It took Nicolas Cage a surprisingly long time to make a western movie, but only now is he getting any appreciation for it. As a true pillar of Hollywood, it is somewhat surprising that Nicolas Cage managed to avoid the western genre for so long. Cinematic prolificacy aside, movies are woven into Cage’s very DNA as a member of the Coppola family, so making a western at some point during his 40-or-so years as an actor would seem like a given. In truth, it wasn’t until 2023 that Cage saddled up for the very first time.

While plenty can be said about the pros and cons of streaming, one unquestionable advantage is that unappreciated movies can find a new lease of life. Releases that fared poorly at the box office for one reason or another can often find their audience after landing on a streaming platform where there is always hunger for fresh content. Viewers can enjoy a movie they wouldn’t necessarily have paid to see in a theater from the comfort of their sofas, thereby discovering a lost hidden gem for the first time. One little-known Nicolas Cage movie is now experiencing that very phenomenon.

Nicolas Cage’s The Old Way Is Trending On Tubi

The Old Way Benefits From A Not-So-Old Way Of Watching Movies

The Old Way sees Cage playing Colton Briggs in that most classic of western tales: the quest for revenge. Briggs’ family is slaughtered when his shady past returns to haunt him, sending Cage’s character on a mission to settle one last vendetta. With a limited theatrical release, The Old Way went largely overlooked in 2023, while the 32% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes ensured it wouldn’t be hailed as a classic modern western the world slept on.

Now, however, the winds of fortune have changed direction. The Old Way is currently streaming on Tubi and sits at the #1 spot at the time of writing. Evidently, Nicolas Cage’s first foray into the Wild West is proving more popular with viewers than it did with critics. That perhaps shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, as The Old Way‘s audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a much healthier 70% – over double the critcs’ score.

Our Take On Nicolas Cage’s The Old Way Finding Success On Streaming

It’s Better When It’s Free

It’s not difficult to see why The Old Way might have struggled upon release in 2023. The Western genre is hardly booming right now, and Cage has – fairly or not – developed a reputation for making more bad movies than good. Throw in The Old Way‘s limited theatrical release, and audiences were not given much opportunity to stumble across Cage’s Western revenge story organically.

Streaming for free on Tubi has afforded The Old Way the platform it needed to find a more casual audience that can appreciate the movie’s virtues for what they are. Nicolas Cage‘s first Western is no Tombstone, nor does it live up to the actor’s more recent critically-acclaimed projects like Pig and Longlegs. The Old Way is, however, entertaining enough to justify spending an hour and a half galloping across the dusty plains seeking vengeance.