Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

DVD and BLU-RAY REVIEWS

The latest reviews from the world of home entertainment

Book Club (DVD Review) – A cast of living legends reads Fifty Shades of Grey

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For decades four female friends have been getting together for a monthly book club. However, while this started when they were in their youth, they now all facing the fact they’re aging. Diane (Diane Keaton) is a relatively recent widow being pressured by her daughters to move to nearer to them in Arizona, as they think she’s too old to manage by herself. Carol (Mary Steenburgen) is stuck in a rut with her husband, while federal judge Sharon (Candice Bergen) has completely given up on the idea of either love or sex. Finally there’s Vivian (Jane Fonda), a woman who’s never had a problem finding sex but has always disdained the idea of settling down with one person.

Rather than their typical book club novels, the quartet decide to read Fifty Shades Of Grey. After discovering the Red Room shenanigans that Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele get up to, the four women start to shake up their own lives. That may not involve BDSM, but it does set them thinking about what they really want from their remaining years. [Read more…]

Tomb Raider (Blu-ray Review) – Alicia Vikander takes on Lara Croft

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Many people were surprised when it was announced there was going to be a Tomb Raider movie reboot, especially considering the Angelina Jolie movies of the early 2000s aren’t exactly well remembered. However, as with so many other videogames, there’s no intrinsic reason it couldn’t be turned into a good movie. Although for some reason, Hollywood has great difficulty turning games into serviceable film.

This time around Jolie has been replaced by Alicia Vikander, who like her predecessor stepped into Lara Croft’s shoes shortly after winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Jolie for Girl Interrupted and Vikander for The Danish Girl). Her Lara is a young woman who’s fiercely intelligent and smart, but whose life shifted sideways when her adventurer father went missing, presumed dead, when she was a child. [Read more…]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (DVD Review) – Robbed of the Best Picture Oscar?

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For many Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri seemed to be the smart bet to win the Best Picture Oscar. While The Shape Of Water had made the early running, Three Billboards gained momentum through the Award season and seemed like it might cruise to a victory. In the end it didn’t get the big gong, although it did win for the exceptionally strong performance of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. Many were also surprised it lost for writer/director Martin McDonagh’s screenplay, although it is a couple of issues with that screenplay that may be the reason it didn’t win the biggest award.

McDormand plays the hard-bitten Mildred, a woman filled with anger at the local police’s inability to catch whoever was responsible for the rape and murder of her daughter. To try and force the authorities into action she hires three billboards on a rural road, putting up massive posters asking why there have been no arrests and specifically calling out police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). [Read more…]

The Post (Blu-ray Review) – Spielberg, Streep & Hanks stand up for press freedom

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He may be in his 70s but Steven Spielberg shows no signs of slowing down. He managed to slot in The Post while simultaneously making Ready Player One, something most directors half his age wouldn’t even contemplate let alone succeed at.

The Post is a bit of an old school flick, set in the 1970s and telling the story of the Pentagon Papers, a leaked set of documents that revealed that while in public the military and government was still positive about the war in Vietnam, privately many felt that it was unwinnable and that official finding bore this out. The authorities from President Richard Nixon downwards unsurprisingly didn’t want this made public, while the press felt it was imperative to publish it. [Read more…]

Batman Ninja (Blu-ray Review) – The title pretty much says it all!

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‘Batman Ninja’ is a title that sounds like the fever dream of a six-year-old, but it’s not inaccurate for this latest DC animated movie. The film takes the Caped Crusader to Japan and into full-on anime mode, as this was produced and animated in the Land Of The Rising Sun. As the Japanese production company behind the film says in the special features, they were allowed to make a movie where Batman was essentially a guest in their country and had to adapt to their way of doing things, rather than the other way around. As a result this is a Japanese film with Batman in it, rather a Batman film set in Japan.

