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

Edge Of Tomorrow (Blu-ray Review)

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I get the feeling there was a bit of ‘I told you so’ going round in Hollywood after Edge Of Tomorrow failed to live up to financial expectations. And in true Tinsel Town fashion they decided the problem was the name. As a result it’s got a bit of a makeover for its home entertainment release, where the cover would suggest it’s called ‘Live. Die. Repeat’ – which to be honest is a much better name than the pretty much meaningless Edge Of Tomorrow.

The fact it barely cracked $100 million in the US certainly isn’t the film’s fault as it’s a great slice of big budget action, which for the first time in several years reminds us exactly why Tom Cruise is a movie star. And in an era of tentpole movies that try to outdo each other in how po-faced they can be (I’m blaming you, Christopher Nolan), it’s refreshing to find one that has a great sense of humour without being as dumb as much Hollywood fare (I’m blaming you, Michael Bay). [Read more…]

Boys (Jongens) (DVD Review)

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Although some people roll their eyes at films about young people coming to terms with their sexuality, as they perceive them as being rather old hat, there’s a reason they’re popular. In a world where the LGBT-experience can seem ever more diverse and yet homogenised at the same time, the confusion of new feelings and first same-sex love is the closest we have to a universal gay experience.

The new film Boys is a touching, poignant look at this time of life, seen through the eyes of two teenage Dutch boys. Sieger is dealing with a strict father who’s constantly butting heads with his wayward older brother. Marc meanwhile is on the cooler, more popular end of the social spectrum. [Read more…]

The Other Woman (DVD Review)

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Carly (Cameron Diaz) is a lawyer who thinks she’s found the perfect man – the handsome, romantic Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). However when she tries to surprise him at his home, she discovers he’s not there, but his wife is. While Carly is ready to just dump Mark and never see him again, his wife, Kate (Leslie Mann), isn’t about to let it lie, and soon the two team up teach him a lesson.

However neither of them is prepared for the fact that Mark has another, even younger woman that he’s dating (Kate Upton), and may also be involved in some shady dealing. Together all three women set out to take revenge. [Read more…]

Pompeii (DVD Review)

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It becomes clear fairly early on that director Paul W.S. Anderson would like Pompeii to be his Titanic – creating a movie that spends the first half building romance and intrigue before throwing a massive disaster at it, and then hoping the audience will be suitably moved. Indeed there are moments where the parallels become slightly overbearing.

However what Anderson seems to have forgotten is that he’s the director of Alien Vs. Predator, Death Race, The Three Musketeers and Soldier, all of which have had great ambition and plenty of good ideas but got crushed under his rather cack-handed and condescending approach to filmmaking. [Read more…]

Ballet Boys (Cinema Review)

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Back in 2000, Billy Elliott showed us that despite preconceptions, there’s nothing wrong with being a boy who wants to do ballet. However what’s it actually like if you’re a teenage boy who’s devoted themselves to an artform that many consider to be just ‘for girls’?

The Norwegian documentary Ballet Boys tries to find out, following Lukas, Syvert and Torgeir, who are all in the same class together at a ballet school, where they’re the boys amongst a sea of girls. To be honest, while early on the documentary asks questions about why the boys want to do ballet, it quickly realises there’s no better reason than ‘why not?’ After all like anything else, once you realise you have a talent, it’s no surprise you’d want to pursue it. However there are undoubtedly reasons to stop, not least the time, passion and dedication needed, especially knowing that there are no guarantees of a successful dancing career at the end of it. [Read more…]

Victim (1961) (Blu-ray Review)

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Although Victim wasn’t the first LGBT-themed movie ever made (underground efforts and plenty of films that dealt with it through allegory came first) it still holds a special place in the history of gay cinema. For a start it’s believed to be the first mainstream English-language movie to use the word ‘homosexual’, as well as the first to explicitly make gay men (including the main character) its main subject and to show them in a sympathetic light.

It came at a time in Britain when there was a fair amount of debate over homosexuality (or at least more than there’d ever been before). In 1957 the Wolfenden Report – a commission set up to look at the laws surrounding homosexuality in the wake of a series of prosecutions against high-profile  people purely for having engaged in gay sex – recommended that “homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence”. This wasn’t just because they thought that prosecuting people for what they do in the privacy of their own homes was pointless, but because there was a large problem with gay people being blackmailed over their sexuality. Some estimates say up to 90% of blackmail cases at the time involved homosexuality in one way or another. [Read more…]

Transcendence (Blu-ray Review)

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It’s always a shame when a movie that wants to be a genuinely intelligent slice of a-list entertainment fails. If one succeeds, Hollywood always treats it like a fluke, but if it bombs they point at it as proof that all that audiences want are big, dumb fireworks. What’s a particular pity with Transcendence is that it would probably have been better as a slightly smaller film.

Johnny Depp plays Will Caster, a scientist working on artificial intelligence who believes he’s close to creating a machine that will vastly outstrip any human intellect there’s ever been. However as there always is in this type of film, a group of terrorist-type people don’t believe in this type of machine and launch a series of attacks on facilities working on AI systems. That includes shooting Will with a bullet that doesn’t initially kill him, but is poisoned with a radioactive isotope that will cause him to die over the course of a few weeks. [Read more…]

Goddess (DVD Review)

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Elspeth (Laura Michelle Kelly) is a young mother who’s been transplanted along with her family from the UK to rural Australia. However it’s not proving the idyll she’d hoped, as with her husband James (Ronan Keating) constantly away at sea she’s having to raise young twins alone. She doesn’t even have any friends.

When James gives her a webcam to help them keep in touch, she decides to let the world into her kitchen with a webcast where she sings ‘sink songs’. The idea becomes popular and soon catches the eye of a Sydney marketing whizz (Magda Szubanski), who wants to make Elspeth a star. However as she gets caught up in a whirlwind of possible fame, she risks losing her family. [Read more…]

The Legend Of Hercules (DVD Review)

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The Legend Of Hercules is less a movie than a collection of other films and TV series that have been dissected and then stitched back together to make something new (sort of). Fans of Greek mythology probably won’t be that impressed either, as while it takes little bits of the legends it creates its own story to turn it into a kind of superhero origin story.

The tyrannical King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) is renowned as the most fearsome warrior around, who no one can beat in battle. His wife, Alcmene (Roxanne McKee), is told by a messenger of Hera that she will have a son by Zeus –who will be called Hercules – and whose destiny is to restore peace to the land. Amphitryon isn’t impressed by this new addition to the family, who he decides will be called Alcides, and is never shy about telling him he’s not as good as older brother Iphicles (Liam Garrigan). [Read more…]

Noah (Blu-ray Review)

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For years Darren Aronofsky tried to get his epic version of Noah off the ground, but it never seemed likely to really happen. His only previous foray into big budget filmmaking, The Fountain, turned into a bit of a disaster, with only part of the movie actually made (due to studio intervention) and what was left being confusing and making little money at the box office.

However after the success of Black Swan and with biblical epics looking like they might be coming back into fashion, Paramount decided to take a punt on the movie. However this is Darren Aronofsky, the man behind the likes of Requiem For A Dream and Pi, so it was always clear this wasn’t going to be your typical $125 million studio movie. That said, it appears even Paramount was surprised by how strange and intense it turned out. After viewing Darren’s preferred version they made their own, more traditional cut, but it turned out audiences liked Aronofsky’s take better and so that’s what we have. [Read more…]