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

Walk A Mile In My Pradas (DVD)

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One of the themes that seems to be emerging in populist gay cinema at the moment is doing LGBT versions of stories that mainstream movies have played with numerous times before. For example a couple of months ago we had a gay Christmas Carol with Scrooge & Marley, and now the Freaky Friday body swap film that gets a homo spin – although this time it’s a sexuality swap.

Tony (Nathaniel Marston) is a macho construction worker who’s preparing to marry his girlfriend. His latest job puts him under the supervision of the openly gay Steve, which brings Tony’s homophobic tendencies bubbling to the surface, culminating in a row at a Christmas party. They accidentally cast a festive wish on one another in front a magical Christmas angel which results in Tony becoming gay and Steve turning straight. [Read more…]

Happy Happy (Cinema)

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I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who guessed that a European movie called Happy Happy wasn’t going to be as jolly as the title suggests. However Anne Sewitsky’s Norwegian movie won prizes at Sundance and was its country’s official entry for last year’s Academy Awards, so it’s certainly got some pedigree.

Kaja and Eirik are a couple who live in the countryside and have been together for years. While they put up a front of happiness and Kaja seems to have accepted her lot, their world is shaken up when a cosmopolitan new couple move in next door, along with their African adopted son, Noa. Kaja looks at them and see what appears to be the perfect marriage, which is far from what she has to deal with. However at a dinner party she discovers that things between Elisabeth and Sigve are actually strained, but she still wants what they have and ends up having a sexual encounter with Sigve. [Read more…]

Call Me Kuchu (Cinema)

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If you’re gay, there’s probably no movie you can watch this Halloween season that will scare you more than Call Me Kuchu, a documentary about life in the Ugandan LGBT community, focussing on activist David Kato. Whilst we in the West still have issues with homophobia and need to fight for things like marriage equality, in Uganda the debate isn’t even about whether gay sex should be legalised, it’s about whether homosexuals should be allowed to live. [Read more…]

Storage 24 (Blu-ray)

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Sometimes simple set-ups are the best, and sometimes they don’t live up to the promise. Sadly the latter is true of Storage 24.

An ordinary afternoon turns extraordinary when a plane crashes in the centre of London. Charlie (Noel Clarke) and Mark (Colin O’Donoghue) are on their way to a storage centre, so Charlie can pick up some stuff following a bitter break-up with his girlfriend. When they arrive, the crash has caused issues with the centre’s security, which results in them being trapped inside until the technician can reopen the shutters. Charlie thinks things have gotten about as bad as they can be when he finds his ex and a couple of her friends are already in the storage container, but the plane crash has also left something inside the facility with them – and it’s big, bad, alien and incredibly vicious. [Read more…]

Cockneys Vs. Zombies (Blu-ray)

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To follow the imaginatively titled films such as Zombie Strippers and Aliens Vs Predators, yes the title says it all, it’s exactly what it says on the tin! It This film delivers us mad flesh eating zombies and some right Cockney geezers (and girls).

After the huge success of Shaun Of The Dead, we haven’t had a good fusion of comedy and horror, instead getting lacklustre films such as The Cottage and Burke and Hare. [Read more…]

Late September (DVD)

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Late September isn’t your usual movie. Made on a microbudget, the film was completely improvised by the actors on set (based on an outline from the director), using long takes with little editing. To be honest, for about the first 20 minutes, I didn’t hold out much hope for the film. The beginning suffers the curse of many attempts at improvisation, where the actors are so busy trying to get across the information they need to – while also appearing natural – that the whole thing comes across faker than if they’d just followed a script. [Read more…]

The Assault (Blu-ray)

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Personally I blame Paul Greengrass. Ever since his Bourne movies, action filmmakers have been falling over themselves to have the movie that looks most like the cameraman is having a seizure. And I know it may make me sound like a cretin, but shaky-cam is particularly problematic for foreign language films. When watching The Assault, trying to read the subtitles while the picture in the background is wobbling all over the place, really does make your eyes go funny.

The film is based on the true story of the 1994 hijacking of an Air France plane in Algeria by hardcore, anti-French Islamists, involved in the country’s civil war. Before the plane takes off, four men take control of the vehicle, leading to a tense stand-off on the tarmac.  The hijackers demand to be allowed to take off for Paris, killing passengers in an attempt to get their ultimatums granted. [Read more…]

Comes A Bright Day (DVD)

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Director Simon Aboud (who’s Paul McCartney’s son-in-law, no less) assembles a good, small cast for the Comes A Bright Day, including Submarine’s Craig Roberts, 28 Weeks Later’s Imogen Poots, Grey’s Anatomy’s Kevin McKidd and the always excellent Timothy Spall. Roberts plays a young Sam, who bigs himself up when he meets a pretty girl called Mary (Poots) who assumes he’s rich because of the watch he’s wearing. He heads to the upmarket jewellery store where she works to ask her out, just in time for a pair of armed robbers to turn up.

The store’s owner (Spall) trips the alarm, and soon he and the two young people are being held hostage by the sociopathic Cameron (McKidd) and his nervous young accomplice Clegg (Josef Atlin). As the robbers try to negotiate with the police and find a way out, the danger inside the shop increases, with Cameron always on the edge of going loco and killing somebody. As Mary begins to discover Sam has been lying to her about his job and wealth, his position becomes even more dangerous when she begins to think he may be in on the robbery. [Read more…]

One For The Money (DVD)

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Katherine Heigl’s name is becoming increasingly synonymous with slightly underpar movies. It’s a great shame as she’s actually a very good actress. Her work in Grey’s Anatomy was incredibly strong, winning her an Emmy, and it was due to this and Knocked Up that it looked like she’d have a strong movie career. However the likes of The Ugly Truth, Killers and now One For The Money suggest she’s either not very good at picking projects, or she’s only being offered second string flicks.

To be honest, you can understand why she’d think One For The Money would be a good idea. It’s based on Janet Evanovich’s incredibly popular Stephanie Plum novels and was obviously set up in the hope of creating a franchise. Unfortunately the end result is limp, rather silly and while not actively bad, doesn’t have much that’s truly good about it. [Read more…]

The Lost Colony (DVD)

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke has been intriguing people for centuries. One of the first attempts to create a permanent European settlement in North America, a group of Brits established a colony in Virginia in 1585. The new governor then headed back to England to get supplies, and when he returned three years later (having been delayed by war) the settlement was abandoned and there was no sign of what had happened to the people.

There have been all sorts of suggestions as to what happened at Roanoke in the 1580s, from the Europeans integrating with the local Indians to the Spanish killing everyone to hardship causing the settlers to try and sail back to England, but sinking on the way. However The Lost Colony has a new idea – they were attacked by wraiths that are trapped between this world and the next, and who want baby Virginia Dare, the first white person known to have been born in the Americas. [Read more…]