It's tempting to make every Nicolas Cage movie review all about him. He's only billed fourth on the cover of Inconceivable, but it still raises the questions that have surrounded Cage for a number of years now. Twenty-two years since he won the Oscar for Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas and ten since the apex of his long standing as one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Cage is taking what he gets, even if it looks like a Lifetime Original Movie. He's not the only Oscar winner you find in Inconceivable, but Faye Dunaway gets a pass for being an actress over 60 who isn't Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, or Judi Dench.

Though it employs the wider cinematic aspect ratio and carries an R rating for some sex, nudity, and violence, Inconceivable basically is one of those "crazy woman" movies you might find on Lifetime. So was Katherine Heigl's Unforgettable and that got an off-season theatrical release. Here, though, the crazy woman is played by Nicky Whelan, an Australian actress you might remember from small roles in Hall Pass, the final season of "Scrubs", or possibly even Cage's Left Behind. Whelan plays Katie, an attractive young single mother who effortlessly becomes part of a family as a nanny and then as a surrogate mother.

Married affluent doctors Brian (Cage) and Angela (Gina Gershon) can't have kids the old-fashioned way (and not because Gershon is in her mid-fifties, a fact she hides well). Angela previously carried to term another woman's egg and they got a beloved daughter out of it. This time, though, the couple needs a surrogate and Katie becomes the obvious choice after she murders with a free weight in the ocean the couple's first choice, mutual friend Linda (Natalie Eva Marie).

Katie seems nice and all. Angela and Brian have to convince her not to move to St. Louis to take a job. She can just move in with them and be their daughter's full-time nanny. But we know she's evil (most definitely), while only Angela realizes as much, and her claims make her sanity questionable since she's wrestled with prescription pill addiction.

Whether it makes it better or worse, Katie was the egg donor for Angela and Brian's first daughter, even though that process is supposed to be anonymous. We also come to learn through flashbacks how Katie got her "own" daughter. It involves a bathtub beating.

Written by seasoned smut scribe Chloe King ("Red Shoe Diaries", Alyssa Milano's Poison Ivy II), Inconceivable is trashy, but doesn't even have enough going for it to qualify as some kind of guilty pleasure. In truth, I requested this Blu-ray for review for two reasons: Cage's presence and the opportunity to make The Princess Bride jokes. I don't regret it at all, but I do suspect the time I spent watching and reviewing it might have been better spent on anything else. The movie never even approaches the "so bad it's good" space, which usually requires some passage of time before admittance.

No one benefits from this production in any meaningful way. Whelan claims a leading role (her first?) and does a great job of sounding American while looking pretty, but this isn't exactly going to thrust her to leading lady status. Cage gets another paycheck on another essentially direct-to-video movie, playing the most normal guy he has in a while. Dunaway hasn't worried about her legacy or had a respectable credit in ages, and I guess this does less damage than letting the wrong film be named Best Picture at the Oscars. Top-billed Gershon is no stranger to lurid movies and seems least harmed by this project, which at least gives her a respite from television roles and that risible 9/11 movie as she somehow approaches 60. If he works again, first-time director Jonathan Baker (who supposedly executive produced Tim Conway's Dorf on Golf video thirty years ago and also takes a supporting role here) can only get better, one hopes.

Two months after its alleged limited theatrical release, Lionsgate Premiere's Inconceivable hit Blu-ray and DVD with more extras than you would expect to find.

Blu-ray Disc Details 2.40:1 Widescreen (DVD Anamorphic) 5.1 DTS-HD MA (English) Subtitles: English, English for Hearing Impaired, Spanish Not Closed Captioned; Extras Not Subtitled Release Date: August 29, 2017 Suggested Retail Price: $24.99 Single-sided, dual-layered disc (BD-50) Blue Eco-Friendly Keepcase in Cardboard Slipcover Also available on DVD ($19.98 SRP), and on Amazon Instant Video

VIDEO and AUDIO

Though it's probably eligible, Inconceivable isn't going to compete for any technical Oscars. That said, for a presumably modest-budgeted, essentially direct-to-video flick from a first-time director, it looks pretty sharp. The 2.40:1 presentation boasts nice colors, sharpness, and detail, while the 5.1 DTS-HD master audio mix gets the job done.

BONUS FEATURES, MENUS, PACKAGING and DESIGN

The Blu-ray's special features begin with an audio commentary by producer-director-"co-star" Jonathan Baker. He has the enthusiasm of a first-timer, but he's pretty insufferable nonetheless, whether he's talking about cutting his own scenes down from nine to seven, patting himself on the back for closing the set and not shooting more female nudity, or passionately analyzing the story as if there's depth that would slip past viewers. I can't imagine more than a few dozen people listening to this track and I can't imagine any of them being glad they did.

On the video side, we begin with "Behind the Scenes of Inconceivable" (11:41), a standard issue making-of featurette.

A single deleted scene (0:37) preserves Faye Dunaway's character chatting with Cage and Baker at the family Fourth of July gathering. It feels like a scene that could have been written for Claudette from The Room.

Next up, Cast/Crew Interviews serves up 52 minutes and 38 seconds worth of the interviews from which the featurette pulled. They let us hear from Cage, Gershon, Whelan, Natalie Eva Marie, Baker, and director of photography Brandon Cox. There are tons of remarks that will make your eyes roll, from Whelan and Marie gushing over Cage to Baker's self-aggrandizing description of his calling being at complete odds with his filmography and absurd claim that he's going to get people talking about in vitro.

Lionsgate discs generally do not hold the trailer for the featured presentation, but they make an exception for extraordinary Lionsgate Premiere titles such as this (2:11).

"Also from Lionsgate" repeats the four disc-opening trailers for Black Butterfly, Aftermath,Isolation, Urge, and Manhattan Night.

The dramatically scored main menu plays filtered clips in a space next to a reproduction of the cover art. The disc resumes playback and also supports bookmarks.

A single-sided insert provides a code and directions for accessing the Digital HD UltraViolet copy of the film included with your purchase. It's all that joins the full-color disc in the eco-friendly keepcase that is topped by a glossy slipcover.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Inconceivable is a trashy thriller with a relatively distinguished cast. It's pretty much The Room if Tommy Wiseau had settled for a minor role and coaxed a couple of Oscar winners to play supporting roles. Lionsgate's Blu-ray delivers a strong feature presentation and plenty of extras, but the movie certainly isn't good (or bad) enough to recommend ever seeing.

Buy Inconceivable from Amazon.com: Blu-ray + Digital HD / DVD / Instant Video