Excellent, smart action film.

Admirable film.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

DYING OF THE LIGHT is a disappointingly cheap and low key thriller from writer/director Paul Schrader, who once wowed audiences with his work on TAXI DRIVER and CAT PEOPLE back in the day. He seems to have fallen a long way since then. The film was shot in Romania and features a slumming-it Nicolas Cage who plays a CIA agent haunted by memories of torture at the hands of an Arab terrorist in years past. When he finds said terrorist is back on the scene, Cage goes gunning for him. Sadly, all of this jumbled film doesn't really add up to much. You get a wasted Anton Yelchin in a role so small as to be negligible and a handful of action bits (mainly taking the form of violent shoot outs) as well as repeated flashbacks to a scene of violent torture. The script fails to rise from the doldrums and seems intent on dishing out cliche after cliche rather than trying anything new. Worst of all, there's none of the suspense or tension expected from this genre; a film made on autopilot, then.

A largely boring script. Slow moving and slow developing. Melodramatic. Extremely dark. Most people will lament the time lost. And the thing with the ear was getting silly. Cage's character has a mangled ear from being cut with wire cutters while he was being tortured. But when he does undercover work in disguise his make-up guy is able to miraculously fix that with prosthetic make-up. Then he is able to change back. It's ridiculous. That ear would need plastic surgery to make it look that good. I just started laughing at that point. It makes you wonder what kind of lousy medical insurance CIA agents would have if they couldn't fix the agent's ear years after the incident. What, they let him leave the hospital like that? Somebody get a needle and thread, for Pete's sake.

Dying of the Light follows veteran, decorated CIA agent Evan Lake (Cage) who receives intel that Muhammad Banir (Alexader Karim), a former nemesis and terrorist, long believed to be dead, may actually still be alive. The former field agent, who has been grudgingly stuck behind a desk for six years, sees this information as a ticket to finally put away the man who tortured him, and get back into action. Banir is suffering from a rare blood disease that might kill him before he faces justice, while Lake has been showing signs of dementia.Even worse, the CIA doesn't seem all that compelled to go after Banir, or convinced that he's even still alive. So, along with eager and supportive younger agent Milton Schultz (Anton Yelchin), Lake heads overseas for the proverbial "one last job," to find Banir and take him out, before his disease consumes his brain.Dying of the Light is not an action film as the trailer may depicts. But is more of a CIA drama/thriller but with no thrills. Cage's character is pronounced to have mental problems, but the main problem with this film is that they don't give his character much to worth with. His character is obviously troubled throughout, and it is clear but there isn't any typical "Cage outbursts" scenes which would provide unintentional hilarity, and a little more excitement. For one, the film takes itself too serious for the kind of genre it is which makes it much less entertaining.

This movie is low budget, which doesn't necessarily mean bad, but this one happens to be poorly written. With movies like Joe (also low-budget, but well-written), Gone in Sixty Seconds, City of Angels, Moonstruck, Guarding Tess, and Leaving Las Vegas, Nicholas Cage has shown that he is a very capable actor. Looking at his history, he seems to average about 3 movies per year, so he is a very busy actor. But, he seems to take any part he is handed. Only he knows whether or not that is true, but there are so many horrible movies he has played a part in, I just don't get it! Maybe he just likes to keep busy. I will watch about 5 of his movies and think, "wow, I guess his best days as a good actor are gone." Then a movie will pop-out, like "Joe," which he just does an amazing job in. I have come to the conclusion that he is a fantastic actor, but I do think he chooses many movies based on a paycheck and his heart is obviously not in it, or else he would do a better job.