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

Equals (DVD Review)

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Following a devastating war that has destroyed most of the Earth’s habitable surface, one of two remaining populations now lives in a sterile world, having completely suppressed and eradicated their emotions. However, sometimes the methods used to rid them of their primitive urges don’t work, and people end up with ‘Switched On Syndrome’, where their emotions begin to rise.

Silas (Nicholas Hoult) discovers that he is ‘infected’, and that he will eventually reach Stage 3, where he’ll be carted off and given a ‘death scenario’. He starts to fall for co-worker Nia (Kristen Stewart), who he discovers also has the ‘disease’ but is hiding it. They know that if their relationship is discovered there will be serious repercussions, but they cannot help but fall deeper in love. [Read more…]

A Hologram For The King (Blu-ray Review)

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Alan (Tom Hanks) is a middle-aged businessman whose life isn’t turning out how he planned. His boss doesn’t think he’s particularly good at his job, he’s divorced, and feels a bit of a failure towards his daughter as his debt means he can’t afford to pay her college tuition fees. However, he now has a new opportunity, heading off to Saudi Arabia to give a presentation about a holographic IT system to the King.

He expects to be a stranger in a strange land, but finds that in some ways things are more similar that he expected, while in others they’re more strange. He gets into a bit of a Waiting For Godot situation where he spends much of his time being palmed off and ignored as he waits for the arrival on the King, who may never turn up. He also discovers the massive city his company is hoping to get the IT contract for, is nothing but a welcome centre in the desert, waiting for other building to come along. [Read more…]

Liebmann (DVD Review)

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Antek Liebmann leaves his home in Germany and rents a cottage in an idyllic French town. While he seems to have a few problems, he begins build a new life for himself, befriending a local woman, starting a relationship with a cute local guy and getting a job at an antique/second-hand shop. However, he has trouble sleeping and freaks out when he hears a hunter’s gunshot in the woods. Then a visit from a friend from Germany reveals why he left his old life behind and why he’s so troubled.

In cinema, there’s a fine line between someone seeming intriguingly troubled, and someone who just comes across as boring. And that’s where Liebmann’s problems lie. While there are periodic hints as to the fact there’s mystery around why Antek is the way he is, for much of the time it could just as easily be the problem that he’s slightly rude and dull. Too often the films tips from broodingly attempting to keep to us hooked to find out more about the main character, and just making him seem pretty tedious. Add in some slightly jarring moments of pretentious artsiness and a sequence of whimsy that seems to fall out of nowhere, and it’s a film that definitely tries hard, but will test many people’s patience. [Read more…]

Boy Meets Girl – Series 2 (DVD Review)

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Boy Meets Girl broke new ground last year as the first British sitcom with a transgender lead character, played by a transgender actress. It quickly showed that it was more than just a bit of token inclusivity by the BBC, with its witty and warm look at the blossoming love between 20-something Leo (Harry Hepple) and 39-year-old Judy (Rebecca Root).

Now it’s back for a second season, with six more episodes following Leo, Judy and their eccentric families. In the first episode, Leo decides it’s time to up the ante by proposing to Judy, with the rest of the series covering the run-up to their wedding. As well as plenty of worry about venues and whether Harry’s mother, Pam (Denise Welch), is being too pushy, there are quite a few other issues to deal with. [Read more…]

The Huntsman: Winter’s War (Blu-ray Review)

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The Huntsman: Winter’s War was always going to have an uphill struggle with critics. Most of them didn’t particularly like the first film, Snow White And The Huntsman, and it was very difficult to see the point of making a follow-up. When Winter’s War arrived, it turned out not that many other people could see the point either, as it didn’t exactly set fire to the box office.

That’s almost a shame though, as the rubbish-ness of the first film is undoubtedly a drag on this movie and something it attempts to get around with only partial success. If this was standalone film without that millstone, and if a few structural issues were sorted out, it would have gotten a much reception. [Read more…]

Sing Street (Blu-ray Review)

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John Carney had great success with the Oscar-winning Once, but his follow-up, Begin Again, wasn’t so well received. However, he’s back on top with Sing Street, a great, Irish coming-of-age flick, which like his earlier movies is infused throughout with music.

Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is surprised when he’s pulled out of his private school and sent to a local Catholic school, which he soon discovers is more like a containment zone for out of control kids than an educational establishment, not helped by the fact it’s run by an overgrown bully. After the culture shock settles, Conor decides to do what many before him have done to attempt to impress a girl he’s met – start a band. [Read more…]

Supergirl – Season 1 (Blu-ray Review)

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DC Comics may be having a slightly bumpy ride building a cinematic comic book universe, but it’s certainly having plenty of success on the small screen. Arrow was joined by The Flash, which last season was joined by Supergirl and Legends Of Tomorrow, all taking place within the same universe (and there’s also Gotham slightly off to one side).

As you may have noticed, Supergirl is the first of those that has centred around a female hero. She’s a character that hasn’t had much luck on the screen before, partly because there’s previously been a tendency to treat her like the pretty damsel in distress, even though she’s got lots of superpowers. This new series tries to reverse that, and early on spends a bit of time commenting on the potential sexist problems, from that fact she’s a Super ‘girl’ rather than ‘woman’, to journalists asking her whether she’s going to start a family. [Read more…]

10 Cloverfield Lane (DVD Review)

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Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is having a bad time. She’s just left her fiancé and is heading away from their apartment when she gets run off the road by another vehicle. Things get even worse when she wakes up to find she’s now locked in a concrete room with no windows, chained to the wall. She discovers Howard (John Goodman) has brought her into this underground bunker.

He says the world has been attacked, pretty much everyone except him and another survivor in the bunker, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), is dead, and the air outside is toxic. He says that she would be dead too if he hadn’t saved her. Michelle is understandably suspicious that Howard’s actually a madman who’s kidnapped her and is lying. As the trio start to live together in the bunker, Michelle begins to wonder whether, even if the outside is toxic, it’s actually a safer place to be than underground with the temperamental and possibly unhinged Howard. [Read more…]

Allegiant (Blu-ray Review)

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Poor old Divergent. Things started off well at the box office with the first movie, which helped Lionsgate decide they should expand their plans and turn the three books into four films. However, the second movie was slightly muted at the box office, and this one didn’t do well at all.

In Allegiant, Tris (Shailene Woodley) has opened the box, which suggests the city and its factions are part of an experiment, and that despite what they’ve been told, there is more to the world outside Chicago’s walls. Once out (despite many trying to stop them), Tris, Four (Theo James), her brother (Ansel Elgort) and Peter (Miles Teller), meet David (Jeff Daniels), the director of the experiment. He says they have been using Chicago and the factions to eventually find somebody genetically pure – the other people are defective – and that Tris may be that person. [Read more…]

Jenny’s Wedding (DVD Review)

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Jenny (Katherine Heigl) has been with Kitty (Alexis Bledl) for five years, and now she wants to get married and start a family. However, she’s never told her family she’s gay. Now it’s time, but they’re a fairly conservative lot and when she tells her parents, both are shocked and ask her not to tell anyone else.

While neither of them totally reject their daughter, they don’t know how to react, with Jenny’s mother (Linda Emond) in particular not knowing what to do and feeling like she doesn’t really know her child at all, while her father (Tom Wilkinson) is nonplussed but seems willing to reach out – to a point. However, in trying not to let anyone know what’s really going on or to properly deal with it, they begin to create an increasingly tangled web, which comes unstuck when Jenny decides she is not going to hide any longer and won’t pussyfoot around her parents anymore. [Read more…]