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

Imperium (DVD Review)

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Movies like Imperium always have difficulty finding a wide audience, largely because people often tend to actively avoid uncomfortable truths. The fact is that is you make a movie about Muslim terrorists – people who for many western audiences are part of an undifferentiated ‘them’ – they’ll watch it, but those same people will shy away from a movie about the realities of things such as white supremacism, because they don’t want to be confronted with the fact that as big a danger might come from those who are supposedly part of ‘us’.

In the film, Daniel Radcliffe is FBI Agent Nate Foster, who’s been working on Islamic fundamentalist terrorism until he’s pulled aside by Angela Zamparo (Toni Collette), who wants him to go undercover into the white supremacist movement. The FBI knows that six canisters of radioactive material has gone missing, and their biggest clue is that a neo-Nazi radio host, Dallas Wolf (Tracy Letts), appears to know more than he ought to about it. [Read more…]

Now You See Me 2 (Blu-ray Review)

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2013’s Now You See Me proved a far bigger hit than most people expected, which has ensured we’ve now got a follow-up. After their Robin Hood exploits in the first movie, illusionists The Horsemen have been in hiding, waiting for ‘The Eye’ to tell them what they should do next. They also have a new member, with Lizzy Caplan’s Lula joining Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack (Dave Franco) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson), along with their leader, FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo).

They get an assignment to take down someone who’s destroying personal privacy, but their comeback goes wrong when they’re hacked, kidnapped and taken to Macau, China. There they meet Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), who tells them that it was largely his money they stole in the first movie, and that they now have to do his bidding if they want to live. [Read more…]

Elvis & Nixon (DVD Review)

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Elvis & Nixon is a movie spun out from a single moment – a meeting between Elvis Presley and President Richard Nixon in December 1970, which resulted in a picture of the two of them, which is apparently the most requested image from the US National Archive. Here we get Michael Shannon as a surprisingly good Elvis, and Kevin Spacey as a slightly more human Nixon that we might be used to.

The movie picks up a while before the meeting, with Elvis fed up with the direction the country is heading – he doesn’t like hippies, the anti-Vietnam protests or The Beatles – so he decides he wants to become a Federal Agent and go undercover to help sort things out. While Elvis is used to having people around who organise his life for him, he decides he’s got to sort this out himself, reaching out to his long-time friend, Jerry (Alex Pettyfer), to help him. [Read more…]

Gods Of Egypt (Blu-ray Review)

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When it was first announced, Gods Of Egypt sounded like it could be a fun and interesting movie, with the Egyptian Gods living alongside man in a pretty fantasy sci-fi way. However, it was rather stillborn at the cinema, with terrible reviews and just $31 at the US Box Office, despite costing $140 million to make. It also got a lot of bad PR for being a film about Egypt, where nearly all the major characters are white, except for Chadwick Boseman’s Thoth.

The film kicks off with Osiris (Bryan Brown) being about to hand the job of ruling Egypt to his son, Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). However, Osiris’ aggrieved brother, Set (Gerard Butler), has other ideas, interrupting the ceremony, killing his sibling and stealing Horus’ eyes. The power-hungry Set takes over, plunging the country into chaos as a result. [Read more…]

The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case (Blu-ray Review)

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The Conjuring surprised many when it grossed over $300 million on a $20 million budget. It ensured that a sequel was quickly put in the works (as well as last year’s spin-off, Annabelle), with the filmmakers looking through the cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren for more inspiration. What they came up with was the Enfield Poltergeist, one of Britain’s most documented paranormal cases, which was also the inspiration for Sky TV’s The Enfield Haunting earlier this year.

The film starts out with another very famous case the Warrens were involved in, Amityville, before moving to Britain and the Hodgson family, living in a council house in North London. Single mother Patricia (Frances O’Connor) and her two daughters and two sons, are being increasingly frightened by paranormal activity, which is moving things around the house and possessing one of the daughters. [Read more…]

Warcraft: The Beginning (Blu-ray Review)

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In the last few years, Hollywood has become increasingly obsessed with the fast-growing Chinese market. Warcraft: The Beginning is ample evidence as to why that is. The movie was a massive flop in the US, grossing less than $50 million there on a $160 million budget. However, it made over $220 million in China, meaning that instead of being one of the biggest box office disasters ever, they’re now thinking of making a sequel.

The disparity between the US and China reception of this movie is a bit difficult to explain. While American audiences certainly had a lot of choice this summer, it’s a surprise a few more didn’t choose this film, as it’s quite fun. [Read more…]

Money Monster (Blu-ray Review)

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Lee Gates (George Clooney) presents the TV show Money Monster, a programme that tries to make stocks, shares and investments a bit more entertaining. His latest broadcast quickly takes an unexpected turn when a man (Jack O’Connell) bursts into the studio brandishing a gun and forces Lee to put on an explosive vest.

The man, who it’s revealed is called Kyle, is an average joe who’s been sent over the edge by the fact that a few weeks before Lee told people they should invest in a company called IBIS. However, while Lee said it was safer than a savings account, the share price has collapsed due to what the company said was a glitch in its trading algorithm, and Kyle has lost every penny he’s got. Kyle wants answers and thinks Lee should be the one who gets them for him. With the help of his producer, Patty (Julia Roberts), talking to him from the gallery, Lee attempts to keep Kyle calm while they figure out what’s going on. [Read more…]

Equals (DVD Review)

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Following a devastating war that has destroyed most of the Earth’s habitable surface, one of two remaining populations now lives in a sterile world, having completely suppressed and eradicated their emotions. However, sometimes the methods used to rid them of their primitive urges don’t work, and people end up with ‘Switched On Syndrome’, where their emotions begin to rise.

Silas (Nicholas Hoult) discovers that he is ‘infected’, and that he will eventually reach Stage 3, where he’ll be carted off and given a ‘death scenario’. He starts to fall for co-worker Nia (Kristen Stewart), who he discovers also has the ‘disease’ but is hiding it. They know that if their relationship is discovered there will be serious repercussions, but they cannot help but fall deeper in love. [Read more…]

The Nice Guys (Blu-ray Review)

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While writer/director Shane Black had a huge success with Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys takes him back to what he does best – crime thrillers with a dash of noir and plenty of comedy. This time around, the writer of Lethal Weapon and director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang takes us to the 1970s with The Nice Guys.

Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a private eye. He’s also a functioning alcoholic trying to be a single parent to his daughter. He accidentally gets involved with enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), after Holland’s case looking into the apparent suicide of a porn star called Misty Mountains crosses paths with Healy’s job involving a missing young woman called Amelia. [Read more…]

Friend Request (Blu-ray Review)

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After a brief chat following a lecture, college student Laura accepts a social network friend request from classmate Marina. However, Marina refuses to be someone who sits in your friend list and gets ignored, as she embarks on increasingly unhinged stalker behaviour, which culminates in her sending a video of her own suicide to Laura.

Death isn’t going to stop Marina though, as Laura’s friends start being attacked. As those she knows start dying around her, the authorities begin to think Laura must somehow be involved, but it becomes clear something more supernatural is at work. [Read more…]