Las Vegas NV—Twenty-five years ago, Nicolas Cage was “Leaving Las Vegas” with Elizabeth Shue. Now he’s “Leaving the Planet” and filming every drunken episode for Reality TV.
The 1995 acclaimed drama “Leaving Las Vegas” follows alcoholic screenwriter Nicolas Cage as he drinks himself into oblivion and out of Las Vegas.
When Nicolas meets the beautiful Elisabeth Shue, they strike up a doomed relationship — one where she can’t stop his drinking, and he can’t keep her off the streets. The movie is a 100-minute train wreck that’s hard to watch but harder to stop watching.
Now the real-life Cage seems determined to move the plot into real life. He’s “Leaving the Planet” and filming each episode for a Reality TV series. In a twist of innovation for the genre, he’s letting anybody with a camera film the series for him.
Whether being kicked out of Lawry’s steakhouse in leopard pajamas, wrestling with old rock-singers at the valet stand, or stumbling through a series of marriages and annulments, Cage never disappoints.
“Leaving the Planet” is not binge-watchable. One never knows when Cage will crawl out of the desert and onto the sidewalks in a dark place. But if you made it through “Leaving Las Vegas,” perhaps the real thing will serve as a cautionary tale. Each episode demonstrates how bad life can be for low-life actors who get everything they ever wanted.
