For the week of June 20th, Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release Tom Gormican's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan, and Paco León.
Studio description: Nicolas Cage stars as... Nick Cage in the action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nick Cage.
Also this week on Blu-ray from Lionsgate is Kogonada's After Yang, starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Haley Lu Richardson, Clifton Collins Jr. and Brett Dier.
Synopsis: When his young daughter's beloved companion — an android named Yang — malfunctions, Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way to repair him. In the process, Jake discovers the life that has been passing in front of him, reconnecting with his wife (Jodie Turner-Smith) and daughter across a distance he didn't know was there.
Lionsgate's Blu-ray of After Yang contains a making of featurette as an extra. For a full disc breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
Finally from Lionsgate this week is a Blu-ray for Emerson Moore's Escape the Field, starring Jordan Claire Robbins, Theo Rossi, Tahirah Sharif, Julian Feder, Elena Juatco, and Shane West.
Studio description: After six strangers awaken in a remote, endless cornfield, they realize their survival depends upon their ability to play a diabolical cat-and-mouse game with an unseen evil.
New this week from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will release on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray Pierre Perifel's The Bad Guys, featuring the voices of Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, and Anthony Ramos. The DreamWorks Animation film, which concerns a group of anthropomorphic criminal animals who pretend to reform their ways, opened to positive reviews and topped the box office in its opening weekend back in March. So far, the film has grossed over $236 million worldwide. Universal's disc releases contain the film's Dolby Atmos audio, while the 4K UHD disc also contains HDR. Extras include a new short film, an audio commentary, deleted scenes and several featurettes. In addition to standard packaging, a Target Exclusive Blu-ray with Filmmaker Gallery Book will also be available.
Reviewer Martin Liebman praises the 4K UHD disc's HDR picture, saying: "Sometimes, the UHD just looks a little darker and firmer, but in most cases the transformation to richer and more brilliantly natural colors is quite stark. While reds, blues, greens, and the like find significant added depth, whites also appear more brilliant and blacks more powerfully rich and pure". For full disc breakdowns, read Martin's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.
Coming on Blu-ray this week from RLJE Films is Brendan Muldowney's The Cellar, starring Elisha Cuthbert, Eoin Macken, Abby Fitz, and Dylan Fitzmaurice Brady.
Description: In The Cellar, Keira Woods' (Elisha Cuthbert) daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house. She soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family's souls forever.
RLJE Films' Blu-ray of The Cellar contains an audio commentary, the short film The Ten Steps with optional commentary, cast and crew interviews and more.
Coming to Blu-ray from Decal Releasing is Ninja Thyberg's Pleasure, starring Sofia Kappel, Revika Anne Reustle, Evelyn Claire, Dana DeArmond, and Kendra Spade.
Description: Bella Cherry arrives in Los Angeles with dreams of becoming an adult film star, but she soon learns that fame won't come easy as she harnesses her ambition and cunning to rise to the top of this mesmerizing and singular world.
Decal Releasing's Blu-ray of Pleasure contains an introduction, camera tests, deleted scenes and more.
Also this week from Decal is a Blu-ray for Naveen A. Chathapuram's The Last Victim, starring Ron Perlman, Ali Larter, Ralph Ineson, Tahmoh Penikett, and Kyle Schmid.
Official description: A group of modern-day outlaws, pursued by an aging sheriff, deal with the fallout of a crime gone wrong in the harsh landscape of the American Southwest. When a young professor and her husband cross paths with the gang, they are drawn into a chain of vengeance where morality is ambiguous and survival is the only priority.
Decal Releasing's Blu-ray of The Last Victim contains a director's commentary.
New this week from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for Kay Cannon's Cinderella (2021), starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, Nicholas Galitzine, and Minnie Driver.
Official description: From Kay Cannon (Pitch Perfect), Cinderella is a musically driven bold new take on the classic fairytale. Our ambitious heroine (Camila Cabello) has big dreams and with the help of her Fab Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true. Cinderella has an all-star cast including Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, James Corden, Nicholas Galitzine, Billy Porter and Pierce Brosnan.
Sony's Blu-ray of Cinderella (2021) contains a gag reel.
Finally for new releases this week, Magnolia Pictures has a Blu-ray for Kate Dolan's You Are Not My Mother, starring Hazel Doupe, Carolyn Bracken, and Paul Reid.
Label description: It's the week before Halloween. Char's bedridden mother, Angela, has mysteriously gone missing. All that remains is her abandoned car parked in the middle of a field. When Angela returns home to their North Dublin estate the following evening without explanation, it becomes clear to Char and her grandmother, Rita, that something is amiss. She might look and sound the same, but Angela's behavior has become increasingly erratic and frightening, as if she has been replaced by a malevolent force. As Halloween approaches, a night steeped in ancient Irish myth and legend, Char must unearth the dark secrets of her family in order to uncover the truth behind her mother's disappearance and save her, even if it means potentially losing her forever.
Turning to catalog titles, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will release a 4K UHD disc for George Stevens' Giant (1956), starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Carroll Baker, and Jane Withers. The single-disc release features a brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original negative and RGB separation masters, undertaken by Warner Bros. and the Film Foundation. The film was color-corrected in HDR for the best possible image quality. Warner's 4K UHD disc contains an archival audio commentary as an extra.
Coming to 4K UHD and remastered Blu-ray this week from the Criterion Collection is Gordon Parks' Shaft (1971), starring Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Gwenn Mitchell and Lawrence Pressman. Sourced from a new 4K master, with uncompressed original mono or alternate uncompressed stereo audio tracks, Shaft enters the Criterion Collection for the first time in a three-disc edition (or double Blu-ray) which also features the film's first sequel, Shaft's Big Score! on Blu-ray. Extras include numerous new and archival interviews and documentaries spread over the two Blu-ray discs.
Also coming from Criterion on Blu-ray is Stanley Kwan's Rouge (1987), starring Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alex Man, Irene Wan and Kara Wai. Criterion's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 4K master, with original uncompressed mono or alternate DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio tracks. Extras include a new conversation between Kwan and filmmaker Sasha Chuk, the feature-length documentary Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1997) and a memoir film by Kwan.
Finally this week, Blue Underground add another title to their 4K UHD roster with Bill Lustig's Uncle Sam (1997), starring William Smith, P.J. Soles, Isaac Hayes, Timothy Bottoms, and Bo Hopkins. Arriving in time for the film's 25th anniversary, the 4K UHD comes from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative and features Dolby Vision HDR. A new Dolby Atmos audio mix, as well as DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track, is also included. Archival extras include two audio commentaries, featreuttes, a deleted scene, gag reel, theatrical trailer and more. Packaging includes a limited edition lenticular slipcover. Reviewer Svet Atanasov gave the 4K UHD disc perfect scores for audio and video. For a full disc breakdown, read Svet's 4K UHD review.