Tag: Ike Barinholtz

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW:

Street Date 6/21/22;
Lionsgate;
Comedy;
Box Office $20.3 million;
$29.96 DVD, $39.99 Blu-ray, $42.99 UHD BD;
Rated ‘R’ for language throughout, some sexual references, drug use and violence.
Stars Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan, Paco León, Neil Patrick Harris, Lily Sheen, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ike Barinholtz.

All hail Nicolas Cage.

Throughout a four-decade career, the iconic movie star has accumulated an enduring list of memorable roles by stamping each character with his unique blend of quirky charm and searing intensity, be it in comedy, drama or action.

In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Cage takes on the role he was born to play — himself.

The hugely entertaining film provides a meta commentary on Cage’s career, telling the story of an aging star, haunted by his past successes, who finds himself creatively refueled by the unlikeliest of circumstances.

As Cage proclaims several times in the film, “I’m back. Not that I went anywhere.”

The premise flows primarily from Cage’s public perception the past few years, taking on countless direct-to-video projects to pay off some financial hardships, while his more-eccentric performances became the stuff of meme legend.

Cage himself was unsurprisingly wary of the project, as he notes in the film’s behind-the-scenes materials, until he realized how much fun it could be to portray the younger embodiment of his self-image.

The film finds Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself, vowing to quit Hollywood after losing out on another role he really wanted, and failing to gain the respect of his teenage daughter (one of the main deviations from reality, as real-life Cage has two sons). Cage frequently has visions of his younger self, Nicky (also played by Cage with some de-aging CGI based on his Wild at Heart days), who taunts him for his failures.

Desperate for cash, he accepts a personal appearance gig for $1 million to hang out at a villa in Majorca for a billionaire’s birthday party.

Cage discovers his new patron, Javi (Pedro Pascal) is a huge fan, and the pair grow closer through a shared love of cinema. But it turns out the CIA suspects Javi of being the mastermind of a huge international criminal enterprise, and they recruit Cage with the hopes of using the actor to learn the whereabouts of the kidnapped daughter of a Catalan presidential candidate.

To learn the details, Cage proposes working with Javi on a new screenplay, and at this point Unbearable Weight’s fourth walls all but fold in on themselves as the film channels some of Cage’s quintessential movies and morphs through a variety of genres.

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The Blu-ray includes two deleted scenes that total about five minutes. The first is a bit of fluff about Javi’s Wifi password. But the second is practically a short film of its own — a four-minute battle between Cage and Nicky through several Cage films re-created in the style of the 1920 German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is mentioned throughout the movie by Cage as one of his favorite films.

The deleted scenes are available with optional commentary by writer-director Tom Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten. The pair also provides an informative commentary track for the movie as a whole, usually alternating between stories of Cage’s contributions to the story and how COVID protocols affected the production schedule.

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The Blu-ray also offers about a half-hour of behind-the-scenes featurettes. The seven-minute “The Mind” delves into the creative process behind the film; the four-and-a-half-minute “Everybody Needs a Javi” spotlights the creation of Pascal’s character; the seven-minute “Second-Act Action” looks at the film’s action sequences in its latter half; the four-and-a-half-minute “Nick, Nicky and Sergio” deals with Cage portraying three versions of himself, while the five-minute “Glimmers of a Bygone Cage” shows some of the visual effects and film techniques used to create Nicky.

On the humorous side, “Cages 5 and Up” is a two-minute reel of a bunch of kids “auditioning” to play Nic Cage.

Finally, the Blu-ray offers a 16-minute clip from a Q&A of the cast and filmmakers at the SXSW Film Festival, though the discussion mostly veers into feting Cage.

The Hunt

BLU-RAY REVIEW:

Universal;
Thriller;
Box Office $5.81 million;
$29.98 DVD, $34.98 Blu-ray;
Rated ‘R’ for some strong bloody violence and language throughout.
Stars Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Glenn Howerton, Emma Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Amy Madigan, Reed Birney, Justin Hartley.

While conceived as a political allegory, The Hunt works just fine on its own as a straightforward comedic action thriller.

The film, about a group of wealthy left-wing elites who kidnap conservatives to hunt them for sport, is like a modern version of The Most Dangerous Game, meshed with The Purge and The Hunger Games for good measure.

The film uses misdirection to put the audience in the position of those being hunted, constantly guessing about what is really happening. After a brief opening in which a group of friends jokes about looking forward to “The Manor,” an assortment of people awaken in a forest, their mouths gagged. They discover crates in a clearing filled with weapons and the means to free themselves. But the games begin in earnest with a deliciously bloody body count.

One of them, Crystal (Betty Gilpin of Netflix’s “GLOW”) seems to be a step ahead. She wants to find the ringleader, Athena (Hilary Swank) and put an end to these shenanigans once and for all.

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In the primary featurette on the Blu-ray, the five-minute “Crafting The Hunt,” producer and co-writer Damon Lindeloff discusses how the film is meant to satirize how political opponents get locked into assumptions about the other side, threatening to plunge into a never-ending war rather than attempt to get along.

