“$20,000. That’s what I’m gonna pay you to kill my wife.” This, friends, is thevery first lineof the cuckoo-bananas trailer for upcoming suspense thrillerGrand Isle. It is, of course, purred in a gravelly Southern accent by master of cuckoo-bananas suspense thrillersNicolas Cage, and he, of course, has a long flowing mane of unkempt hair. If this ain’t enough to make you wanna check out the trailer, might I sweeten the pot withKelsey Grammertrading in hisFrasierupper-class brogue for a wild Louisiana accent?
That’s right, friends. Cage and Grammer, together at last. Cage plays an absolute psychopath who’s married to a slightly less over-the-top psychopath (KaDee Strickland). During the middle of a punishing hurricane, the couple welcomes in a young, haunted-looking man (Luke Benward) to take shelter. And then the couple plays absolutely batty mind games with the poor young man. Cage stares daggers into everyone, slamming drinks on the table with force. Strickland seduces Benward at every turn, fondling him at dinner (in front of Cage!) and purring that his wife must not treat him well. And finally, as hinted by thevery first line of the trailer, everyone resorts to violence and madness and perhaps even murder! It’s up to Grammer’s detective to sort out the truth and instill some kind of justice.
Look, I get it. Contemporary Cage flicks are a real coin-flip in terms of quality. You either get aMandyor you get his seemingly endless slate of direct-to-digital schlock. And while elements of theGrand Isletrailer do seem schlocky, they’re schlocky in a way designed specifically to appeal to me. The film, directed byStephen S. Campanelli(Indian Horse), feels a combination of the simultaneously best/worst “1990s adult thrillers” and, like,Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?And the cast seems very down to clown. Cage, TBH, feels like he’s giving kind of a grounded performance, matching his young co-star Benward’s Southern-fried gothic energy nicely. Strickland is having an absolute ball playing such an unsubtle femme fatale. And Grammer, while we don’t see him much in the trailer… sure is making a choice with that accent. I’m not going to lie, friends: I will seeGrand Isle.
Grand Islehits theatres and on demand December 6. Check out the official trailer and synopsis below. If you wanna climb further into the Cage, here he isfighting his way through a haunted amusement park.
Walter (Nicolas Cage) and his neglected wife (Strickland) lure a young man (Benward) into their Victorian home to escape a hurricane. When the man is charged with murder by Det. Jones (Grammer), he must reveal the couple’s wicked secrets to save himself.
