The Big Sick (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)

Blu-Ray Reviews | Sep 22nd, 2017

The Big Sick
Image used with permission for review purposes.

Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Kurt Braunohler, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant, Adeel Akhtar, Anupam Kher
Written By: Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
Directed By: Michael Showalter
Studio: Amazon Studios / Lionsgate
Buy On Amazon.com

The best reviewed movie of the summer is The Big Sick, a movie about Kumail and his wife. It’s heartfelt, funny and worth seeing if you like romantic comedies.

The movie is about Kumail (himself), a standup comedian who also drives for Uber on the side. After one of his sets, he meets Emily (played by Zoe Kazan) and they hit it off. Even though Emily is weary of relationships, they soon find themselves in one. Things turn bad when Kumail and Emily sort of break up, and then she contracts a mysterious illness. Kumail has to force himself to face her parents (played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) and hope Emily wakes up from her coma and to deal with his own parents who keep trying to set him up to marry a nice Pakistani woman.

I’ve been seeing good reviews for The Big Sick all summer long but never got a chance to see it until it came on video. I’ve liked Kumail’s stand-up and he’s one of my favorites on Silicon Valley so I was looking forward to seeing this one. It’s definitely one of the better romantic comedies I’ve seen in awhile. Not only is it funny, it also has something to say about culture clashing, arranged marriages and also how to deal with someone you love or know that is in a coma. It’s kind of hard to laugh at something when there’s a person in the movie that could potentially die, but they make it work. Michael Showalter certainly does a great job of balancing the comedy and drama aspects of the movie. What I’m saying is, if you are going through something like this or someone in the hospital, you might want to wait away to watch it because it could be unsettling. Thankfully, we knew going into this that Emily makes it out okay since she wrote the damn movie with Kumail.

For a romantic comedy, it’s actually pretty gutsy to have a movie where the girl is in a coma for half the movie. The casting of Ray Romano and Holly Hunter was perfect. Ray Romano should be in more movies, well good ones like this one anyway. You stick with Judd Apatow produced or directed movies, you’ll be okay Ray. They worked well with Kumail, and I guess they had to since the three had to carry the majority of the movie. When Zoe Kazan was on screen, she was lovable, cute and she made you care when she got ill. All the scenes involving Kumail’s parents trying to set him up with dates was hilarious to me. His mom would do the same line, “someone’s at the door” and “she was just in the neighborhood” and I would crack up each time. I’m sure living in that situation sucks, having to be told on who to date. I guess only factor where it would be good if you were a loser yourself and would be happy with any woman talking to you.

The Blu-Ray extras contain a making of, SXSW panel, commentary, some alternate lines, deleted scenes and featurette on the Big Sick comedy tour. Most of the extras have Kumail and Emily talking about what really happened. Some things were changed but they pretty much said the movie is the first year of their relationship. I liked watching the deleted scenes and the making of. The alternate lines stuff was good and funny, especially the entire cast is comedians. The comedy tour was cool to see and didn’t even know they were doing that when the movie was coming out. Judd Apatow, Ray Romano, Kumail, and others from the movie. Looked like it would have been a fun show to see.

If you want to watch a great romantic comedy, check out The Big Sick. Kumail is hysterical in it, and handles the drama well. I mean I guess he’s been there, so he knows how to act for it. The writing for this is excellent and the cast is flawless too. I’m sure this movie isn’t for everybody but I loved it.

Features

A Personal Journey: The Making of The Big Sick
The Real Story
2017 SXSW Film Festival Panel
Cast & Filmmaker Commentary
The Big Sick: The Other Stuff
Deleted Scenes
The Bigger Sick: Stick Around for More Laughs

Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Video
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color

Bottom Line: A funny, heartfelt romantic comedy
Running Time: 120 mins
Rating: R
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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