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

mother! (Blu-ray Review) – Is the Jennifer Lawrence movie audaciously impressive or completely crazy?

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There’s rarely been as big a divide between critics and audiences as there was with mother!. While it’s got a decent 69% from critics on RottenTomatoes, on its US release it got a rare ‘F’ CinemaScore, based on audience reaction. Only 19 films have ever been given such a low rating. Watching the film you can understand why, because audience members who typically just watch typical Hollywood fare almost certainly had no idea what they were getting into, and probably ended up very confused about what they’d just seen.

This is not your typical multiplex movie, but it was given a wide release and marketing that suggested it was a relatively mainstream-style horror flick. What it really is though is an auteur-fuelled, rather experimental arthouse movie, filled with allegory and surreal, Bunuel-esque touches, but done on a big budget and starring the biggest actress in the world right now. [Read more…]

Love Is All You Need? (VoD Review)

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Three years ago the short film, Love Is All You Need, garnered a lot of attention with its role-reversal tale about a world where being homosexual is the norm, and straight people are persecuted. Now that short has been expanded into a feature-length film, bringing a few familiar faces with it, including Briana Evigan (Step Up 2), Jeremy Sisto (Clueless), Elisabeth Röhm (Law & Order), Tyler Blackburn (Pretty Little Liars) and Emily Osment (Hannah Montana).

The basic set-up is the same, taking us into a world where nearly everyone is paired up in same-sex couples, and those who fall for someone of a different gender are looked down on and vilified. Jude (Evigan) is a female football star at her high school, with a gorgeous girlfriend (Osment) and plenty of popularity. However, when she meets university fraternity pledge Ryan (Blackburn), unexpected thoughts start to emerge. As their relationship develops, Jude begins to wonder whether she’s really a ‘ro’ (a derogatory shortening of heterosexual). [Read more…]

Everest (Blu-ray Review)

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It’s climbing season in the Himalayas and Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) is planning to lead a group of adventure tourists to the summit of Mount Everest. While he keeps telling them how dangerous it is and how many people physically cannot make it, many are gung-ho to get to the top. As they make their way higher up the mountain, Rob decides it’s going to be best to team up with a rival company, led by Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), in the hope of keeping things as safe as possible.

After facing illness and other issues that prevent some of them getting to the top, a group of them make it, only to be hit by an extremely nasty storm, which threatens to ensure that none of them will make it back down again. As the team gets separated and faces ever greater threat, it becomes increasingly clear that not everyone is going to make it back alive. [Read more…]

Ted 2 – Extended Edition (Blu-ray Review)

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Even the makers of 2012’s Ted are unlikely to have expected it to gross $550 million around the world. It ensured Universal was keen to make a sequel, although it has to be said this follow-up wasn’t half as successful, taking $212 million around the world. Not a bad number but nothing like the first.

This time around Mila Kunis is nowhere to be seen, as she and Mark Wahlberg’s John Bennett have gotten a divorce, leaving him completely lacking on confidence around women. Ted meanwhile seems to be having better luck, as he’s marrying the bold and brassy Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth).

Things come unstuck though when the talking teddy and his wife decide to adopt a child, as it suddenly make the government consider his status, and they decide that legally they don’t consider him a person, so not only won’t he be getting a baby, his marriage is invalid, he can’t keep his job and he’s now classed as property. [Read more…]

The Intern (Cinema Review)

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I’ll come clean straight away, we have two problems here. In my humble opinion Nany Meyers’ The Holiday was a true low point in cinema, an absolutely wretched affair – lazy, clichéd, corny, utterly without charm and with dialled in performances. Problem 2 is the De Niro syndrome – what on earth happened to the actor who everyone agreed was the finest of his generation. Pacino has his many fans, but De Niro admirers simply mutter Raging Bull and that’s the argument won. So how has this man gone from that peak to decades, literally decades, of mediocre, middling dramas and simply unfunny comedies?

Actually there’s a third problem here, the film’s central idea, which has, in true Hollywood tradition, been done before, and very recently. It’s The Devil Wears Prada, but this time with Anne Hathaway in the Meryl Streep role, and De Niro in the junior position lately vacated by the over-promoted…Anne Hathaway! [Read more…]

Network (Blu-ray Review)

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There are plenty of contenders, but in my opinion the best scripts Hollywood has ever come up with are All About Eve and Network. Perhaps surprisingly – or unsurprisingly depending on how you look at it – they could both be accused of biting the media hand that feeds them, with All About Eve taking on Tinsel Town itself, while Network is a scathing satire of TV.

Indeed it was seen as so scathing back in 1976 that it nearly didn’t get made at all, as studio executives were worried no television station would ever air it after its theatrical run had ended. However they obviously hadn’t read the script closely enough or they’d have realised that it doesn’t matter too much what the subject is, as long as it produces ratings/profits TV will show it. [Read more…]

Guardians Of The Galaxy (Cinema Review)

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Over the last 10 years films based around the Marvel Comic Universe have dominated the box office raking in billions across the world. From Spiderman to the X-men series to the varying films that led up to The Avengers, cinemagoers can’t seem to get enough of superheroes.

So the latest addition to the never-ending stream of products is the highly anticipated Guardians Of The Galaxy which, we have been told, is like nothing we’ve seen before…but have we? [Read more…]

Love Never Dies (DVD)

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It strikes me that your appreciation for Love Never Dies may depend on your thoughts about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera, with the slightly odd thing being that the sequel may best be appreciated by those indifferent to the original. The reason for that is that those in love with Phantom will rile at the lack of the classic score and the rather different tone, while those who hate it tend to do so for reasons that have little to do with the show itself (and more to do with the sort of supposedly spectacle over substance musical entertainment it represents) and Love Never Dies will do nothing to change that. [Read more…]