Rounding out the sparse extras on the Blu-ray are two more featurettes running just over two-and-a-half minutes. “Death Scene Breakdowns” is a self-explanatory video about how the filmmakers staged some of the scenes of gory violence. “Athena vs. Crystal: Hunter or Hunted?” details the making of a key fight scene involving Gilpin and Swank.

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Lionsgate Releasing ‘The Oath’ Digitally Dec. 28, on Disc Jan. 8

Lionsgate will release the dark comedy The Oath through digital retailers Dec. 28 and on DVD Jan. 8.

The film was written and directed by Ike Barinholtz, who also stars alongside Tiffany Haddish, Nora Dunn, Jon Barinholtz, Meredith Hagner, Carrie Brownstein, Billy Magnussen and John Cho.

The story involves a high-strung man named Chris (Barinholtz) and his more levelheaded wife, Kai (Haddish), learning that citizens are being asked to sign a loyalty oath. Their refusal to sign — along with the arrival of two government agents (Cho and Magnussen) — sends an already tense holiday dinner completely off the rails.

Extras include deleted scenes, a “Fake News or Facts” featurette, a “Turkey Day Trauma” featurette, a photo gallery and the theatrical trailer.

Blockers

BLU-RAY REVIEW: 

Street 7/3/18;
Universal;
Comedy;
Box Office $59.84 million;
$29.98 DVD, $34.98 Blu-ray;
Rated ‘R’ for crude and sexual content, and language throughout, drug content, teen partying, and some graphic nudity.
Stars Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ike Barinholtz, Hannibal Buress, June Diane Raphael, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon, Graham Phillips, Miles Robbins, Gary Cole, Gina Gershon, Colton Dunn.

Kay Cannon’s directorial debut Blockers puts a spin on the typical “teenagers trying to lose their virginity” plot by approaching it from the point of view of the parents. And in doing so, the film becomes a coming-of-age story for both sides, as the parents learn to accept that their kids are growing up amid the abundance of storylines involving the children coming to terms with their own identities.

The parents are played by Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz, who discover what their daughters have planned for prom night through the magic of a randy text-message chain, an open laptop and the magic of iCloud beaming identical content to every portal signed into it. Mann plays a single mother who doesn’t want her daughter’s youthful indiscretions to mirror her own, while Cena is hilarious as the straight-laced dad who never wants to picture his little girl growing up. Barinholtz is more of a wild card, the divorced dad who argues not to get involved in their daughters’ sex lives but ends up going along with the other two more or less for the wacky adventure of it.

And that’s where the film gets to have it both ways, mining gags from both the typical teen plots and the desperation of the parents in chasing after them from one party to the next. The film isn’t afraid to get as raunchy as these types of films can get, but balances it out with moments that are actually kind of sweet. It isn’t shy about debating the morality of what the parents and kids are up to, either.

Thrown in the middle is Colton Dunn, the kids’ limo driver who gets some of the best throwaway lines in one of those minor roles that exists in the margins but provides a good opportunity for a performer to go to town with it.

The Blu-ray backs up the film with a number of funny supplements, starting with a few short deleted scenes running about two-and-a-half minutes total, a gag reel about the same length, and a “Line-O-Rama” of alternate takes running about seven-and-a-half minutes.

There are a couple of fun sketches that each run a little more than two minutes, with Barinholtz describing the history of sex in one, and Cena instructing viewers on how to create a “Prom Survival Kit” in the other (snacks are important).

The making of the film is covered in four topic-specific featurettes. The five-minute “Rescue Mission” covers the film in general, while the six-and-a-half-minute “Prom Night” focuses on how the filmmakers created the prom scenes as they reflect on their own prom experiences. The final featurettes are a bit more off-the-rails, with a three-minute glimpse at Cena’s infamous “butt chugging” scene, and a two-minute examination of creating the perfect fake puke for a projectile vomit scene.

Topping it off is a solo commentary from Cannon, who touches on the film’s key moments with some good behind-the-scenes insights, but leaves a lot of moments of silence as she’s just watching the film along with the rest of us. It’s enough to make you wish they were able to get more of the cast together for a commentary that could have potentially been a lot more fun.

Universal Slates ‘Blockers’ for Digital Release June 19, Disc July 3

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has slated the comedy Blockers for digital release June 19, followed by Blu-ray, DVD and on demand July 3.

Blockers stars John Cena, Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz as parents who will do anything to prevent their daughters from having sex on prom night. The film earned $56.7 million at the domestic box office.

Extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, “Line-O-Rama” outtakes and several behind-the-scenes featurettes:

  • “Rescue Mission” — Mann, Barinholtz and Cena join director Kay Cannon to discuss parental mistakes and lessons learned.
  • “Prom Night” — Filmmakers and cast discuss how they achieved the perfect prom look and also share some of their own personal prom stories.
  • “The History of Sex with Ike Barinholtz” — Ike Barinholtz explains the origins of human sexuality and its evolution through time.
  • “John Cena’s Prom Survival Kit for Parents” — Cena shows off a survival kit filled with items that will help parents survive the stress of prom season.
  • “Chug! Chug! Chug!” — The cast and crew discuss filming Cena’s “butt-chugging” scene.
  • “Puke-a-Palooza” — A look at how the filmmakers made the projectile vomit scene as authentic as possible.