MOVIE: Grand Isle

STARRING: Nicolas Cage, KaDee Strickland, Luke Benward, Kelsey Grammer, Zulay Henao, Oliver Trevena, Emily Marie Palmer, Beatrice Hernandez

RELEASE DATE: December 6th, 2019

WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (Amazon Prime, AppleTV, Vudu)

By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)

Grand Isle came up this week for the Nic Gauge and before I started it, I was curious what critics thought of it. Every once in a while, I like to look at reviews, but I never really post them. This one was interesting. Most critics thought this film was terrible, but there are also a lot of reviews from moviegoers that paise this action/thriller. So, going into this, I knew this would be an interesting watch, and interesting it was.

Detective Jones (played by Kelsey Grammer) is holding a battered and bruised former sailor Buddy (played by Luke Benward) in an interrogation room. Buddy is forced to tell Jones about what happened to a murdered body he was found with the day before. We are then watching the events of the day before as Buddy arrives at a house owned by a hard-drinking Veteran named Walter (played by Cage) and his wife, Fancy (played by KaDee Strickland). Buddy is hired by Walter to fix a fence, but when a hurricane warning is put into effect, Buddy is trapped in their house. where he learns about Walter and Fancy’s increasing dislike for each other. He finds himself stuck between a woman trying to seduce him, and a man unhinged from the choices of his wife.

Grand Isle had some interesting moments, but as an overall film, seemed to lack when it came to having enough action and/or thrills. There is more to the plot, mainly the real reason for Walter and Nancy’s weird actions, but instead of letting those beats play out, they just tell you through audio clues throughout the film. By the third act, you learn that they have been kidnapping teens and forcing them to have children because Fancy cannot get pregnant. And because you are told this throughout the film, it takes out any suspense or surprise by the end.

Although the plot and script left me with much to be desired, everyone’s acting abilities do make it enjoyable. Nic Cage’s performance is not as crazy as we are used to, but he does teeter on the edge for a few moments. KaDee Strickland steals the movie with her performance. Being able to show off her “disgust” for her husband as well as keeping all her secrets close to her chest, baiting us to learn more. Because of that, this film lands in the middle of “OK” on the Nic Gauge.