Nicolas Cage is always busy, but the last few months have found him giving us more than usually array of crapola. Sure, we had junk like Looking Glass and Inconceivable, but we also had a couple of great ones in Mom & Dad and Mandy. Unfortunately, his next film looks like another that won’t be high on Cage’s career highlights.
The Humanity Bureau looks and sounds like something Andrew Niccol rejected a long time ago, only to have someone else pick it out of the waste bin. Directed by Rob W. King (??), the film is set in a future where the American Midwest has been devastated by climate change. Cage plays a government agent who uncovers a conspiracy involving exiles sent to a mysterious colony known as New Eden. Here’s the synopsis:
In the near future climate change has wreaked havoc in parts of the American Midwest. In its attempt to take hold of an economic recession, a government agency called the Humanity Bureau exiles members of society deemed unproductive and banishes them to a colony known as New Eden.
An ambitious and impartial caseworker NOAH KROSS (Nicolas Cage) investigates a case appealed by a single mother RACHEL WELLER (Sarah Lind) and her son LUCAS (Jakob Davies). Knowing the unjust fate of the innocent boy and against the wishes of his superior ADAM WESTINGHOUSE (Hugh Dillon), Kross sets off to save the lives of the mother and child and to expose the truth about the Humanity Bureau’s secrets once and for all.
I dig the subtle assertion in the trailer that Donald Trump’s presidency led to all of the devastation. Points for that, but damn this looks cheap and incredibly dull. Cage doesn’t even look to be having much fun, which was the only thing that might have rescued it.
The Humanity Bureau, sadly not a sequel to The Adjustment Bureau, hits theaters and VOD on April 6th. You can also check it out in virtual reality using an Oculus Headset. Yep, if you’re absolutely dying to see Nicolas Cage in a movie that cost less than the VR helmet on your head, then The Humanity Bureau is for you.
