Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes:
In The Retirement Plan, when Ashley (Ashley Greene) and her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell) get caught up in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives at risk, she turns to the only person who can help — her estranged father Matt (Nicolas Cage), currently living the life of a retired beach bum in the Cayman Islands. Their reunion is fleeting as they are soon tracked down on the island by crime boss Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) and his lieutenant Bobo (Ron Perlman). As Ashley, Sarah and Matt become entangled in an increasingly dangerous web, Ashley quickly learns her father had a secret past that she knew nothing about and that there is more to her father than meets the eye.
Review:
Sometimes I will give into to my wife’s quest to see every Nic Cage film ever made. I like the manic Cage, the normal, not so much. The Retirement Plan has the normal Nic, so I knew it would be a slough, and I wasn’t disappointed. What saved it for me was some reliable work from the veteran pros: Jackie Earle Haley, Ernie Hudson, Ron Perlman and Ashley Greene.
Cage’s character this time around is a wannabe the dude character from the Big Lebowski who had a former life as a government assassin and has “retired” for his own good and safety to a small beachside house in the Cayman Islands. The one problem is that the action scenes require him to be sober, so the no business action Cage is what the audience is stuck with watching. Competent fighting with no smirking is not what I want from Nic. Cage must also do half his scenes with the scene stealing child actress Thalia Campbell in her debut.
The script requires Cage to disappear for long stretches so the supporting cast is left to pick up the acting slack. Jackie Earle Haley as the main baddie makes up for his diminutive height by acting with twice the menace and twice the volume. Ernie Hudson does some nicely felt comfort acting as the best friend/sidekick. It made me mourn for the neglect of his talent by Hollywood. Ron Perlman, decided to cut his menacing and tall appearance by mixing it with a lot of charm that brings his character to recognizable human dimensions. His interactions with Thalia Campbell made we want to wish for a remake of Paper Moon, the Ryan and Tatum O’Neal roadtrip gem. They all gave it enough drama to keep me awake during this thriller’s overly complicated plot and ten minute too long runtime.
As for Cage this is mild Nic, a 6/10 on the freaking manic scale. Most of the time his long scraggly hairs, his beachcomber shorts and Hawaiian shirt are doing most of the acting. That’s good enough for a few good laughs. Otherwise there is no dude there and almost no Nic.
The Retirement Plan gets a 3.0/5 or a B. It’s streaming on Hulu.
Credits:
Directed by
Tim Brown
Written by
Tim Brown
Produced by
- Doug Murray
- William G. Santor
Starring
- Nicolas Cage
- Ron Perlman
- Ashley Greene
- Jackie Earl Haley
- Grace Byers
- Ernie Hudson
- Lynn Whitfield
- Joel David Moore
- Thalia Campbell
Cinematography
Edited by
- Robert Brakey
- Kurt Nishimura
Music by
Roger Suen
Production
companies
- Darius Films
- Productivity Media
Distributed by
Joker Films
Release date
- September 15, 2023
Running time
103 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
< $20 million[2]
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