Mmmm, I used to love me some Nic Cage. Remember back when he did Con Air and he was all buff, tuff, rugged and rough? He was the ultimate badass, busting up lewd rude dudes and speaking in that no-nonsense, soft but stern voice? Oh yeah.

Then came a bunch of more fun flicks—City of Angels, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, The Family Man… none were as edgy and awesome as Con Air, but they were at least enjoyable. (Remember the look on his face in Angels when Meg Ryan says, “No dying today, Mr. Messenger—not until you give me Seth’s phone number”? Priceless!) The first National Treasure flick wasn’t too bad, either.

But lately, it seems that Cage has lost his edge.  Ghost Rider was okay—I thought that the scenes that were rushed should have been dragged out a bit, and vice versa with the slower than syrup scenes—and National Treasure 2, while overtly saccharine (obviously for Disney purposes) and doofy, didn’t make my eyes bleed.

But The Wicker Man and Next both royally, royally sucked. Bad. I mean, they were so bad, that after watching them I wanted to go to a hypnotist and have my memories erased of having ever even thought about them; so bad, in fact, that I consider watching them as one of greatest misfortunes of this decade of my life.

OK, they weren’t that bad. But they certainly did stink.

Following Roger Ebert’s recommendation of a great thriller, I was disappointed once again after watching Knowing over the weekend. Like Printhethrin said, if I had known how bad it was going to be, I wouldn’t have freaking seen it. One of those damn movies where you are so shocked at what bad parenting and dumbass scenarios you’re watching, you just want to hurl blunt objects at your TV and chew tinfoil, know what I mean?

Oh, Roger, you’ve failed me again.

So has Nic the bad boy lost his edge? Do we see him playing nothing but cartoon voices (think Ant Bully) and low-budget, over-promoted family films from now on? I don’t think his situation is that dire as of yet, but it certainly could be.

Nic, here’s a plea from your fans—be mindful of the roles you take, man. We love you in some romance, and we adore you in the really good action flicks—but stay away from the weird, seemingly-cool-but-once-they’re-finished-they-end-up-sucking disasters.

Will somebody get Nicholas Cage his own Die Hard series or something?