7. Nicolas Cage – The Family Man (2000)
If you’re a fan of Christmas movie tropes, you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with the Christmas Carol-esque journey to an alternate timeline where the protagonist learns the error of their ways (and usually finds love, for some reason). Also, if you’re a fan of movies, you’ll be familiar with Nicolas Cage. The Family Man just happens to have both.
Cage stars as a rich and successful man who finds himself alone for Christmas pining after a lost love (Tea Leoni). After a chance encounter with a (potential) angel played by Don Cheadle, he wakes up penniless but married to his former flame with kids, a house, and a dead-end job. It’s a little cheesy at times, but Cage makes The Family Man a solid festive viewing.
What exactly makes The Family Man so forgettable isn’t entirely clear. It could be Cage’s extensive list of better-known movies, or the fact that it retreads a number of tired Christmas movie clichés, but either way, it’s an often-overlooked credit in the actor’s filmography. Also, Cage also once appeared in a Christmas-set crime caper called Trapped in Paradise, and though it probably shouldn’t be considered a Christmas movie, it was equally forgettable.