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

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

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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…]

Me, Myself & Her (US DVD Review)

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Me Myself & Her is billed as Italy’s first feature-length, lesbian-themed romantic comedy, although I might take issue with that, as it’s not what I’d normally think of as a rom com. I can see why they’d class it as that, but I’d more put it in the bracket of a light-hearted drama, as it didn’t exactly spend a lot of time trying to be funny, except for a few fairly amusing moments (particularly a scenes involving a dinner with one of the main character’s families).

In the movie, middle-aged Marina (Sabrina Ferilli) and Federica (Margherita Buy) have been together for a few years and are living in what seems like cosy domesticity. However, they may be ignoring a few glaring problems, which begind surface when Federica objects to the fact former actress Marina vaguely mentioned her in an interview. Federica still isn’t comfortable with her sexuality and doesn’t want the world at large knowing about her, something Marina has been assiduously ignoring, assuming that her lover would eventually just accept she’s a lesbian and come to terms with it. [Read more…]

Eye In The Sky (DVD Review)

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When people talk about modern warfare, it tends to be in rather black and white terms. It’s either people concerned about collateral damage who tend to ignore the moral quagmire that killing a few innocent people may end up saving many more, or the more gung-ho attitude that ignores the guiltless that get caught up in it. Eye In The Sky attempts to explore the grey areas.

In Nairobi, a British and American task force are tracking some Islamic extremist terrorists, but are mainly doing so from afar, using drones controlled from the US and other tech piloted by a local (Barkhad Abdi) on the ground. They discover that three of their most wanted targets are together in a house. However, plans to capture them quickly change to the need for a possible kill-strike, when they realise there are bomb belts in the house and a suicide attack is imminent. Things get even more complex when a young girl enters the kill zone and they realise a strike is likely to kill her. [Read more…]

Dirty Grandpa (Blu-ray Review)

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I suppose it’s a bit much to expect a film called Dirty Grandpa to be anything except dirty and about a grandpa. However, despite the fact he’s spent most of the past 20 years phoning it in, it’s difficult not to hold out hope that with Robert De Niro onboard it’s going to be more than just a series of slightly random gross-out jokes and comedy that’s more annoying than funny. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Jason (Zac Efron) is an uptight lawyer, a week away from marrying an equally uptight woman. It’s also his grandmother’s funeral. He gets roped in to driving his grandfather, Dick (De Niro), to Florida for his annual vacation. However, once on the road, it becomes clear the 72-year-old isn’t intending for a couple of weeks of sun and shuffleboard while reminiscing about his late wife – he wants to get laid and party. [Read more…]

Inside Out (Cinema Review)

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Pixar have consistently delivered some of the greatest animated family movies of the last 20 years. I say family, as not only are these aimed at youngsters, but they also charm adults as well. We have had movies about fish, toys, monsters, cars, balloons and bugs. Now they are going inside your head – literally.

For those who have not seen the trailers or the adverts, the film is centred around five emotions in young girl Riley’s head. These characters represent Sadness, Joy, Fear, Disgust and Anger, all emotions we are familiar with – in fact everyone in the film has these emotions (no more). [Read more…]

Cake (Blu-ray Review)

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It seems that Jennifer Aniston is destined to only put in really good performances in movies that not that many people see. Back in 2002, reviewers fawned over her role in The Good Girl, but when after that she went back to dreck like The Bounty Hunter (shudder), The Switch (wretch) and Just Go With It (vomit), everybody forgot she is actually very good when given the chance. That has occasionally shown through, even in films like We’re The Millers, but because of the type of movie’s she’s in it’s largely been overlooked.

As a result, her performance in Cake has been described by some as ‘revelatory’, but it’s not, it’s just a reminder that she has real dramatic chops to mix in with the comedy when she has the right role. It wouldn’t actually be too much of a surprise if she won an Oscar one day, and indeed many say she should have gotten a nomination for Cake. [Read more…]

WTC View (VoD Review)

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There aren’t many films that set out to capture a moment in time the way WTC View does. Set shortly after 9/11, the movie (and the play its based on) attempts to capture the fear, paranoia, anger, sadness, confusion and hope that came to those in New York after the towers came down.

A pre-Ugly Betty Michael Urie plays Eric, a young gay man who lives in an apartment that until a few weeks before enjoyed a view of the World Trade Center. He’s now broken up with his boyfriend and his roommate is gone, and Eric needs to find someone else to share his apartment with as soon as he can. While normally that wouldn’t be a problem, with everything in flux, finding a roomie proves difficult. [Read more…]

Love, Rosie (Blu-ray Review)

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It’s interesting to see sometimes how different critic and audience reactions can be. Love, Rosie currently has a very good 7.4/10 rating on IMDB from audience votes, but an abysmal 21% on RottenTomatoes from critics.

When you watch the film you can understand the disparity. If you’re a movie aficionado the whole thing is rather tedious – it’s by-the-numbers  to the point of feeling like it was just spewed out of a machine. The characters we’ve seen 10,000 times before and while the idea of exploring whether people who’ve been friends since childhood can become a successful adult couple has potential, it’s handled in a way that’s doesn’t have a vaguely original idea. All that is anathema to critics but many audience members like it – after all it’s why places like McDonald’s are so successful, you know exactly what you’re going to get and there’s comfort in that, even if gourmands may hate it. [Read more…]

The Circle (Der Kreis) (Cinema Review)

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When I started watching The Circle, I slightly wondered whether I’d got the wrong film. I’d been expecting this to be a fictionalised look at being gay in the 1950s in Europe, but the movie opens in documentary mode, with two older gents talking about their past.

What ensues is a mixture of documentary and drama, involving people talking about being gay in Switzerland 60 years ago, and actors playing the younger version of these men, re-enacting the story of the heyday and decline of the titular Circle. [Read more…]

Boys On Film 12: Confession (DVD Review)

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The Boys On Film series is back with its 12th instalment, this time loosely themed around the idea of Confession.  Boys On Film is the most popular short film DVD anthology in the world, of any genre, and if you’ve watched them it’s clear why, as there’s a huge amount of incredibly good LGBT shorts out there, much of which would be hidden from the majority of people if it weren’t for discs like this.

This time the films range from one about a 17-year-old with a crush on the local priest to another focussing on a Hollywood hunk heading to his hometown with the hope of rekindling an old relationship. So what is the Boys On Film 12 short film selection like?

And you can see what we think of other Boys On Film releases here. [Read more…]