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

Hell Or High Water (Blu-ray Review) – Chris Pine & Ben Foster rob banks in a dying world

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

In rural Texas, Toby Howard (Chris Pine) and his brother Tanner (Ben Foster) are on a bank robbing spree. Inevitably the law is after them, with days-from-retirement Texas Ranger Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and his Cherokee partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham) on their trail.

The quiet Toby and livewire Tanner are trying to steal enough to prevent the reverse mortgage on their dead mother’s ranch from foreclosing on the property, with $43,000 needed to secure the future of Toby’s son and ex-wife. However, their crime spree inevitably turns deadly, which may leave them with few ways out. [Read more…]

Sausage Party (Blu-ray Review) – Seth Rogen leads some rude, crude, animated food

By Leave a Comment

Ever since it was first announced, Sausage Party sounded like a completely insane movie, and now it’s here, that judgement has been proven correct. It may also one of the most in-your-face Hollywood releases ever on gay/bisexual front – even if that LGB content does involve animated food.

Frank (Seth Rogen) is a sausage, who’s spent his life in his package in a supermarket, waiting to be picked by the ‘gods’ (aka humans), and taken to The Great Beyond. Every day all the food in the market sing about the joys of The Great Beyond, and how nothing bad could possibly happen to them there. The sausages are also excited because getting picked will finally get them out of their wrappers and sliding into the sexy buns they’ve long flirted with but barely been able to touch. [Read more…]

War Dogs (Blu-ray Review)

By Leave a Comment

Life isn’t going as well as young David Packouz (Miles Teller) hoped. He’s stuck offering massages to middle-aged businessmen and wishing for something better. Then his old, rather wild, friend Efraim (Jonah Hill) returns to Miami from LA and offers David an opportunity.

Efraim is using a new government initiative to hopefully get rich. After a few scandals, President George W. Bush has opened up all government contracts to bids from private companies of any size, and that includes defence contracts. Efraim wants David to help him get the smaller arms contracts that the big companies are ignoring. That usually involved helping outfit the Iraqi or Afghani armies rather than the US military itself. [Read more…]

Cafe Society (DVD Review)

By Leave a Comment

We’ve long reached the point when a new Woody Allen movie isn’t something to get excited about anymore, but it’s also certainly not something to dread either. This year he returns with Café Society, another Allen movie we can add to his recent list of his films that are decent enough, but nothing particularly special.

The director is not on-screen this time (although he does narrate), with Jesse Eisenberg stepping in to be Café Society’s 1930s Woody surrogate, a young Jewish New Yorker called Bobby, who’s a bit lost in life and so decides to head to LA. His Uncle Phil (Steve Carell) is a high-powered movie agent who Bobby hopes can help him get his start. Phil hires Bobby to do odd jobs, which brings him into the sphere of Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). [Read more…]

Suicide Squad – Extended Cut (Blu-ray Review)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

Suicide Squad may have been this year’s most anticipated movie. After the underwhelming Man Of Steel and the ho-hum Batman vs. Superman, the trailers made it look like this was the fun, mischievous shot-in-the-arm that the DC Universe needed to really get it up and running, as well as being a counterpoint to the Marvel movies but which wouldn’t be as dour as the previous DC films. However, when the reviews came in, it was generally agreed by the critics the movie was a messy misfire (although it did okay at the box office).

Now it’s coming to Blu-ray and VoD in Extended Cut form, which adds in 10-minutes of extra footage. As with the Ultimate Edition of Batman vs. Superman, the extra scenes do help, but they’re unlikely to change anyone’s overall opinion of the movie. [Read more…]

Gypsy: The Musical (DVD Review)

By 1 Comment

The late 1950s was one hell of a time for American musicals, with the likes of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound Of Music and Gypsy all debuting on Broadway. While all of them have been held up by different people as the greatest musical ever, most agree that the best female mainstream musical role ever written is Rose in Gypsy – indeed, it’s sometimes referred to as the King Lear of musical theatre. Over the years Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, and Patti LuPone have all played the role on Broadway, while Rosalind Russell appeared in the 1962 film version, and Bette Midler took the part in a 1993 TV movie.

In 2015 it was the turn of Imelda Staunton, fresh from her fabulous, Olivier Award-winning turn in a West End version of Sweeney Todd (before that, few people thought of her as a musical actress, but she’s actually got a long history in the genre, from Into The Woods (for which she won another Olivier back in 1991) to Guys & Dolls. Staunton got rave reviews and another Olivier Award for Gypsy’s limited run at London’s Savoy Theatre, and as this recording of the production proves, it’s easy to see why. [Read more…]

The Shallows (DVD Review)

By Leave a Comment

Nancy (Blake Lively) is feeling a bit lost in life and is considering dropping out of medical school. She heads off on her own to a secret Mexican beach that had special significance to her dead mother. After spending some time surfing, she discovers the bay is hiding the enormous body of a dead whale.

That’s not all that’s lurking either, as she is attacked by a great white shark, but manages to escape onto a rocky outcrop. She’s only a few hundred metres offshore, but with a gash in her leg that will attract the shark back, it doesn’t seem there will be any way to get back to the beach. It also becomes increasingly apparent that the cartilaginous fish isn’t going to give up. [Read more…]

Tickled (DVD Review)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , ,
Director: ,
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

Often the best documentaries are the ones that end up taking a different direction than originally planned. With Tickled, that left-turn occurred slightly before they decided to make a film, when New Zealand journalist David Farrier stumbled upon the little-known ‘sport’ of competitive tickling.

Known for reporting on unusual, quirky subjects, he fired off an email to the company behind the ‘tournaments’, Jane O’Brien Media, only to be met with threats of lawsuits, and an immediate obsession with the fact Farrier is gay. The woman writing back to him was adamant there was nothing gay about competitive tickling, despite the fact only young, often shirtless men were involved and the whole thing seemed, well, pretty gay. The messages from Jane O’Brien Media got more extreme, anti-Semitic and homophobic, and it was only at that point a decision was taken to make a documentary. [Read more…]

Joe Lycett: That’s The Way A-ha A-ha (DVD Review)

By Leave a Comment

Starring:
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

Award-winning comedian Joe Lycett has popped up on TV in the likes of Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Sunday Night at the Palladium, and now he’s getting his first live stand-up DVD, That’s The Way A-ha A-ha… Joe Lycett (get it?). Filmed at the Duchess Theatre in London, the disc showcases Joe’s mix of whimsy, acerbic comedy, and ‘being weird’.

To be honest, he is a bit of a Marmite proposition, as while many will find him a riot, other probably won’t quite get his idiosyncratic style, which varies from a love of puns, to stories from his life, to recounting the messages he sent to try and get out of a parking fine. A lot of it is very funny, and even those who overall don’t find Joe’s comedy to be quite their cup of tea, should get a few decent laughs. [Read more…]

Chevalier (DVD Review)

By Leave a Comment

A group of men are out on the Aegean Sea on a luxury yacht for a fishing trip. Fed up with the games they usually play, they decide to take things up a notch by holding a contest to decide who is the best of them in general. Absolutely everything can be judged, from their ability to build flatpack furniture and their fitness, to how nice their underwear is and whether they can get an erection. The winner will be the Chevalier, and get a small ring to show it.

Inevitably, the men’s egos get involved and as each competes to the best, they begin to take things to the extreme and find any and every flaw they can about the others. With their pride on the line, things start taking increasingly absurd turns in ways that could tear their friendships apart. [Read more…]