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

Gambit (Blu-ray)

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Harry Dean (Colin Firth) is a seemingly dithering art expert working for the cold, abusive Lionel Shahbandar (Alan Rickman). He has a plan to get back at his boss, which involves a lost Monet masterpiece. He gets the Major (Tom Courtney) to paint a duplicate, and schemes to get Lionel to believe that it’s real, but was taken to the US after World War II and since then has been in the possession of a Texan family. [Read more…]

People Like Us (DVD)

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Alex Kurtzman is best known for writing (alongside Roberto Orci) Mission: Impossible III, the Transformers movies, Star Trek and Cowboys & Aliens. You might expect then that for his first directorial outing he’d go for something bombastic and action-packed, but instead he’s dusted off an old screenplay he wrote with Orci and Jody Lambert, which is far more character drama than action spectacular. [Read more…]

Blandings (DVD)

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While Britain loves to make period dramas, period comedies are a much rarer beast, but we’ve got one with Blandings, based on P.G. Wodehouse’s numerous book and short stories set at Blandings Castle. The series pulls together some great comic talent, such as Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders and Mark Williams for six 30-minute episodes of entertaining silliness.

Spall is Lord Clarence Emsworth, a rather bumbling fellow who’s more interested in his prize pig than being what’s expected of the landed gentry and master of a stately pile. His rather loose, haphazard style endlessly frustrates his sister, Lady Connie (Jennifer Saunders), who’s constantly trying to bring some order and gentility to the castle, and rarely succeeding. [Read more…]

Antique Bakery (DVD)

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Sometimes you see a film, the popularity of which defeats you – Antique Bakery (2008) is one such movie. That’s not to say that this smash hit from Korea (based on the bestselling manga series of the same name), directed by Min Kyu-dong (Five Senses of Eros (2005) and All About My Wife (2012)), and featuring Korean stars Ju Ji-hun, Kim Jae-wook and Yu Ain, isn’t fun. It’s more that, like the cakes which are served in the bakery, there isn’t a lot of substance beneath its sugary sweet coating. [Read more…]

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (DVD)

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Starting high school can be tough for anyone, but Charlie (Logan Lerman) has more on his plate than most. He’s recently out of the hospital after suffering from mental health problems, he’s still reeling from his best friend’s suicide and when he turns up at school, even the few people he does know ignore him.

Despite being quiet and generally keeping to himself, he manages to befriend seniors Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson), who introduce him to their group of friends. Charlie starts to open up, has his first relationship and begins to fall for Sam, allowing him to put his issues to one side. However as teen traumas inevitably arise and his friends get closer to leaving school, he faces losing the support network he’s built and may have to actually deal with his problems. [Read more…]

Darling Companion (DVD)

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Darling Companion ought to have been really good. It’s the first film in seven years from Lawrence Kasdan, writer of Raider Of The Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back, and director of The Big Chill and Wyatt Earp. It also has a cast to die for, including Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass.

However it’s about a dog that goes missing and then they all look for it – and that’s about it. Well, technically they realise there that they can’t ignore the problems in their relationships and they have to work on mending it, but mainly it’s about the dog. [Read more…]

Stanley Kubrick’s Fear And Desire (Blu-ray)

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The early works of great filmmakers often get a home entertainment release purely because of the name attached to it rather than because they’re great movies. However it’s taken until 2013 to get Stanley Kubrick’s Fear & Desire a release, which is largely because the director himself spent a fair amount of time trying to supress it.

After he became a major name, Kubrick didn’t really want it seen, and indeed for a while it was thought that all prints had been lost. However an archive print kept by Kodak was held at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, which has since been supplemented by the original negative, which was discovered in Costa Rica and is now in the US Library Of Congress (it’s this print the new Blu-ray is taken from). [Read more…]

Now Is Good (DVD)

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Making a movie about someone who’s dying is a tricky business. On one level it’s a subject that involves inherent drama, but equally you don’t want to make something that sounds like such a downer no one will want to watch it. Likewise, you want people to get emotionally involved, but you don’t want it to be so emotionally manipulative and sentimental that people are nauseated rather than moved.

It’s a balance Now Is Good is constantly trying to work out, succeeding better at some times than others. [Read more…]

Searching For Sugar Man (DVD)

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Searching for Sugar Man takes the unsuspecting viewer on an amazing journey of how a career that almost never was makes a remarkable comeback.

The documentary tells the story of Rodriguez, who after a brief stint in the music industry 40 years ago disappeared after failing to set the charts alight. However the story was quite different in South Africa as this mysterious musician, who many describe as anti-establishment, helped inspire and motivate a generation and in turn helped to aid a revolution. [Read more…]

Total Recall (2012) (Blu-ray)

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Len Wiseman was always going to face an uphill battle remaking Total Recall, as the moment the film was announced legions of fans of the 1990 Arnie movie rose up to denounce the very idea of a do-over. They quickly decided the entire thing would be a disaster, a feeling that deepened when it was announced Len Wiseman would direct (the naysayers concentrated on the fact he made the Underworld movies, not that he did a pretty good with Die Hard 4.0). On the plus side though, it did mean that all Wiseman had to do to beat many people’s expectations was produce a movie that wasn’t awful, and he’s just about managed to do that. [Read more…]