During a recent filmography packed with a slew of tacky flicks, 2022’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent gives Nicolas Cage an “out”. In this “meta” tale, the actor pokes fun at himself and his work.

Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage) finds his career in neutral. He aspires for a role in a movie that he believes will restore him to his prior A-list status, but when the director opts for another actor, Cage becomes despondent.

In debt and eager for money, Cage agrees to visit a birthday party in Spain that will earn him a cool $1 million. As he gets to know his fan and benefactor Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), Cage finds himself wrapped up in various forms of intrigue, as two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) recruit Nic to help with their investigation of a major kidnapping in which Javi allegedly participated.

With a movie like Weight, a major risk comes from the possibility that the story’s concept becomes the one and only hook. The notion of notorious ham Cage as a cartoon version of himself sounds irresistible, and it offers so much appeal that it becomes possible that the filmmakers don’t bother with much else.

That seems to happen with Weight. Because the movie’s basic idea seems so engaging, those involved barely manage to muster a real film around it.

Actually, the biggest problem here might not be that Weight lacks a narrative beyond “Nic Cage makes fun of himself”. Instead, the movie falls flat because its “real plot” feels so dull and trite.

Because Weight occasionally veers into general mockery of Hollywood, the filmmakers could go “we meant to do that” ala Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Those involved could make the case that they turned Weight into a predictable action-thriller as a parody of predictable action-thrillers.

Sure, maybe, but if so, I wouldn’t buy that. Weight simply feels like a film where its creators figured its clever premise would sustain the audience across its running time, so they didn’t bother to build a quality project around it.

And for a while, this proves accurate. For much of the movie’s first act, Weight manages a lively romp, especially when Cage goes “Nic Cage” on us and allows for ample self-parody.

In particular, the moments when 2022 Nic deals with confrontational visions of 1980s Nic amuse. When Weight allows itself to really run with its meta premise, it works reasonably well.

Unfortunately, far too much of Weight concentrates on either the tedious CIA tale or the dull bonding exercises between Nic and Javi. None of these show life or spark, so they make the movie drag.

Even when Weight gets to its Big Action Spectacular ending, it just feels blah. The movie fails to find the energy it needs to carry off most of its goals.

Weight wants to offer a riff on The Player and Being John Malkovich. Instead, it becomes a missed opportunity that feels way more mediocre than its premise deserves.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a good but somewhat erratic presentation.

Sharpness became a moderate distraction, as occasional shots felt oddly soft. Though these remained in the minority, they created some inconsistencies.

I saw no issues with jaggies or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. The image also came with no print flaws.

To the surprise of no one, the film opted for a palette heavy on teal and orange. These looked fine given the design parameters.

Blacks felt fairly deep and dense, while shadows offered positive delineation. Though usually very attractive, the movie came with enough drawbacks to fall to “B” level.

Despite an occasional action orientation, Weight acted more as a buddy comedy. That restricted the nature of the Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the mix sporadically opened up with vivid set pieces that involved various vehicles and violent elements. However, much of the film stayed pretty low-key and gave us good environmental information but not much more.

Audio quality seemed fine, with speech that came across as natural and concise. Music was lively and vivid as well.

As noted, effects had less to do than anticipated, but they nonetheless remained accurate and full. This was a perfectly acceptable mix, albeit not one that excelled.

The disc comes with a mix of extras, and we open with an audio commentary from writer/director Tom Gormican and writer Kevin Etten. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story and characters, riffing on Nicolas Cage's real life, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, and connected domains.

While we learn a decent amount about the production here, the overall result feels underwhelming, partly because a surprising amount of dead air comes along for the ride. This turns into a moderately useful track but not a great one.

Two Deleted Scenes span a total of four minutes, 53 seconds. The first just offers a small comedic beat related to Javi’s fanboy ways, but the second delivers a substantial battle between “real Nick” and “younger Nick”. It’s weird and probably should’ve made the final cut.

We can watch the scenes with or without commentary from Gormican and Etten. They give us some basics about the clips and why they got the boot.

A mix of featurettes follow, and The Mind goes for six minutes, 38 seconds. It involves Gormican, Etten, and actors Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Ike Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, Lily Sheen, and Sharon Horgan.

“Mind” looks at casting and performances. It gives us a mix of decent notes.

Glimmers of a Bygone Cage lasts four minutes, 48 seconds and features Gormican, Cage, Etten, and production designer Kevin Kavanaugh.

With “Glimmers”, we look at the movie’s take on “Nicolas Cage”. It becomes another moderately informative reel.

Next comes Everybody Needs a Javi, a four-minute, 21-second piece with notes from Gormican, Etten, Cage, and Pascal.

“Javi” looks at aspects of that character as well as Pascal’s performance. Expect another watchable but somewhat insubstantial piece.

Nick, Nicky and Sergio fills four minutes, 33 seconds with remarks from Gormican, Etten, Cage, and makeup designer Bill Corso.

The featurette looks at the alternate roles Cage plays. We get a moderately useful view of these domains.

After this we find Second Set Action, a six-minute, 42-second featurette that bring comments from Gormican, Cage, Horgan, Etten, prop master Marton Szalay, playback supervisor Balasz Rozgonyi, and stunt coordinator Balasz Farkas.

“Set” discusses the movie’s action scenes. It gives us some worthwhile basics.

Cages Five and Up runs two minutes, eight seconds and shows a bunch of kids who imitate Cage. It offers a cute but annoying promo reel.

Finally, we locate a SBSW Q&A that goes for 15 minutes, 48 seconds and provides a panel with Etten, Gormican, Pascal, Sheen, and actors Jacob Scipio and Alessandra Mastronardi.

They give us some basics about the production, with an emphasis on the promo side of things. Not much real meat appears but this turns into a watchable reel.

Blessed with a clever concept, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent shows the ability to deliver a lively romp. Instead, it mostly churns out a trite action thriller that rarely demonstrates the cleverness or originality it needs. The Blu-ray brings generally positive picture and audio along with a long roster of bonus materials. Weight fails to live up to its wild potential.