The Retirement Plan

Directed by Tim Brown, The Retirement Plan follows Ashley Greene’s Ashley she’s forced to ask her estranged father (Nicolas Cage’s Matt) for help after her boyfriend steals from a powerful crime figure (Jackie Earle Haley’s Donnie). It’s clear almost immediately that The Retirement Plan isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel in any way, shape, or form, as filmmaker Brown has infused the proceedings with a run-of-the-mill (and palpably low-rent) feel that persists from beginning to end – with the movie’s mild success, then, due almost entirely to its agreeable atmosphere and proliferation of fun, entertaining performances. The latter is undoubtedly personified by Cage’s predictably magnetic and engrossing turn as the mysterious Matt, and there’s little doubt that the actor’s stirring work is matched by eclectic periphery players like Ernie Hudson and Lynn Whitfield. (Ron Perlman offers up a scene-stealing appearance as a kind-hearted goon that remains a continuing highlight, to be sure.) And while the movie has been suffused with a handful of amusing sequences (eg Matt battles several goons within, and outside of, a hotel room), The Retirement Plan’s pervasively middling vibe, which extends even to the far-from-convincing stuntwork, ultimately does prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly connecting to the material – which, when coupled with an ongoing emphasis on fairly needless plot elements, cements the picture’s place as a watchable-enough yet wholly forgettable Cage vehicle.

**1/2 out of ****