Aug 17: It Could Happen to You

"A police officer promises to share his lottery ticket with a waitress in lieu of a tip."

Directed by: Andrew Bergman, Rated: PG, 101 minutes

It Could Happen to You is an absolutely ridiculous film that's not hard to watch because it's so stupid, but because it's full of more cheese and fluff than some chubby kid's "epic" sandwich he makes after he gets home from fat camp. It's laughable at how much crap is thrown in the film and seeing Cage play lead in a "romantic comedy" feels so, so wrong. The Cage belongs in action movies or dramas where he has some unusual characteristic that makes him "quirky", not in a movie where he shares a lottery ticket with a waitress he just met and falls in love through the process. It's wrong, Cage. WRONG!

More entertaining. 

Cage plays a New York City cop named Charlie who's married to the total bitch, Muriel (Rosie Perez). When the film starts, the couple have been married for who knows how long, but they are clearly not in love. She wants everything and wants to be spoiled like Jennifer Lopez and he's a nice guy cop who volunteers and helps keep kids out of gangs. The two are completely polar opposites and right away you can tell the writers made Muriel as unlikable as possible so any new woman introduced would look like Mother Theresa. Enter Yvonne (Bridget Fonda), a struggling waitress who's just filed bankruptcy and can't afford the divorce she wants from her piece of shit husband (Stanley Tucci). She's beautiful, everyone likes her, and she continues to work paycheck to paycheck because she think's it all might get better. After Charlie visits her diner and has no money for a tip, he promises Yvonne that if he wins the lottery with a ticket he purchased earlier, he'd split the earnings with her as her tip. Of course, this movie would go absolutely nowhere if he didn't win, so Charlie finds out he won four million dollars and keeps to his promise, with much hatred from his wife. As the three people live in luxury and gain fame for their win (and Cage's tip), Muriel proves to be an even bigger bitch and Charlie finds refuge from it by hanging out with Yvonne. As the two explore New York City as any romance movie couple would, they fall in love. Muriel gets pissed, lawyers get involved, and blah, blah, blah. 

Money only tears people apart... or makes talentless whores celebrities. 

As this film came out in 1994, anything I say next can hardly be considered a spoiler. But, if you are dying to know what happens to Charlie and Yvonne and only want to find out by watching the movie, stop reading now. The two end up together, after much conflict in the courtroom as Muriel seeks a divorce and payment (as she believes the lotto earnings to be hers and hers alone). And as luck would have it, the love the cop and the waitress share steals the hearts of the millions of people leaving in NYC. The two are good seen as good Samaritans (giving out money, helping widows, donating to charities) and after they lose all of the money to Muriel, the city comes together and sends the couple thousands upon thousands pieces of mail containing "inspiring words" and of course, cash. So in the end, the two win their own lottery together, find love, and manage to become their own little celebrities in one of the biggest cities in the world. Now, I'm pretty sure NYC in 1994 wasn't THAT different than the Big Apple of today, but I could never, ever seen that many people coming together to give some random couple a bunch of cash. It's frickin' New York, not Smalltown, USA. They charge $9 for a cup of coffee. I highly doubt people would be willing to donate to the "cause" of two good people falling in love. It's a f**king ridiculous notion and the absolute worst way in the world to end an already horrible movie. 

Here strangers, have $600,000 because you're story is "sweet". Kind of. No, not really, but have it anyway. 

As you can imagine, I would highly recommend skipping It Could Happen to You. The only reason I watched this flick (besides the fact that it's Nic Cage Week), is because I wanted to see a lighter side to Cage. Plus, it was on TV and that coincidence just screams "WATCH ME NOW!". The film lacks any sort of intelligence and while the two lead characters are somewhat (somewhat!) likable, the stupidity of the script brutally murders anything good about the film. Instead of wasting money on this piece of crap, go out and buy yourself a lottery ticket. But, if you win, don't even think about sharing it with a stranger. Real life doesn't have this stupid sappy endings. 

The Good:
a decent cast that's ruined by a horrible script
The Bad:
that said script that tries to craft some modern day fairy-tale crafted around the notion that you can only be happy with money and that love just sits in the back seat while the cash flows in
The Cage:
very tame and very natural... not bad

Overall: 3.0/10

or

One and a Half Cages out of Five

Trailer: