September 2nd 2013 Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Mud (Blu-ray)

September 2, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepard, Jacob Lofland
Director: Jeff Nichols
Running Time: 130 mins
Certificate: 12
Release Date: September 2nd 2013

Director Jeff Nichols impressed many with his film Take Shelter and has got a lot more critical acclaim for Mud. Part Huckleberry Finn, a little bit dark fairy tale, and with more than splash of Southern Gothic and Whistle Down The Wind thrown in, it’s an absorbing film even if it likes to take its time doing anything.

Ellis (Tye Sheridan) is a young teen who lives with his parents on a houseboat in Arkansas. The river is his father’s life, although his mother is on the verge of packing up and leaving. Along with his friend, Neckbone (Jacob Loflan), Ellis heads off to find a boat that’s gotten stuck in a tree during a flood. They want to make the vessel theirs but they discover it’s being used by a man called Mud (Matthew McConaughey) as somewhere to sleep. [Read more…]

Banshee – Season 1 (Blu-ray)

September 2, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Anthony Starr, Frankie Faison, Ulrich Procter, Ivana Milicevic, Ben Cross
Director: Various
Running Time: 540 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: September 2nd 2013

Alan Ball won an Oscar for writing American Beauty, but since then he’s largely stuck to TV, creating Six Feet Under, True Blood and now Banshee. While the basic plot makes Banshee sound very different from True Blood, they are to a certain extent bedfellows. In fact they could be set in the same world, except nobody in Banshee knows about the existence of Vampires and other supernatural entities (or at least they don’t mention it). [Read more…]

The Little Mermaid (Blu-ray)

September 1, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Jodi Benson, Christopher Daniels Barnes, Pat Carroll, Buddy Hackett, Jason Marin
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Running Time: 83 mins
Certificate: U
Release Date: September 2nd 2013

Through the tail end of the 70s and the early 80s, Disney Animation was floundering. Movies like Basil The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company and The Black Cauldron looked pretty but weren’t drawing in the crowds, largely because the company had lost its storytelling magic.

Then along came 1989’s The Little Mermaid, kicking off a remarkable run of critical, commercial and audience success that included Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King and Aladdin. While Disney Animation is perhaps most often thought of for its fairy tale movies, this was actually the first film the company had made based on a bona fide fairy story (this time one by Hans Christian Anderson) since Sleeping Beauty in 1959. They also threw a lot more money, time and effort at it than they had for years, even opening new studios to handle the artistic challenge, not least hand-drawing millions of bubble. [Read more…]

Hannibal – Season 1 (Blu-ray)

September 1, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas
Director: Various
Running Time: 550 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: September 2nd 2013

When it was first announced that a TV series was in development based around Hannibal Lecter and the other characters from Thomas Harris Red Dragon, there was a lot of harrumphing that it was a travesty and doomed to failure. However the show has surprised many by being very good. It also makes quite a lot of smart moves, not least that despite being named after Lecter, it doesn’t blow its load and become the cannibal freak show – indeed, it’s never even mentioned he is a cannibal, adding a frisson of excitement to the meals he likes to cook for people. [Read more…]