MOVIE NEWS – Nicolas Cage sports a devilishly dyed hairdo in this tense car chase thriller. That’s all we know about Sympathy for the Devil.

Nicolas Cage returns in another villainous role after recently donning vampire fangs in crowd favourite Renfield. Despite being somewhat notorious for appearing in almost every film, Cage isn’t really known for playing anything. When he’s in a movie, he’s expected to give it his all, for better or worse. Fortunately, in Sympathy for the Devil, Cage’s ability to go completely over the top might work in his favour in a tense thriller.

Also starring Joel Kinnaman and directed by Yuval Adler (The Secrets We Keep), the film sees an innocent man forced to take a mysterious passenger on an overnight trip.

Armed with a revolver and a sadistic personality, there is more to this mad carjacker than meets the eye. To survive the night, our driver must risk everything to take down this redheaded monster.

The official synopsis for Sympathy for the Devil, provided by RLJE Films, is as follows:

“After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger (Nicolas Cage) at gunpoint, a man (Joel Kinnaman) finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.”

We have seen many thrillers set in a single location. It’s not unusual for that location to be a working car. Either way, we are dealing with one of the best thrillers around. A simple situation gets worse and worse. In this case, when an innocent man tries to leave a hospital after visiting his pregnant wife, Nicolas Cage gets in the passenger seat and holds a gun to his head. A perfect way to kick things off, as the trail of blood and debris that follows will no doubt escalate the situation.

Judging by the trailer, our lovely driver gets fed up with Cage’s malicious antics as the film progresses. He begrudgingly accepts the murder of a policeman before finally starting a fight in the middle of a bar. Their clashes escalate into the burning of the entire building. Cage casually lights a Molotov cocktail and engulfs the area in a thick cloud of smoke. Given that the trailer suggests that there is something more going on beneath the surface, it would not be surprising if Cage showed his true colours at this point.

Who or what will counter the madness of Nicolas Cage?

As for the cast, we don’t have much to work with, which means that our two main characters – The Passenger (Nicolas Cage) and The Driver (Joel Kinnaman) – are the main characters in the film. A film with such a small cast lives and dies by their individual performances, over and above their chemistry with each other. Given that we will be stuck in a car with the two of them for a significant part of the film, this is even more important.

Sympathy for the Devil will probably show Kinnaman reluctantly collaborating with our villain before finally taking matters into his own hands.

Since Kinnaman has helmed plenty of action-oriented projects in the past, the transition will hopefully feel natural and appropriate.

And Nicolas Cage will obviously be in his usual form. If you’re not familiar with the prolific actor, he’s equally capable of spicing things up in a funny way. At the same time, he delivers some of the most captivating performances ever put to screen.

Sympathy for the Devil will be released in US cinemas on July 28.

Source: Collider, EW.com