the movie never gets past the B-movie predicate.

The ear I mentioned in the summary seems to live a life of it's own. My attention kept being drawn to it. In one of his battles with terrorists, Cage's character gets tortured. He gets a cut in his ear. After twenty years the cut is still there and looks very awkward. At some point I swear I could see the edges of the cut move together and mouth some words to Cage. After rewinding I thought I faintly heard these words: "Nicolas, get out of here, you are too good for this. Save your career before its too late!"

The big story associated with this film is that its director, Paul Schrader, was locked out of the editing room and denied final cut. Subsequently, Schrader and the stars have disowned this version. However, despite their reaction out of principle, DYING OF THE LIGHT isn't that terrible. It's merely underwhelming. Nicolas Cage gives a decent performance as Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent with recently diagnosed dementia. Upon receiving some intelligence which indicates that a former target may still be alive, he decides to go after them before his disease puts him out of commission permanently. At its core, this film has an interesting concept that is never fully realized to its full thematic potential: two nemeses have one final reckoning while each are battling a debilitating disease. From what I saw, Nicolas Cage put in some good character work, and even gets to "rage" a little bit, but he was still hampered by an editing job that seemed to be going for a more streamlined thriller. Due to this, it felt like there was a fair amount of character development missing, mostly from supporting players but also from Cage himself. His disease doesn't take as big of a role as you might think, given its severity. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned, everyone did a good job but they really weren't given a whole lot to work with. Anton Yelchin was the only other name actor I recognized, and his presence seemed rather perfunctory. Perhaps he would have had a larger role in Paul Schrader's cut, but we'll probably never know unless it gets released on Blu-ray/DVD. All of the technical aspects of the film were good, although it did have the rather depressing color palette associated with low-budget Eastern European thrillers. The editing in the fight scenes was a bit choppy, but the camera-work was OK for the most part otherwise. The score also wasn't too memorable, but it still fit the material to a degree. The only part of it I genuinely liked was the track that played over the closing credits. Overall, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece and of course I didn't get one. However, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either, somewhat to its detriment. Scenes began and then ended without much incident and didn't contribute much to the overall story. A part of me wished that it was worse because at least then it would be memorable. What I got was purely middle-of-the-road and, dare I say it, a little dull. Those looking for a fired-up Nicolas Cage performance should look elsewhere. You'd be perfectly justified in skipping this.

A nice, although dark thematically, thriller about a CIA veteran agent who has the opportunity to settle his differences with a long time enemy.

This film was taken away from director Paul Schrader in post-production and re-edited by the producers. So it could be better if the director has the chance to present it the way he intended.

Anyway, Nicolas Cage is sufficient as the CIA veteran who struggles with serious health issues and against the willing of his Agency to catch a terrorist who is presumed dead. He shows frustration and pain but also the will to complete his task and have an honorable closure.

It's not a complicate spy thriller but the suspense escalates in a steady rate. The narrative seems hasty though and the course to the finale could have been build up more properly.

Overall: A decent thriller with a Nicolas Cage who really tries...

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Nicolas Cage has done quite a lot of movies recently. Not all have a certain quality, so considering that, this movie is not that bad. It's improbable and unlikely and a lot of other things too, but when you hear his speech (full of clichés, but nevertheless) almost at the beginning of the movie, you can't help but see the actor shining through. There is still fight left in this "old dog" (no offense to Nic, quite the contrary actually).

Talking about fight, this is about stubbornness and unlikely allies (Yelchin, whose true motives remain unclear to me, other than him being nice ... maybe Cages character reminds him of his dad?), but also about figuring how to let go (or not) of the past. There are some nice touches to this, that can make it worthwhile, but you'll have to decide if this is something you wanna watch (make-up effects are good on Cages face)

Nicholas Cage movies haven't just become a gamble in the last few years. You know that. This film is certainly one of the total failures. A drowsy plot without ideas and inspiration, the adapting actors, lousy camera use and an atmosphere like the old ozone hole over Australia.

