As I was watching this, I began to realize that this film is sort of like Jonze's Adaptation, which Nic Cage also starred in, but this one has less heart. It's got this constant need to wink at the camera and tell us how meta it is and how it's meta quality is cool and funny.
I know that Nic Cage playing Nic Cage was the draw for the film, but the best thing about the film is BY FAR the bromance between Pascal and Cage. Those scenes were always the most enjoyable to watch and felt the most genuine.
The film makes a meta joke about turning the film that is character-driven into kind of a dumb action movie, but it still ends up being that kind of movie in the end.
Maybe I'm just a bit jaded about these self-referential Hollywood movies. Look, the film is enjoyable, but it just didn't...