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

It (DVD Review) – Pennywise is back and scarier than ever

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I think it’s fair to say that after it had been in development for years, not many people held out much hope for the new version of Stephen King’s It. That’s especially true as after a number of interesting directors had been attached, the job eventually went to Andy Muschietti, whose only previous feature credit was the underwhelming Mama.

However, it not only turned out to be a really good movie, but also a bit of a record-breaker at the box office. It scored the biggest ever September opening in the US, and ended up with the highest gross ever for an R-rated horror movie. [Read more…]

Heartstone (Cinema Review) – Gay and straight teens come of age in remote Iceland

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The Icelandic movie Heartstone arrives in the UK fresh from a very successful festival run, where it impressed audiences and picked up over 30 awards. That’s not bad for a movie from a country with a population of just 332,000 people. That’s about the same as the city of Coventry. Despite its size, it has a surprisingly thriving film industry, to the point where a large chunk of the population must spend at least part of their time making movies – and surprisingly good ones.

The film follows a group of teenagers in a remote fishing community. It’s a place where they’re left to their own devices a lot of the time, as parents are either absent or ill-equipped for their role in shaping young minds. The focus is Thor (Þór – Baldur Einarsson), who’s on the point where he’s frustrated his body is developing as fast as some of his friends, but he’s certainly becoming more interested in girls. His best friend is Christian (Kristján – Blær Hinriksson), with the two of them pretty much inseparable. [Read more…]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (Cinema Review) – Jack Sparrow is back!

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To be honest I enjoy sequels and franchises as long as they keep up the standard and improve upon previous entries, which sadly often isn’t the case. I have reviewed countless sequels over the years and with this review I don’t want to regurgitate what I have previously written about franchises, and I will try to keep this to a minimum with this review as I don’t want to go over old ground; but rather tread new waters (pun fully intended).

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a pleasant surprise to a lot of people when it came out in 2003. Many asked how could a film based on an old amusement park ride have such an effect on audiences around the world, and the answer is because it was fun. Cutthroat Island (1995) was a well-documented bomb at the box office and it was a risky move for Disney to release the first Pirates film, but it paid off both financially and critically. [Read more…]

Beauty & The Beast (IMAX Review) – Is there something gay there that wasn’t there before?

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If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. That seems to have been the watchword with Beauty & The Beast. While there has been some tinkering around the edges of the 1991 animated classic to give everyone a bit more of a backstory, and to slightly soften some of the creepier Stockholm Syndrome elements, largely this live-action version is incredibly faithful. That goes as far as parts of the film being pretty much a shot-for-shot remake.

Inevitably, this will have some crying foul, seeing this as a cynical attempt by Disney to churn out another money-grabbing live-action take on one of their best films. Well, the fact is – yes, it is. But do you know what? I don’t care. [Read more…]

Now You See Me 2 (Blu-ray Review)

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2013’s Now You See Me proved a far bigger hit than most people expected, which has ensured we’ve now got a follow-up. After their Robin Hood exploits in the first movie, illusionists The Horsemen have been in hiding, waiting for ‘The Eye’ to tell them what they should do next. They also have a new member, with Lizzy Caplan’s Lula joining Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack (Dave Franco) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson), along with their leader, FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo).

They get an assignment to take down someone who’s destroying personal privacy, but their comeback goes wrong when they’re hacked, kidnapped and taken to Macau, China. There they meet Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), who tells them that it was largely his money they stole in the first movie, and that they now have to do his bidding if they want to live. [Read more…]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Blu-ray)

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All the way through 2010’s Sherlock Holmes, a shadowy figure lurked in the background who seemed to have a finger in every pie and used the mayhem Sherlock was involved with to his own ends.  In A Game Of Shadows that figure steps forward, with Jared Harris as Professor James Moriarty, who is Sherlock’s intellectual equal, even if he uses his brains for very different ends.

A series of explosions is rocking Europe and threaten to destabilise the already tenuous peace between the nations, with war a very real possibility. As you’d expect, Sherlock is soon deep in this conspiracy and has very quickly worked out that Moriarty is involved. However it’s not enough to know who’s behind it, as there’s no tangible evidence. As a result Holmes must investigate and work out Moriarty’s end game in order to stop the villain. [Read more…]

Faces (Blu-ray/DVD)

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If Steve Buscemi says Faces is his favourite movie, do you need any more reason to watch it? It is a great film that’s undoubtedly the best of John Cassavetes’ directorial outings and one of the most piercing movies about mid-life crises ever made.

Richard (John Marley) is an aging man who feels trapped by his safe but dull marriage. While he can still have fun with his wife, everything else seems more fun and interesting than his domestic existence and so he leaves her, asking for a divorce. He wants to start a relationship with a younger woman called Jeannie (Gena Rowlands), although it’s not clear how interested she is. Richard’s wife, Maria, gets seduced by playboy Chet and embarks on a new relationship of her own. [Read more…]

Wuthering Heights (Blu-ray)

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When this new version of Wuthering Heights was announced, it seemed like it was going to be a relatively straightforward period drama. Natalie Portman, Abbie Cornish and Gemma Arterton were cast as Cathy at various points, while Michael Fassbender and Ed Westwick could have been Heathcliff. However the comparatively traditional directors John Maybury (The Edge Of Love) and Peter Webber (Girl With A Pearl Earring) came and went from the production, and from the moment Andrea Arnold was hired following their departure, it was clear this was going to be something rather different to what had been expected. [Read more…]