In the film, after an incredibly quick setup Batman is mysteriously thrown back in time after something goes wrong with the villainous Gorilla Grodd’s time displacement machine. The Caped Crusader finds himself in medieval Japan, but one that’s got a few problems as the time machine also sent a Rogues Gallery of Gotham’s bad guys into the past. Those villains arrived two years before Batman, which has given the likes of Joker, Poison Ivy, Bane and Penguin time to start gaining control of Japan, using their futuristic knowledge and evil skulduggery to control the locals. [Read more…]

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Blu-ray Review) – A game (and gender-swap) like no other

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Every so often a film comes along that beats all expectations at the box office. Film commentators then race to come up with reasons for its runaway success. They tried to do that for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, but generally came up short. After all this is a film that initially people thought would be lucky to clear $200-$300 million worldwide at the box office, but which ended up with $900 million+ and is now the highest grossing film Sony Pictures has ever made.

Is it down to the box office power of The Rock? Was it because there wasn’t much family film competition at the time it was release? Did box office watchers underestimate the love people had for the 1995 Robin Williams Jumanji movie, especially as many of those that grew up with that film now have kids of their own? [Read more…]

Pitch Perfect 3 (Blu-ray Review) – The Bellas are back for a final acapella adventure

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When the plot of a sequel is that the characters are being sent off on a holiday, it’s usually a good time to start to worry. It’s typically the point in a franchise when the makers have run out of ideas and so they put the characters in a new environment in the hope that people won’t notice that they couldn’t really decide what the movie should be about.

That’s pretty much true of Pitch Perfect 3, where the former Barden Bellas get the opportunity to participate in a USO military tour, performing with other bands in different countries. To add a little random competition to the mix, the best of those bands will be chosen by DJ Khaled to open for him on his tour. That’s the cue for the Bellas to go into crisis of confidence of mode as they realise that being the best at acapella-ing doesn’t necessarily mean they can go toe-to-toe with an all-female pop-rock group, a country artist and a couple of rappers. [Read more…]

Ferdinand (Blu-ray Review) – A little bit gay or just a load of old animated bull?

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I sometimes think the people who panic about ‘the gay agenda’ really ought to pay more attention to kids’ movies. If you’re looking for queer narrative – which never say they’re queer – you don’t have to look much further. For a start, nearly every animated movie revolves around the theme of being true to yourself. You also have numerous movies about parents finding it difficult to accept difference in their child, that child being a misfit who’s not the same as others and is often bullied for it, and who will eventually win by accepting themselves and being proud of it.

All that could just be coincidence, but then there are things such as the fact that a lot of animated movies consciously deal with ideas about chosen families, something you normally only hear about in a queer context. It was this that got me considering the queer side of Ferdinand. Partway though the film, the titular character is insisting the dog he grew up with is his ‘brother’, while the dog says he can’t be the family of a bull because that’s not the way things work. Ultimately that becomes the main theme of the movie – a bull rejecting the toxic masculinity that the other bovines believe is their only choice, and learning that you can choose your own way and your own family, and it doesn’t matter if others think it’s ‘queer’. [Read more…]

Stronger (Blu-ray Review) – Jake Gyllenhaal explores heroism as a Boston bombing survivor

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Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) decides to surprise his ex-girlfriend, Erin (Tatiana Maslany), by heading to the finish line of the Boston marathon to see her cross the line. When a terrorist bomb explodes Jeff loses both his legs. Due to horrific photos of him at the bombing which quickly become iconic, he is held up by a hero by some and a prime example of ‘Boston Strong’. However, Jeff initially riles against the idea of himself as a hero, struggling with the fact that a city in need of catharsis desperately wants him to be an inspirational figure. [Read more…]

Wonder (Blu-ray Review) – Important life lessons for young and old

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God bless young Jacob Tremblay. The Room and Book Of Henry star is impossibly cute, something that comes through even under the large amounts of makeup he has to wear for Wonder. Although it might seem a little creepy to be talking about a young boy’s cuteness, in this case it’s vital to the film, as Tremblay’s talents are so central to the movie. The makeup is potentially a real barrier for an actor though, and a tough one for somebody so young to overcome. Jacob does it though with aplomb.

Tremblay plays August ‘Auggie’ Pullman, who was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, which has left him with significant facial deformities. He’s been home-schooled by his mother (Julia Roberts), but will be going to mainstream school for the first time when he joins the fifth grade. Auggie is a shy and sensitive child, very aware of how others treat him because he looks different. [Read more…]