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Nicolas Cage, the noted madman actor, resident until recently in the Hollywood version of debtor’s prison, is free at last. As he told GQ last year, the paycheck from his 2022 quasi-comeback movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, enabled him to finally retire the multimillions of dollars of debt that he’d accumulated as a citizen of interest to the IRS and had kept him strapped to a Z-movie hamster wheel for more than a decade. Those were the years of Season of the Witch, Drive Angry, and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeancefamously awful movies, especially considering the talent of the Oscar winner whose rsum they defaced. Now, having won back control of his career, Cage said he was determined not to screw it up again. “I’m just going to focus on being extremely selective,” he told GQ. “I would like to make every movie as if it were my last.”

Unfortunately, something seems to have gone wrong. Sympathy for the Devil, Cage’s latest picture, isn’t awful, exactlynot in the bold, nutty manner of Drive Angry or Bangkok Dangerous or any of his earlier misfires. Sympathy is worse, in a wayit’s dull. Even with Cage decked out in an odd magenta-tinged hairpiece and what looks like a burgundy prom jacket, and giving forth with lines like, “Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a stuffy nose,” the movie never comes alive. The story, with its cryptic structure and colorless dialogue, strives to tantalize (and indeed does have a twist), but for the most part it fends off our interest at every turn.

Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag in the Suicide Squad movies) plays a character identified in the credits as The Driver. As the picture opens, we find him cruising anxiously through the off-the-Strip streets of Las Vegas, on his way to the hospital where his pain-wracked wife is about to give birth. Pulling into a parking garage, he’s startled to suddenly find a stranger climbing into the back seat of his car, brandishing a pistol. This is The Passenger (Nic, of course), and he gets right down to business. “I’m your family emergency now,” he says.

I’m not familiar with the film’s Israeli director, Yuval Adler, or with its screenwriter, Luke Paradise, and I can’t say I’m intent on getting better acquainted. Adler can’t do a lot with a script that parks us claustrophobically in the car to observe these two characters as they cruise along, nattering about this and that and stopping only to shoot a cop or duck into a diner (where the story does open up for a bit). Another problem is Kinnaman, a recessive actor who’s all but swallowed up by Cage’s effortless charisma. (Who else would think to burst without warning into an unrequested rendition of the old disco hit “I Love the Nightlife”?)

As the story trundles along, we begin to realize that The Passenger is weirdly knowledgeable about The Driverhas been watching him, in fact. Now, he says, they’re all going to go to Boulder City, outside of Vegas, where The Passenger’s mother is dying of cancerand where “a very important man is waiting for our arrival, waiting for you,” he tells The Driver. Jesus, what could that mean? “People always say, ‘Don’t assume the worst,'” The Passenger observes. “Why? Sometimes the worst is what you should assume.”

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.

Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.

“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”

After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.

In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”

In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.

In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.

“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”

A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.

Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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In search of infield options, Yanks add Candelario

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In search of infield options, Yanks add Candelario

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees, digging for options to bolster their infield, have signed third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the affiliate announced Saturday.

Candelario, 31, was released by the Cincinnati Reds on June 23, halfway through a three-year, $45 million contract he signed before the start of last season. The decision was made after Candelario posted a .707 OPS in 2024 and batted .113 with a .410 OPS in 22 games for the Reds before going on the injured list in April with a back injury.

The performance was poor enough for Cincinnati to cut him in a move that Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall described as a sunk cost.

For the Yankees, signing Candelario is a low-cost flier on a player who recorded an .807 OPS just two seasons ago as they seek to find a third baseman to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base, his natural position.

Candelario is the second veteran infielder the Yankees have signed to a minor league contract in the past three days; they agreed to terms with Nicky Lopez on Thursday.

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Dodgers’ Snell pitches to hitters, ‘looked good’

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Dodgers' Snell pitches to hitters, 'looked good'

LOS ANGELES — Pitchers Blake Snell and Blake Treinen are progressing toward a return for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Snell and Treinen each faced hitters Saturday, and Snell pitched two innings. Each could begin a rehab assignment after the All-Star break.

The 32-year-old Snell has pitched in two games for the Dodgers following his five-year, $182 million free agent deal after spending last season with the San Francisco Giants and three before that with the San Diego Padres. He is a two-time Cy Young Award winner.

“(Snell) looked good. He looked really good,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know what the velo was but the ball was coming out really well. He used his entire pitch mix. I thought the delivery was clean, sharp, so really positive day.”

The Dodgers’ starting rotation has been injury-prone this season but is starting to get a boost from Shohei Ohtani, the two-way superstar who is working as an opener in his return from elbow surgery.

Treinen is looking to get back to his role in the back end of the bullpen. He threw one inning Saturday.

“Blake Treinen I thought was really good as well,” Roberts said. “Both those guys should be ready at some point in time shortly after the All-Star break.”

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