The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Digital Review - Nick Cage Is Back…Not That He Went Anywhere
I have been amazed since watching Nicolas Cage in films like Face/Off, National Treasure, Ghost Rider, and Next. Cage has such a wide range of emotion in each scene he's in that whether he's peeing flames, predicting the apocalypse, kicking ass, hamming it up to the camera, or diving into more weighty roles like Pig - I'm always glad I saw the film to experience how great of an actor Cage is - even if the film isn't that good.
So, upon seeing a trailer for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, I was immediately hooked. Nicolas Cage playing a fictional version of himself, and Pedro Pascal is in it? Inject that into my veins, please. Was The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent the celebration of all things Nicolas Cage, or was it just another comedy trying to cash in on a famous actor's name? Find out below.
If you're coming to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent for a story, your mileage may vary. The film's story serves as a vehicle for a meta-commentary on Nicolas Cage's career. There's no narrative structure to the film. Tom Gormican (director & co-writer) and Kevin Etten (co-writer) spend most of the movie in the exposition phase, setting up the adventure to come, skips the rising action & climax phases, and immediately transition into the falling action that leads to the resolution of the story.
While I enjoyed Nicolas Cage getting to parody himself, I could've gone without the "hook" storyline that Gormican and Etten employ late in the film. Sure, it's appropriately set up within the film's context, but it goes on for too long. Likewise, the narrative structure mentioned earlier is extraordinarily messy. The structure is heavy-handed and creates severe tonal whiplash as the film hops genres seven times in about as many minutes.
That said, stars Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal are the best parts of this film. As I've mentioned, Nicolas Cage is playing a version of himself here. One that's got an ego the size of Jupiter, fails to see his failings and is obsessed with his career so much that everything else falls to the wayside.
Pascal, however, is much more of a teddy bear, not unlike Paddington Bear. His character, Javi, loves Nick Cage's movies with all his heart, and he can quote his favorite lines - the ultimate Nicolas Cage fan (although he does not mention Cage's recent films, Prisoners of the Ghostland or Pig, which is curious). It's a total subversion of his typecasting as the action hero or villain. Javi is the film's heart, which shouldn't work, but Pascal's total dad energy helps.
This energy transfers much into the direction of Gormican. It's pretty evident that Gormican relates to Javi's fandom, as he elevates Cage to almost cult status (not that the fandom isn't nearing that point). At times, Gormican's adoration of Cage's career borders on obsession. Thankfully, though, Gormican realizes this in the first two acts & withholds his obsession until the third act, where he goes a bit off the rails to the film's detriment.
Speaking of rails, the production design by Kevin Kavanaugh is astounding. Particularly in Javi's home, where there are intricate details throughout the hall, and it feels like a house someone with obscene amounts of money and a Nicolas Cage obsession would own. No spoilers, of course, but the whole film looks somewhere between a Michael Bay film like Bad Boys and the John Woo film, Face/Off. It's subtle enough that most viewers won't catch onto the hints sprinkled throughout the sets, but are evident on a rewatch.
Light spoilers: I'm going to talk about the appearance of a character, so be warned.
A character called "Nicky," a digitally de-aged Nick Cage character, is some of the best de-aging technology I've" seen out there. Of course, this may be due to casting a lookalike for scenes where Nick and Nicky interact, and likely Nicolas Cage for all other scenes. Either way, it looks better than anything I've seen yet.
The 4K transfer is nearly flawless. In my viewing, the only significant flaw is that the explosion of color I experienced in the theater doesn't seem to be replicated here, but that could be since I'm viewing a 4K HDR film on a 1080p SDR monitor. Otherwise, the rich blue waters and yellowish color tone do just fine.
Like much of Lionsgate's recent Blu-ray catalog, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent sports a Dolby Atmos track. The strange thing is that, no matter whether cars are flipping overhead, Javi diving into a pool, or anything else that would call for an Atmos track, the audio track feels strangely contained to Dolby 5.1 surround sound standards. It's a strange choice, especially considering how dynamic Lionsgate's Atmos tracks typically are. Thankfully, though, a 5.1 mix is available on the iTunes release if you don't like the Atmos track. An optional English audio description track is available, in addition to French & Spanish audio tracks.
Thankfully, though, the mixing is superb. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout the film, and there's no racing to grab the remote because the audio is improperly mixed. Optional English, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles are available. I
The bonus features are shockingly lacking for a film that's supposedly celebrating Nicolas Cage's career. Besides the feature-length commentary with writer-director Tom Gormican & writer Kevin Etten, there's less than an hour of special features and extras. Two deleted scenes equalling about 5 minutes are essentially extended versions of existing scenes, rather than actual deleted scenes. Even stranger is that an actual deleted scene was released on YouTube by Lionsgate and somehow didn't make it on the iTunes version of the film.
Besides these scenes, the other bonus features are titled The Mind (6:38), Glimmers of a Bygone Cage (4:48), Everybody Needs a Javi (4:21), Nick, Nicky and Sergio (4:33), Second Act Action (6:41), Cages 5 and Up (2:08), and the SXSW Film Festival Q&A (15:48). Other than the SXSW Film Festival Q&A and Cages 5 and Up, these bonus features are behind the scenes, with Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten, and Nicolas Cage talking about how the film came to be. These bonus features are surface-level at best, as interviews are reused between the features and offer new insights you couldn't find elsewhere.
As for Cages 5 and Up, this is a useless addition to the digital release. It's toddlers auditioning to be Nick Cage in the film. While I'm sure some will enjoy this feature, it feels like Lionsgate dropped a YouTube video here, rather than something of value.
You will be sorely disappointed if you're buying The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent's digital copy for the bonus features. For most, I don't see audiences watching any of the features besides the SXSW Film Festival Q&A and throwing on the commentary in the background. The only thing worse is that these bonus features are not available in 4K and have no subtitles attached to them.
★★★
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent's digital release courtesy of Lionsgate is an excellent representation of Nick Cage's latest film, even if some elements like the Dolby Atmos track & awful selection of special features are head-scratching additions. Recommended.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is now available to rent on digital and can be purchased on digital, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD.
If you’d like to listen to my recently released audio commentary, you can do so below.
Until next time!
Thanks to Thomas Stoneham-Judge from Movies For Reel, Shane Conto, Joseph Davis, David Walters, Ambula Bula, and Matthew Simpson for supporting Austin B Media on Patreon!
