10 thoughts after watching the trailer for Prime Video’s ‘Madden’

When the news broke that David O. Russell’s Madden was bypassing movie theaters and going straight to Prime Video, some wondered whether the decision was partly driven by the film’s quality.

Now that we’ve seen the new trailer for the film, starring Nicolas Cage as John Madden and Christian Bale as longtime Raiders owner Al Davis… we get it. And it appears that many others have renewed concerns about the verisimilitude of this cinematic achievement.

If you’ll indulge us, here are a few thoughts on the trailer and what it suggests about the biopic.

Here is the full-length trailer for the new Madden movie. Thoughts??? pic.twitter.com/aNZ3jSSTXY

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 24, 2026

1. More than anything, I think it’s fundamentally clear that Russell is making a farcical comedy. The color palette, the goofy humor, the Klumps-esque make-up and fat-suit look on Cage. It all speaks to not just a movie that doesn’t take this seriously, but also a director who doesn’t. I’m not saying Russell, the director of Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, has contempt for having to direct this movie, but I’m not not saying it either.

2. The other reason it’s clear the point here is to laugh is the supporting cast. Shane Gillis, John Mulaney, Joel Murray, and Katheryn Hahn are here to crack jokes, not offer nuanced portraits of the human soul (though Hahn is capable of that).

3. On paper, we all love the idea of letting Nicolas Cage loose on a role like this. But with Cage, you never quite know what you’re gonna get. Sometimes you land on something so strange or unpredictable that you get magic. We’re not entirely sure where he landed on this one. While the hair and prosthetics give you a vague sense of the man, Cage appears to be playing an entirely different person. I’m not sure what voice and mannerisms he’s doing, but it’s sure not John Madden.

4. Having recently rewatched Wet Hot American Summer for its 25th anniversary, I was struck by how the energy, look, and feel of Madden appear to match that film, which, I should say, is a parody.

5. No matter what, you know who’s showing up, doing the work, and putting in a monster performance? Christian Bale. Something tells me his Al Davis is the main (and potentially only) reason to watch the film.

6. Why does Cage sound like Forrest Gump in the scene where Davis is explaining N.W.A. to him? What is going on here?

7. Before writing this, I looked around to see what other outlets were saying, and several of them referred to Cage as looking “unrecognizable.” In no uncertain terms, I beg to differ.

8. Maybe this is the only way to make a movie about Madden, who was a human cartoon character in many ways. It seems like there was an opportunity to dig into the man beneath all the eccentricities. Ah well.

9. I grew up listening to Pat Summerall and John Madden call the biggest NFL games each week, and there was a unique gravitas to them. As much as Madden could be goofy or over-the-top, his football smarts carried the broadcast, while Summerall was a steady, dependable hand that met the moment. I’m a little concerned they didn’t quite capture that, instead leaning into the obvious schtick. It feels like a misunderstanding of why people liked him. We’ll see.

10. Ultimately, it’s a trailer, and trailers have specific purposes to reach specific audiences. So we’ll have to wait until November 18 to know how much more there is to the film. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, however, it feels very much like the direct-to-streaming movie a lot of people were worried it would be.