I admit to seeing this trailer a few days ago and thinking that there was nothing to write about, after all it's just another trailer that everyone's carrying. Except there's something different here, Nicolas Cage. Oh I know what your instant thoughts are, they were mine too, but hold on a minute, that's not what I mean.

The trailer for Joe has one big surprise in store and that's the fact that Nicolas Cage looks like he's delivering a straight, serious, and powerful performance, something that's backed up by the marketing quotes that come with it. Is this Cage back in all his glory? - That's the acting glory, not the over the top, crazy performance glory.

If you think back through Nicolas Cage's career you'll be hard pressed to remember a role when he was being serious, playing a strong character and not hamming it up in some fanciful story. I can think of a few roles without going too far back but his performances are marked with an over the top element that varies between the levels of mild and insane. Try it, see what you come up with. Even if you pick out some you'll be swamped by the crazier roles.

So it's refreshing and exciting to see such comments as they are through this trailer and more than that, to see how Cage is performing when he's on screen. There's no doubt the guy is a very good actor, he's proven that time and time again, but he's not always had a chance to shine. With Joe it looks like he's getting that chance again.

Here's the blurb for Joe:

A gripping mix of friendship, violence and redemption erupts in the contemporary South in this adaptation of Larry Brown?novel, celebrated at once for its grit and its deeply moving core. Directed by David Gordon Green, Joe brings Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage back to his indie roots in the title role as the hard-living, hot-tempered, ex-con Joe Ransom, who is just trying to dodge his instincts for trouble until he meets a hard-luck kid, (Tye Sheridan) who awakens in him a fierce and tender-hearted protector. With a screenplay by Gary Hawkins, Joe is based on the novel by the late Larry Brown, the former Mississippi firefighter renowned for his powerful, gothic storytelling and universal themes of honor, desperation and moral rectitude.

The film is directed by David Gordon Green who also directed Undertow, Snow Angels, Pineapple Express, Your Highness and The Sitter, and is adapted by Gary Hawkins from the Larry Brown novel.

Now here's the trailer through TrailerAddict:

Well? What do you think? Cage at his best?