This isn't a spy movie it's a disaster movie and the disaster is the movie. The only high points are when the no longer remotely sexy but nevertheless intelligent and interesting Irène Jacob appears. It makes you realize that there is a woman who has Helen Mirren or Charlotte Rampling potential (that's the interesting part). Some may object that Mirren and Rampling are still hot. Then Jacob is definitely your gal. Me, I enjoy their conversation, not their decrepitude.

Anton Yelchin is totally miscast and his part is a train wreck. First he's a nerdy eager beaver goody two shoes then he suddenly becomes a totally unconvincing cold Rambo killer, except when he has to physically engage the bad guy, at which point he reverts to the nerdy 70-pound weakling. His mousy baby face is suited to neither of those roles and he doesn't manage to pull off the innocent-looking tough guy act; in fact it seems never to have occurred to him to try.

As for Nick Cage, he takes his usual gawky, brooding, bipolar demeanor to its logical conclusion and totally loses it, both as the character he plays and the way he plays him. He is all over the place.

The movie as a whole has a Walmart look, as if the producers anticipated that it would bomb and cut costs to the bone. No doubt that's why it is located in, or rather outsourced to, Romania.

The rest of the cast and the thin, thin plot of the movie, the less said the better off we are all.

Well, let me save you 94mins of your life: DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE.

I went to see this movie as I had 2 hours to kill before a flight, and I had absolutely no expectations about it. I did not watch the trailer, but I usually like Nicolas Cage's movies.

What a mistake... This was maybe the worst movie I had seen in the past 5 years. I cannot understand how Nicolas Cage could accept such a role. There were so many ways to turn the movie into a decent one, but I believe that neither the actors nor the director tried their best to make it work.

• Terrible plot. The story does not make sense and has absolutely no interesting part. This movie is boring to death. No entertainment, no suspense, no twists.

• Acting is completely off. If you like Nicolas Cage, do yourself a favor and don't watch this movie. I mean come on, anyone could have done better.

• 94mins, 3mins action. Seriously guys?

Bottomline, this was an horrible movie. I would rather eat my vomit than watching this again. That's how much I hated this movie.

This film is written and directed by one of my favorite filmmakers working today, Paul Schrader. He's most famous for writing Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. However, he also wrote Bringing Out the Dead and directed Dog Eat Dog which I both love and both star Nicolas Cage. The weird thing is that neither Paul Schrader or Nic Cage wants you to see this movie. This is because the Dying of the LIght was taken away from the filmmakers and re-edited by the producers without Paul Scharders approval. He claims that he was literally locked out of the editing room while producers edited the film to their liking.

There are points in this film where it truly shows. The version we got is so on and off. There were scenes where I was completely invested in what was unfolding in front of me and other scenes where it was so dull that I just wanted to pass out. The film has great ideas, but it just doesn't do enough with them and when it does something good, the next scene undoes it. At the end of the film, something happens which I found exceptionally impactful and powerful and could have been a great ending, but the next scene completely stabs us in the back and reverses that decision.

The editing is unpleasantly sloppy in places which is most apparent during a brief action sequence halfway through the movie. The main character is also fascinating and while Nicolas Cage does a great job, he just isn't explored enough.

There is a great film here but it just doesn't make it's way to the surface. What is at the surface is a strange mixture of great and bad. Some scenes in this film or fantastic and some are trash. I hope Paul Schrader's version of the film gets released because I'm positive it is much better than what we got here.

As with, well let's be honest, all of Nicolas Cage movies, then I am sitting down to watch the movie with very little expectations, because there is an overshadowing tendency that his movies turn out to be generic and cut from overly used recipes. And should it turn out to be that particular movie that surprises, once in a blue moon, then it is that much more pleasant to watch.

However, "Dying of the Light" is one of those types of movies that has potential to be interesting, but it was squandered at the hands of director Paul Schrader. The movie turned out to be a very predictable and thus very generic movie for the thriller/drama genre.

The acting in the movie was as to be expected. You have your ever-present single facial expression and random outbursts of loud voicing from Nicolas Cage. And he seemed like a fish out of water in this movie, trying to portray a government employee diagnosed with a debilitating mental illness.

