A big week for the epic-bacon brigade, with releases of one of the most-memed Nicolas Cage movies, Vampire’s Kiss, and the movie that’s just a feature-length Nicolas Cage meme, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I didn’t see Massive Talent because it had one of the most irritating trailers of recent memory (I still see Ike Barinholtz yelling about how he likes Con Air and not The Croods in my nightmares) and even its most positive reviews didn’t make it sound better than an intermittently amusing jerk-off session. I also didn’t see After Yang, Kogonada’s follow-up to Columbus, though that’s because A24 decided it wasn’t worth it to give me the chance to do so, shunting it off to Showtime rather than any kind of substantial theatrical run. I don’t know if A24 has forgotten how to release movies that aren’t high-octane genre pieces, or if they’re purposely getting out of the business of releasing them because that’s not where the money is, either way I don’t like it.

Elsewhere, you’d be damn right if you thought that Criterion’s 4K of Shaft (complete with the bonus of Shaft’s Big Score!) was the marquee title this week, though Criterion rescuing Stanley Kwan’s tragic melodrama Rouge (complete with the bonus of Kwan’s documentary on queer Chinese cinema) is maybe even more important work. Also important: the U.S. Blu-Ray debut of King Ralph. Personally, I think it’s against the philosophy of King Ralph (a movie I have not seen) that those stuck-up Brits got it on Blu-Ray in 2016 while we had to wait until now.

After Yang (Lionsgate)
The Bad Guys 4K (Universal)
Cinderella (Sony)
Fire in the Sky (Shout Factory)
Giant 4K (Warner)
King Ralph (Mill Creek)
Pastor Hall (Indicator Series)
Richard III (Sandpiper)
Rouge (Criterion)
The Russia House (Sandpiper)
Shaft 4K (Criterion)
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 4K (Lionsgate)
Uncle Sam 4K (Blue Underground)
Vampire’s Kiss (MVD)