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

Michael McIntyre – Showtime (DVD)

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The man who’s often been described as the Southern, middle-class version of Peter Kay is back with another dose of observational humour that takes everyday life to the extreme. Well, most of it is about everyday life, although creeping in is the curse of successful comics, which is that the more famous they get, the more their life diverges from most other people’s. While it’s something that’s destroyed some comics’ career as they lose the ability to connect with their audience’s shared experience of the world, McIntyre is still very funny. [Read more…]

Sarah Millican – Thoroughly Modern Millican (DVD)

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Sarah Millican is proof that if you dream of being a comedian, you don’t need to be like Jack Whitehall and Daniel Sloss, who came out of the womb with a microphone in their hand. Millican was 33 before she had her first Edinburgh Fringe show, which won the if.comedy award in 2008. Since then she’s had a quick rise to stardom, including national solo tours, numerous panel show appearances, her own TV series and now her second live DVD, Thoroughly Modern Millican. [Read more…]

Stitches (Cinema)

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Clowns have a had a lot of bad press as far as the cinema and TV is concerned. Coulrophobia (an irrational fear of clowns) has obviously been fuelled over the years by the likes of Pennywise from Stephen Kings It, John Wayne Gacy (notorious serial killer) and the clown from Poltergeist. And let’s not forget Ronald McDonald – that one puts a shiver down my spine! The image of a clown has been somewhat tarnished over the years and Stitches does nothing to help improve that image – Max Clifford anyone???

So back to Stitches. Comedy and horror is a hybrid genre that generally does not work for me. Yes, there have been a few classics over the years such as Braindead and Shaun of the Dead, but the bulk of these films fail miserably as they try and fuse two opposing senses – fear and fun – together in often disastrous ways. [Read more…]

Chernobyl Diaries (DVD)

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The Chernobyl disaster happened back in 1986 and conspiracy theories surrounding the incident and the aftermath have been rife ever since. The surprising part about this is why a film such as this has never been made before.

Chernobyl Diaries follows a group of travellers as they venture into the land of extreme tourism, heading to the city abandoned and devastated by the disaster. Written by Oren Peli, who terrified most of the world with Paranormal Activity, you can’t help but feel a little let down by this film as it try’s to recreate what happened with the first Paranormal Activity film, but in the process becomes a typical mass of clichés. [Read more…]

Victim (2012) (DVD)

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Sometimes it’s difficult not to feel slightly sad at the end of a film when you know that with a slightly bigger budget and some expert help and guidance on the script and direction, it could have been something really, really good. Unfortunately while the guts of something smart, entertaining and sharp is present in in the urban thriller Victim, it’s all a little underbaked and doesn’t quite hit the spot.

Young woman Tia’s (Ashley Madekwe’s) father has done well for himself and managed to get off the mean street of London, but she heads into the urban sprawl to live with her cousin, Davina. Tia meets Tyson (Ashley Chin), a young man who’s gotten involved in crime due to desperate family circumstances. He’s trying to keep things afloat as he attempts to ensure his smart younger sister get the education she deserves and deals with his mother’s massive gambling debts. As Tia and Tyson’s relationship develops, he attempts to break away from the cycle of crime and violence he seems to be trapped in. However escaping isn’t all that easy, leading to a crime that brings things a little too close to home. [Read more…]

Four More Years (DVD)

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Political leader David Holst (Bjorn Kjellman) believes he’s on the verge of becoming Sweden’s Prime Minister, but when thing go slightly wrong at the polls and his coalition can’t quite get enough seats to make him the head of country, he’s thrown into a bit of a funk. The setback at the polls causes him to re-evaluate his life, his outlook and his political future.

He then meets Martin (Eric Ericson), a man actively involved on the other side of the political spectrum, but who he feels a connection to. After a night of drink and discussion about the best direction for Sweden, Martin kisses David, and while the latter doesn’t think he’s gay, he doesn’t resist either. As David comes to a new realisation about his sexuality, he only sees obstacles ahead, not least his marriage and the reaction of his political backers. Can Martin and David’s romance withstand this? [Read more…]

Hijacked (Blu-ray)

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Making any film is an achievement. It’s something that nearly always happens against the odds, with people having to make a gargantuan effort just to get something in the can. However there are undoubtedly movies where you can’t help but feel it would have been better if they’d just invested the budget in the stock market rather than using it to make a film, and saved everyone a whole lot of trouble. Sadly Hijacked is one of those movies.

Paul Ross (Randy Couture) is a burly guy who’s determined to take down a mysterious criminal/terrorist organisation called The Tribe, which funds itself through drugs and illegal arms dealings. He becomes even more single-minded in destroying them after a set-up leaves many of his colleagues dead.  Ross learns that The Tribe’s next target may be one of the world’s richest men, Bruce Lieb (Craig Fairbrass), which leads him the magnate’s private jumbo jet. The plane is hijacked by the terrorists mid-flight, with Ross determined to get revenge, protect his ex-girlfriend (who conveniently is also on the flight), and find out who’s really behind The Tribe. But exactly who can he trust? [Read more…]

Spork (DVD)

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Spork is named after the title character, who goes by that name due to her brother’s cruel teasing about the fact she was born a hermaphrodite. She’s frizzy-haired and perennially put upon by her classmates, who like nothing better than bullying her loner nature and intersex biology.

With a school dance-off coming up, Spork decides to enter and prove she’s more than just a loser. With the help of her trailer park neighbour, Tootsie Roll, she starts learning how to bust some moves, and also attracts the attention of young Charlie. However the bitchy, popular, mean girls aren’t about to allow Spork to upstage them and so they launch a campaign to bring her down in the cruellest way possible. [Read more…]

Because Of A Boy (You’ll Get Over It) (DVD)

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Vincent (Julien Baumgartner) is a French teenager who’s fairly popular in his school and a member of the swim team. However he’s also secretly coming to terms with being gay, despite the fact he has a girlfriend. When new boy Benjamin (Jeremie Elkaim) turns up, who has a bit of a reputation as a bad boy, Vincent is soon attracted to him. After Vincent’s attempt to kiss Benjamin turns sour, the new boy inadvertently lets Vincent’s secret out.

The teen turns up to school to find graffiti calling him a ‘fag’ scrawled next to his locker and plenty of people ready to laugh and try to intimidate in. As his outing spreads from school to his family, Vincent must face a lot of prejudice, but also begins to realise that maybe not everything about being open about your sexuality is a bad thing. [Read more…]

Like Crazy (DVD)

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Ah, young love. Like Crazy is the sort of film that will either have you reach for the sick bucket, or get you blubbing in the first 10 minutes due to the aching love on display. Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones are Jacob and Anna, who meet at an LA university while the British Anna is in the US on a student visa.

Falling deeply in love, Anna overstays the limit of her Visa and discovers that after she pops back to the UK for a short visit, she’s now banned from going back to the States. Their passion still burns, but with both of them building lives for themselves in different parts of the world and Jacob unable or unwilling to move to Britain, keeping their relationship going becomes increasingly difficult. They eventually try to take decisive action to get her into the US, but will it work? [Read more…]