The movie follows a generic script and storyline, which has been seen and used in countless other movies prior to this 2014 movie. As such, then there is very little new to be had for the audience that actually do take the time to sit down and watch "Dying of the Light". And while it was scripted, then the movie also progressed way too fast, which essentially made the movie seemed forced and shallow.

You know what you are getting yourself into here if you take a minute to read the synopsis, and with the thought of it being another one of the assembly line produced Nicolas Cage movies. And I can't claim to say that this particular movie is outstanding from the numerous other movies that Nicolas Cage stars in. As such, then I am rating "Dying of the Light" a mere four out of ten stars.

Although visionary film maker Paul Schrader had this motion picture taken out of his hand by the producer and re-edited, his script and directorial creativity remains powerful and intact. Corrupted by director Brett Ratner at the behest of Lionsgate, it is certainly not the film Schrader wanted to make in its entirety but enough remains of his vision to satisfy those who appreciate his genius. Both Schrader and Cage have disowned this as released, yet Nicholas Cage gives one of his finest performances and that should be imperatively noted. One can see where Schrader's cinematic electricity still runs through the celluloid and where Ratner's clumsy amateurish efforts short circuit the project. It is indeed a shame for this had the potential to earn Oscar nominations all around if not for the egregious studio interference that destroyed what Schrader strived so artistically to achieve.

It is well Known, or maybe only well Known Among Film Geeks, that this Film has been Disowned by Director Paul Schrader and other Principals Involved in Making this Movie, and it is, Among Other Things, a Film Fanatic's Frustration.

The Director has Advised that No One See this Film.

One has to Question the Sanity of Producers that Hire the likes of Edgy Existential Film Artists and then Decide it is too Edgy and Existential for the Box Office, take the Thing Out of Their Hands and Tinker with it like a Naughty Kid Pulling the Wings off Flies. Shame Shame.

What the Movie Going Public is left with is Not a Bad Movie. enough of Schrader's Fingerprints Remain to make it an Offbeat CiA Thriller. What Doesn't Remain is the Cinematographers and Directors Visual Palette as it was "Digitally Manipulated". Shame Shame.

Nic Cage, in another Self-Realized Performance that Cannot be Ignored. He manages to be just a Heartbeat from Over-the-Top and it is usually a Fascination to Behold. If Cage does Anything Anymore it is a Willingness to Work.

The Movie may not be Appreciated for what it is, as Opposed to what it Could Have Been, it is still Worth Catching, as is all of Their Work, both Schrader and Cage are Interesting, No Matter the Product.

This is an boring plot using bad writing and not even Cage can kept it afloat. Nothing worth watching. The only thing okay in this movie is Anton in the supporting role and he's already dead in real life and famous for his role in Star Treks dark movies with Chris Pine.

IMO, after FAMILY MAN, the slide downhill started. Maybe GHOST RIDER is ok but none since. I have to stop watching his films to avoid more disappointments. He's 55 now, can't do action films anymore, too old. I agree with the bad reviews.

Like most Nicolas Cage flicks, the movie lies somewhere on the boarder line of very good and very bad. This one is leaning on the broader of very very bad.

As much as I love a Nicolas Cage movie, one has to always question if I really want to see Nicolas cage in a Nicolas Cage movie. This movie about a aged CIA agent who gets to go after his supposedly dead arch enemy before he retires. Although, unlike most action movies this guy gets to live a pretty awesome two days before retirement scenario, but it may have been a better movie if we did not have to rely so much on the Nick Cage school of bad acting.

In all fairness, it was not Cage's fault that the story and the film making were very dull, and uninteresting. Just his fault that he did the film for a paycheck and seem to pretty much be phoning it in, along with Anton Yelchin you was using the same phone.

Yeah, see something else of stay home.

Cage plays a patriot losing his mind with all the dimension of a plank. Yelchin is perhaps even more wooden. Karim actually has some dimension and Jacob is the most human.

