BBQ, The

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Not recommended under 8, parental guidance recommended 8-10 due to violence, themes and coarse language.

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for BBQ, The
  • a review of BBQ, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 February 2018.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not recommended due to violence, themes and coarse language.
Children aged 8 to 10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and coarse language.
Children aged 10 and over OK for this age group, although there are themes and scenes parents may wish to discuss

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: BBQ, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and coarse language
Length: 87 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Darren ‘Dazza’ Cook (Shane Jacobson) is a husband, father and barbeque salesman. He is passionate about his regular Saturday barbeque even though it really annoys his wife and is putting some strain on his marriage. Dazza firmly believes that he is a direct descendant of Captain James Cook and, in homage to his ancestor, still uses an antique barbeque which he claims belonged to Cook.

After an unfortunate food poisoning incident, things start to go wrong for Dazza. Luckily he is given the opportunity to redeem himself by competing in an annual steak cooking competition, aided by an exiled Scottish chef ‘The Butcher’ (Magda Szubanski).

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Family breakdown; competition; alcoholism; racial stereotypes; gender stereotypes; colonialism

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Several scenes where the Butcher attacks other characters with abusive language and threatens them with knives, cleavers etc.
  • Dazza’s father in law punches him in the face and stomach.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • vomiting scenes at the barbeque
  • graphic scenes of meat being chopped up

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Younger children in this age group may also be worried by the above-mentioned scenes.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • IGA Supermarkets
  • Barbecues Galore
  • Masterfoods sauce
  • Yalandra Fine Foods (an actual shop in Albury, NSW)
  • Manhorne Smokers plus other barbeque equipment
  • Ford and Holden cars

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Dazza refers to his old V8 panel van: “I got Diane pregnant in it, twice… Had to sell it though - two kids was enough”.
  • Mr. Yoshimura passionately massages a steak, to the point where Dazza suggests ‘shall we leave these two alone?’
  • The Butcher insists that the kitchen is “clean as a nun’s [pause] night dreams”
  • “Master, or is she your mistress?”

Nudity and sexual activity

Nothing of concern

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • The Butcher consumes whisky and vodka in 2 scenes, including one joke scene when she pours two glasses of whisky and drinks both. It later emerges that she is ‘battling the demon drink’

Coarse language

There are some coarse language and racial slurs in this movie, including:

  • “lazy, arrogant, dirty – well, French”, “game on froggy”, “show that frog sucker”
  • The Butcher frequently uses abusive language and minor expletives, including “how the hell”, “naff off”, “daft git”, “putting up with crap”, “useless pillock”, “Neanderthal numpty”, “shite”, “ah bollocks… I mean – you grow some”
  • Dazza’s father in law says “happy face my buttocks”
  •  “Wherever the F we want”

In a nutshell

The BBQ is a mildly entertaining Australian comedy about a seemingly ‘ordinary’ white, middle class man and family - the quintessential Aussie battler. The film does gloss over white colonial history in Australia and glorifies the role of Captain James Cook. A clumsy attempt to acknowledge the controversial nature of this theme (Dazza has an Aboriginal friend at his barbeque, to whom he states “I know Captain Cook isn’t the most popular with some people”, and “my backyard is your backyard”) may be offensive to some viewers. There are also many clichéd racial and gender stereotypes which some parents may wish to discuss with their children. The film is not recommended for children under 8 and parental guidance is recommended for 8 to 10 year-olds

The main messages from this movie are about  triumph through adversity and learning from your mistakes.

Parents may also wish to discuss:

  • relationships and family breakup
  • food production (meat production, veganism)