Army of One on Netflix

I am not a huge Nicolas Cage fan. This isn't entirely Nic's fault but I feel as though he has overextended himself by virtue of making, honestly, too many films and some of these performances it actually appears as thought Nic isn't even trying to do a good job. Some of his roles almost seem like he is actively trying to, as the Brits would say, "take the piss." This is most evident in films like Ghost Rider and The Wicker Man with the famous "Not the bees!" sequence.

So when I found out that one of the films on my Netflix "Home" screen was a movie starring Nicolas Cage, I was a bit apprehensive to watch it at all. I don't know if it was because of the fact that I really don't expect much from Cage, but this movie was a lot better than I had expected it would be.

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On a side note, I love how they change the names of films overseas to suit the local audience. I guess "Army of One" doesn't make sense in Spanish?

So the story behind this film is that of Gary Faulkner (Cage) who is an eccentric, if not borderline insane, construction worker with an interesting take on life in general. He is a very talented handyman that one day is spoken to directly by God himself, instructing him to leave Colorado and get over to Pakistan to find and kill Osama Bin Laden for the sake of the USA. God appears to him at various times at first just as a voice but later as the entire body and image of Russel Brand.

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One thing about Gary that you are made to understand very early on in the film is that he is extremely patriotic to an almost annoying degree and despite his shortcomings as far as being a responsible adult is concerned he is a very likable person and gets along with almost anyone that he meets. He shares his interactions with "god" with his friends and they support him, whether or not they are just messing with him isn't explained, in his objective handed down by the almighty to get over to Pakistan in order to find Bin Laden himself. He believes that he will succeed where the US intelligence and military has failed because he has the assistance of the almighty and they do not!

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His travel to Pakistan is eventually successful although he fails for various humorous reasons along the way and this can actually be verified by people who were there when it happened, Gary managed to be just as liked by the community that he finds himself in while in Islamabad as he was back in Colorado. There is just something attractive about his borderline-crazy, open-to-talk-to-anyone attitude that appeals to the people over there. It probably doesn't hurt that he is also very generous with his money.

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A lot of what happens in the film actually is true-to-life as Gary is a real person and many of the scenarios that occur in the film can be verified by independent sources that were there at the time including and Army guard getting shot while Gary was standing next to him and Gary chasing the man down and failing to actually capture him. Another part of the film that I can't actually confirm is that it is presented that the CIA notices his actions and actually believes that he is some sort of government operative that has been sent exactly for the job that Gary claims he is going to achieve (capture Bin Laden.) The CIA attempts to bring him over to their side.

This movie didn't get great reviews from the professional critic "crew" that exists out there but I normally don't agree with those guys anyway; this will just be another example of that. Of course there are a couple of personal reasons why I rate this film a lot better than the currently existing 27% overall rating on RT.

• I don't expect much from Nicolas Cage and it was refreshing to see him do something a little experimental
• I love a good story that is based on real life

If you find yourself attracted to these sorts of attributes in films as well, you just might enjoy this more than it appears the professional critics did. I also suspect that some of them are playing the PC game because the real life Gary Faulkner was the opposite of PC and frequently said some things during interviews that would definitely ruffle the feathers of anyone who is trying to be politically correct about life.

Should I watch it?

It is listed as a comedy, but to be honest there aren't very many actual comedic moments in the movie. The ones that do exist generally aren't very funny either. I would consider it more of a drama than a comedy and if you can accept that, I think you will enjoy it. If you go into this movie expecting a laugh riot, you will be disappointed for sure. For the correct audience that appreciates the more eccentric members of our society, this is a fantastic true story.