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

X-Men: Apocalypse (Cinema Review)

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I’ve been a big fan of the X-Men ever since watching the Saturday morning cartoons many years ago, and I have been waiting for the films to introduce Apocalypse and do justice to one of his storylines. X-Men (2000) is seen as the birth of the modern comic book movie and still holds up today as a great film. Seven franchise entries later (excluding Deadpool (2016)) and it’s no surprise that the films have varied in quality.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) was great as it combined the worlds of the original trilogy and the X-Men: First Class (2011), with older and younger actors portraying different versions of their characters and a time traveling plot with peril for both mutants and humans. But it did lose me with the plastic sentinels with plastic bullets, and presumably plastic processors and wires. Also the ending didn’t make much sense, until you realised that it combined two separate timelines and ended up with four. [Read more…]

Avengers Assemble (Blu-ray)

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We all remember the Battle Of New York, when Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow got together to fight off extra-terrestrial terrors coming through a wormhole, due to a plot by Loki. This documentary looks at what led up to that battle.

Well, okay, I’m sure you’re aware this isn’t a documentary, as we’re in a world sadly lacking in superpowered heroes (although the lack of alien terror-mongers is a bit of a plus), but as audiences proved earlier this summer, we do love to escape to a comic book world. Avengers Assemble is only the third film ever to gross more than $1.5 billion (and the first not directed by James Cameron). It’s an astonishing success, particularly as the movie made more than twice as much as any of the movies that led up to it (Iron Man 2 was the biggest previous Marvel produced movie, taking $623 million). [Read more…]

The Hunger Games – The Unseen Version (Blu-ray)

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In the early days of DVD, studios went to great trouble putting together really good packages, with feature-length documentaries, plenty of featurettes and various other bits and pieces to please film fans. These releases are becoming increasingly rare, with even major mega-budget blockbusters often getting paltry extras that are only there because they’re expected and give the marketers something to write on the back of the box. It’s nice then that The Hunger Games gets a two-disc Blu-ray release with around three hours of features, including an extremely good 122 minute ‘making of’ documentary. [Read more…]

Cloclo (DVD)

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I think Cloclo is gonna be a tough sell for a lot of people. It’s one thing watching a biopic of a famous face of yesteryear, but it’s another get people to watch a movie about a French guy they’ve probably never heard of, whose main claim to fame outside France is that he co-wrote the original version of Sinatra’s My Way. It doesn’t help either that he was a bit of an asshole.

However despite the fact I can’t imagine too many people picking this out as their preferred viewing option, it’s not a bad movie. Jérémie Renier plays Claude Francois – aka Cloclo – who was born in Egypt to a French family, but during the Suez crisis is forced to leave along with his family. Back in Europe he yearns to make music, even though his father disapproves. [Read more…]