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

Palace Of Fun (DVD Review) – Things get psychosexual & a little gay in Brighton

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Lily and Jamie are enjoying the fact that while it’s summer, they have their parents posh Sussex house to themselves. This idyll is disrupted when Lily brings her brand new boyfriend, Finn, into the house for the weekend.

Jamie seems uncertain about this interloper, who is gettin in the way of his time with his sister. However, when he discovers a secret about Finn, it sets off a series of events where blackmail develops into Jamie finding ways to satisfy his sexual desires and need for power. [Read more…]

How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) (US DVD Review)

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How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) was Thailand’s entry for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and it’s a shame it didn’t get a nomination, as it’s a really good movie.

Oat is an orphan, being looked after by his older brother and (to some extent) his aunt. Oat’s brother, Ek, is doing his best to ensure they have enough money to survive, but their lives are slightly precarious. Ek is also dating the much wealthier Jai, a young man who’s very different to him, but who he loves.

While Ek is trying to help Oat’s journey to manhood, their lives are thrown into turmoil when Ek gets a letter from the military telling him that it’s his turn to go into the lottery for the draft – and that if he picks wrong, he will have enter the military for two years. While Jai manoeuvres to bribe his way out of the draft, Oat has ideas of his own on how to stop his brother having to go, but they may just cause more trouble. [Read more…]

No Good Deed (DVD Review)

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Sometimes getting two really good actors to take on a rather run of the mill script can raise the whole thing to new levels. There must have been hope No Good Deed could do the same, but it doesn’t really work.

Colin (Idris Elba) is a very bad man, who police believe is a serial murderer but who they’ve only managed to lock up for manslaughter. After a parole hearing he escapes custody and heads for the house of his girlfriend, whom he promptly kills (just in case we were wondering just how bad he is). [Read more…]

Heterosexual Jill (VoD Review)

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Heterosexual Jill is the semi-sequel to Michelle Ehlen’s 2007 film Butch Jamie. That earlier film is a kind of reverse Tootsie, where actress Jamie tries to get work as a butch lesbian and ends up being cast in a male role. That leads to a liaison with Jill, who thinks Jamie is a man.

However you don’t need to have watched Butch Jamie to enjoy Heterosexual Jill. The film catches up with Jill five years on. She’s now decided that she wants to be straight and so has joined an ex-gay group in the hope of leaving thoughts of luscious ladies – and most particularly Jamie – behind. [Read more…]

Willow Creek (DVD Review)

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To some people Bobcat Goldthwait is still the strange voiced guy from Police Academy, to others he’s a cult stand-up, and to some he’s become a bit of a fascinating director. His projects have ranged from the countercultural, such as God Bless America, to the mainstream, like World’s Greatest Dad, but few expected him to have a go at a found footage horror. [Read more…]

Geography Club (US Cinema/VoD)

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Based on Brent Hartinger’s popular book, Geography Club follows high school student Russell (Cameron Deane Stewart), who’s just figuring out his sexuality but not ready to tell the world about it yet. He’s also involved in a fledgling relationship with star quarterback Kevin (Justin Deeley), although the sportsman is absolutely determined nobody will find out about it.

Russell ends up getting involved with the new Geography Club, which has nothing to do with geography. It’s actually just a boring name to stop anyone bothering them, as it’s really a secret club for LGBT teens to talk about their problems and connect. However their secrets may be difficult to keep and they may have to face whether they want to come out in the open. [Read more…]

Alan Davies: Life Is Pain (DVD)

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Much of the audience approaching this know of Alan Davies through his regular appearances on QI, in which he consistently outshines many touring comedians with his lovable quirkiness and child-like charm. Others might remember him solving creepy mysteries in Jonathan Creek. Few people know him for his stand-up comedy – partly as he hasn’t done any for quite a few years – but now he’s back to his roots with his new show, Life is Pain. [Read more…]

Rope (1948)

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Seeing as Hollywood operated under a strict moral code in the 1940s, it is no surprise that Hitchcock’s Roper isn’t an overt gay movie. Having said that though, it is undeniable that it can be watched and enjoyed by modern audiences as a movie that features two men who live together and treat each other very intimately… [Read more…]

Crawl (Blu-ray)

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A mysterious Croatian man (George Shevtsov) arrives in a small Aussie town and shoots a local garage owner. He’s done it on the orders of the seedy bar owner Slim (Paul Holmes), who wanted the mechanic dead over a business deal gone bad.

Then there’s barmaid Marilyn (Georgina Haig), who heads home to wait for the return of her boyfriend, Tristan, who she is convinced is going to propose to her (Marilyn’s obviously never been in a movie before, as talking about how you’re expecting something good to happen is pretty much a guarantee it’ll all go pear-shaped). [Read more…]

The Campaign (DVD)

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Director Jay Roach had a bit of a political 2012. He made the HBO Sarah Palin biopic Game Change and the comedy The Campaign. For my money it was the former that was the most successful.

The Campaign is the sort of movie that will divide audiences – if you don’t mind films that leave reality in the dust and find their humour in stupidity, you’ll probably like it, but if you want your films to have some sort of logic to them, you’ll probably give up about 20 minutes in. [Read more…]