Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Leofwine_draca DYING OF THE LIGHT is a disappointingly cheap and low key thriller from writer/director Paul Schrader, who once wowed audiences with his work on TAXI DRIVER and CAT PEOPLE back in the day. He seems to have fallen a long way since then. The film was shot in Romania and features a slumming-it Nicolas Cage who plays a CIA agent haunted by memories of torture at the hands of an Arab terrorist in years past. When he finds said terrorist is back on the scene, Cage goes gunning for him. Sadly, all of this jumbled film doesn't really add up to much. You get a wasted Anton Yelchin in a role so small as to be negligible and a handful of action bits (mainly taking the form of violent shoot outs) as well as repeated flashbacks to a scene of violent torture. The script fails to rise from the doldrums and seems intent on dishing out cliche after cliche rather than trying anything new. Worst of all, there's none of the suspense or tension expected from this genre; a film made on autopilot, then.

Tss5078 Evan Lake (Nicholas Cage) was a legend at the C.I.A., but after years in the game, and a particularly horrible experience at the hands of the Taliban, he was diagnosed with dementia, and forced into retirement. Lake is moving on with his life when new information comes to light, that his old nemesis, a terrorist leader long believed dead, is back. Knowing their best chance to catch him is Lake, they turn to him for help, but can he keep it together long enough to complete his mission? This unbelievably was a b-movie, yet a remarkably strong performance for Nicholas Cage, who randomly had to go between C.I.A. legend and confused old man. His performance is aided by the late Anton Yelchin, playing an analyst who admires Lake so much, that he goes against orders to help him with his mission. The whole dynamic between the man at the end of his career on his last mission, and the boy at the start of his career on his first mission, really added something different, that you don't typically see in espionage films. Dying of The Light really does have a lot to like about it, but one must remember, it is an espionage film and a direct-to-video one at that. The writing isn't spectacular and parts of it are more than somewhat confusing. They also throw in a lot of Evan's flashbacks and delusions at the completely wrong times, which really did start to bother me as the film got more intense. Overall, I did enjoy this film, I thought the acting was terrific, and I loved the dynamic and chemistry between the two leading men, despite the obvious age difference. Dying of The Light certainly isn't a perfect movie, but it's still an entertaining one.

mokhatib (SPOILERS ALERT)Schrader is best remembered and known for helmeting classics the likes of Cat People and American Gigolo as well as scripting numerous famous movies, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, and Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead. Schrader's story revolves around America's tenacious fight against terrorism and in USA's dictionary Terrorism is only linked to Islam, but from a psychological angle portraying thepsychological damage the war has brought on Cage's character externally and internally and his obsession to nail and capture the terrorist, Mohamed Banir, who caused his ordeal. Both Lake's and the terrorist's illnesses play nicely into the story in heightening the dramatic suspense and tension as both race against time, one to get the bad guy, and the bad guy to get his medication. Facing another obstacle, Lake is forced to retirement after spending his last days working a desk job as a CIA intelligence analyst, and thus is compelled to go on his own by the aid of another CIA operative Milton (Yelchin). Milton's involvement gives the story a light of generational hope in the young, that somewhere out there there will always good fellows who are willing to fight the good cause for the right reasons and challenge all odds, and that is certainly reflected in Milton risking his job to help Lake. Schrader makes sure to incorporate some criticism against the CIA in his story, represented by Lake's grudge, accusing the CIA in letting go of the American values and caring for their own private benefits. I felt the premise was quite nice but rather weakly written especially towards the end when Lake faces Banir, it was not really clear what exactly was the point in making Lake's illness prevent him from killing Banir only to come back the next day to finish the job just because as Lake puts it: "it's my friend you shot back there", referring to Milton. So which is it? Was it the disease, his conscience, or both that made him up and leave the bad guy? Perhaps Schrader wanted to squeeze in another action scene before the final killing of Banir. I felt Lake's crave to kill Banir was all that was left of the American values, according to Lake, although the real value would have been in capturing Banir and not murdering him. So Lake's actions in the end are a mere mix of revenge and emotional justice, nothing more. so I guess violence adds another victim to its long list, the American value. Directorially, Schrader opted for a more documentary hand-held like style, playing the scenes out more realistically. Lake is by far Cage's most beautifully acted character so far in 2014. Anton Yelchin gives a great performance as well with his constrained wisdom and care for Lake and his cause.

eddie_baggins A film which will always be best known for the fact that towards the end of 2014 it's director/writer Paul Schrader (writer of such classics as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver), producer Nicolas Winding Refn and stars Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin campaigned against its very release due to what they felt was a severe case of studio interference in their product, Dying of the Light is an incredibly "random" film that has moments of utter madness in an other wise unspectacular plot that creates a film that could've benefited from allowing it's zanier elements to take hold to ward off the feeling that this is in fact, an incredible boring thriller.You get the sense that at it's very core Light wanted to be a much more kookier tale, a vision no doubt concocted by the unique minds of Schrader and Winding Refn, but whatever Light was intended to be the studio clearly got spooked by what is was seeing. If, as we've been lead to believe, the studio did in fact lock the creators out of the editing suite there can be some form of excuse as to why Light feels like such a generic and uneventful tale of revenge and a man's battle of personnel and more physical demons. This generic nature of the tale is the predominant feature of the film but we get slight moments of madness and downright bizarre dialogue that will be source of long standing joy for Cage fans, that makes Light a must see for fans of the wild eyed maniac.With a prosthetic ear and typically noteworthy hair, Cage's performance as dogged CIA agent turned rouge revenge seeker Evan Lake is often a joy to behold. From Lake's speech to a room full of new recruits, a sitting on a cold bench in the heart of a Russian winter "Don't try to put a bib on me!" or a casual sniffing of a fern plant, Cage is allowed to let loose on occasions here and it creates an undeniably fun and hilarious turn in what was no doubt supposed to be a serious role with musings on everything from national pride to dementia commentary. It's in Cage's off kilter performance that Light could've been something truly special in an off the chart way but it's not hard to see why the studio could sense that it may have just been too much for the world to handle.With a seen a million times before revenge tale of CIA agent vs. the big bad (here a sick, chair bound terrorist), Dying of the Light has been made to feel like a safe and uneventful thriller that so dearly wanted to be something let loose from the chain. There are moments of pure madness that against better judgement one can recommend, but in the end this is a lesser "Crazy Cage" film that fans of his particular line of work would be better suited to watch a repeat viewing of Wicker Man for their kick of looney.1 and a half anti Obama rants out of 5