Nicolas Cage as John Madden and Christian Bale as Al Davis Is the Oddest Pairing of the Year

I have watched the Madden trailer three times now and I still cannot decide whether it is a serious sports biopic or Nicolas Cage doing the loudest impression of his career. Probably both. David O. Russell directs, Cage plays John Madden, and Christian Bale, barely recognisable, plays Raiders owner Al Davis. It opens in a handful of cinemas on November 11 and then lands on Prime Video worldwide on November 18.

The film covers Madden's championship years coaching the Raiders, his second life as the most popular broadcaster in American sport, and the video game that turned his name into something kids who never saw him coach still say every day. John Mulaney plays Trip Hawkins, the EA founder who pitched him the game. Kathryn Hahn plays Virginia Madden and Sienna Miller plays Carol Davis.

The heart of it, from the trailer, is the friendship and rivalry between Madden and Davis, two men who could not have been more different and needed each other anyway. Cage and Bale last shared the screen a long time ago and they are both at their most unhinged these days, so the scenes between them should be worth the subscription on their own. Will you watch this one even if you have never seen an NFL game?