"A powder keg of action" reads the leader. More like a bucket of mud

This isn't Cage's best film, but his performance was good, and it was different in that he depicted a superannuated CIA agent with an illness and who was still obsessed with taking down a terrorist before his time is up. The relevant message which is important is his depiction of the CIA for what it has become, and bravely, Cage announces, as is the case, that the CIA has its head up Obama's ass and has lost its values. This is truth. Although, I think to some degree that the reverse is also true. In any case, while it is not a dynamic thriller, until the very very end, it carries itself along and as I said, it is clearly an attempt to make a statement about America's intelligence community - which sore fully needs to get its head out of a few dark places and get focused on true values.

The first to tell is the sad backstory of "Dying of the Light", movie that got taken away from Paul Schrader in the post production, and re-edited by the producers, where the majority of the original cast and crew were excluded and had no saying, including Schrader, Cage, Yelchin, Windig Refn and even cinemotgrapher Gabriel Kosuth, all of whom have since disowned this movie and advice potential viewers not to see it, for it is a corrupted vision. I love all these people, a special surprise was the amazing Nicolas Winding Refn producing, and it's a shame... But I am on the mission to complete the entire Nicolas Cage filmography, so even the corrupted vision had to be seen. A conventional and flawed thriller, but not all that awful...

I like Paul Schrader, he has ups and downs, and from more recent ones I have enjoyed both acclaimed and hated movies, like "First Reformed" and "Dog Eat Dog", the latter also with Nicolas Cage. It is impossible for me to say what's Schrader and what's not in "Dying of the Light", but the result is a rather enjoyable mess. It's a pretty dark and bleak view on American Intelligence, carried via plot of an agent with an untrustworthy mind on a misson, revenge, closure. The bigger picture leans more into drama category than action, and the plot overall is highly typical, same old CIA/terrorism ode and a revenge flick. Plus add some pulp, a bit of awkwardness and plenty of implausibilities. At times, it feels like the darkness of the main character is made fun off, and I'd like to think, if Schrader had stayed on, the existential themes in "Dying of the Light" would have more of a "First Reformed" quality. The troubled character provides Cage with all the means to go all out, there are scenes where he's great and also scenes where he's more funny than necessary... Everything goes with Cage. In a pleasant addition to the man himself, we have the late (much too soon) Anton Yelchin to complete the buddy dramedy aspect of "Dying of the Light".

"Dying of the Light" takes its name too seriously as well, as sometimes it quite literally too dark... And shows off some cheesy edition solutions, courtesy of the studio heads. Appearing realistic sometimes isn't this film's strong suit, for example, an action scene is reasoned with a situation where characters were making a-little-too-apparent bad decisions. A spy willingly looking straight in the eye of the subject he's trying to subtly follow. Smaller things like that. And, of course, the buddy duo of Evan Lake (Cage) and Milton Schultz (Yelchin) on a mission like that in real life likely would be stopped in their tracks fast.

Really, it's an okay B flick, definitely delivers plenty of cageing Cage, there's Yelchin, there's enjoyable pulp, bleaker ending... It's not boring. My rating: 5/10.

The acting was great. This movie did need more characters, and interacting themes to be better. Lack of more action / romance did make it boring... and I am not much for revenge. Yet the list of drugs suggested to give to Evan Lake was not a surprise. This caught my interest to continue watching. The speech he made before being escorted out, is how a lot of people in our country feel right now. Drugs are turning people into who they are not and would not be if normal, not on a drug. Zoloft causes crazy behavior, magnifies what one desires and could be used by the Government to even cause bad behaviors wanted to create crimes to get more control over weapons and wealth that our people possess. I was hoping to see this association. Zoloft can cause what his disease was to cause. I like what's fun (comedy romance) to watch, and consider myself a peacemaker, so to watch this type of movie isn't my style. But I did watch it because of the references to the drugs, I know aren't good, in what it does to people and the expression of how many of our people feel about our government. Addressing the religious issues would have made this movie better. NO one talks about our religious differences nor what we have in common. Tonight we had just watched "Agora" and this was worth watching more so as a historical display of religious prejudice, whereby people use religious and political power to play emotional states of people into civil war. In "Dying of the Light" there was no display of what's good, except for the loyalty of a friend... I enjoyed that part. The acting was great.