I’ve enjoyed Nicolas Cage and a number of roles over the years. Leaving Las Vegas, one of the Auto Theft films, and some others I can’t exactly recall, perhaps Face Off among them.

The title hints at the split-genre nature of the film (oddly, another review here covers another movie that could fit the by the same unusual description). The concept is almost enough to test the limits of your imagination from the start, but it works and works well— at least it did for me.  Brendon Gleeson shows up, and though I was unfamiliar with the rest of the cast, they fit nicely into a solid production.

Cage plays a retired or “self-renounced” superhero who reinvented himself as a private detective (P.I.).  As corrupt elements in the city threaten to takeover completely, the pressure grows on him to revert to his superhero status and save the city.

Since noir and Marvel both have their beginnings toward the middle of the last century, it makes sense to me that they are “ soluble” in each other or at least in a solution of classic entertainment.

WRH