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

Terminator Genisys (DVD Review)

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Having spent $10s of millions on buying the Terminator franchise, the backers of Genisys had a lot riding on the movie. The film was planned as the first part of a new trilogy, although it seemed that was in major doubt after it only made $89 million at the US box office. However worldwide it did much better, grossing $440 million overall. As a result we’re likely to see more Terminating, even if the original plans change.

It’s both a continuation and semi-reboot, with Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) sent back in time to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from an evil Terminator (a CGI’d young Arnold Schwarzenegger), but once there it turns out events have changed since the first time we saw things, as Sarah is well aware of what’s going on, as she’s been protected by her own Terminator, which she calls Pops (a non CGI, aging Arnie), since she was a child. [Read more…]

San Andreas (Blu-ray Review)

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If you’d hoped that having Lost’s Carlton Cuse writing the screenplay would result in San Andreas being a more cerebral form of disaster movie, you should realise he was also an executive producer on Nash Bridges, so he is not averse to more straightforward entertainment. Indeed, it’s almost like he watched every Roland Emmerich movies – from 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow to Independence Day and Godzilla – and then used that as his template, but cut out anything too intelligent.

There is little to surprise here, although it certainly delivers on the large sale mayhem.

Dwayne Johnson is Los Angeles helicopter rescue pilot Ray, who’s dealing with the collapse of his marriage following the death of one of his children. However, he’s soon going to have more than that to worry about (actually, that’s not true as that’s all he cares about), when earthquakes start devastating California, starting at the Hoover Dam and then working its way up to San Francisco. And wouldn’t you know it, Ray’s daughter is in San Francisco, and so he sets off to rescue her, dodging city destroying shaking, tsunamis and general building destroying catastrophe along the way, as the San Andreas fault splits apart, resulting in the biggest quakes ever known. [Read more…]

Hamlet – Maxine Peake (DVD Review)

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Taking a classic play and swapping the traditional genders is always in danger of looking a little gimmicky. There were certainly a few who thought that would be true when it was announced that Maxine Peake would be taking on the role of Hamlet in a new stage production. It’s not the first time it’s happened (Sarah Berhardht famously took on the role in 1899), but it’s certainly not common.

Peake’s performance was filmed live in Manchester and beamed live to cinemas, and now that’s been brought to DVD. [Read more…]

Pitch Perfect 2 (DVD Review)

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The Pitch Perfect movies are proof positive that despite many people arguments to the contrary, originality isn’t the key to an entertaining film. Indeed, both films are just about as clichéd as it’s possible to get story-wise, following tried and tested formulas for this sort of film. However, despite that – or actually arguably partly because of the oddly comforting nature of that – they are huge amounts of fun.

This time around things have moved on a few years and rather than being a freshman, Beca (Anna Kendrick) is now getting ready to graduate and thinking about the future. Her a cappella group, The Barden Bellas, are now three time national champions, until disaster strikes when ‘Fat’ Amy (Rebel Wilson) suffers a major wardrobe malfunction while performing for the President, which results in the group’s tour being cancelled and threatened with never being able to compete again. [Read more…]

Fast & Furious 7 (DVD Review)

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If you’d told me a year ago that one of the Fast & Furious movies would make $1.5 billion at the box office and become the fifth highest grossing movie of all time, I would have laughed directly in your face. However, I’d be eating humble pie now, as that’s just what Fast & Furious 7 has done, helped by a record-breaking run in China.

I still have no idea why it did so well – not because it’s a dreadful movie, but simply because there’s it’s tough to understand why it was so stunningly successful. But then, I suppose it’s like McDonald’s – nobody would class it as genuinely great food, but it’s incredibly popular because it’s tasty and you know exactly what you’re going to get. [Read more…]

A Little Chaos (DVD Review)

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It’s 17th Century France and King Louis XIV (Alan Rickman) is on the throne. He wants a revamp of the Versailles gardens and hires architect Andre Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) to build it. However, he needs help from a landscape artist and so brings in widower Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet).

They have a few initial problems as he likes classical geometry and straight lines, while she is more forward-thinking and asymmetrical in her design (metaphor alert). Despite this, the two begin to fall for one another. This should be okay as Andre has an open marriage, however his wife (Helen McRory) isn’t keen on the feelings he develops for Sabine and plans to destroy what they are creating together. [Read more…]

It’s All So Quiet (DVD Review)

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When they named this film, ‘It’s All So Quiet’, they weren’t joking. This is not a film that will be remembered for its verbosity and wall-to-wall action, but that’s exactly as it should be, as Nanouk Leopold’s movie is a look at the stillness inside people, of isolation and the things that are locked away.

Helmer is a Dutch farmer who lives a largely solitary existence, interrupted only by caring for his father. His dad is sick, largely immobile, taciturn and spends his time lying in bed waiting to die. Helmer also has occasional visits, such as from milk collector Johan, who seems slightly fascinated by Helmer.

Then there’s young farmhand Henk, who is almost as quiet as Helmer, but who awakens feelings the farmer has repressed and which he may still not be ready to deal with. [Read more…]

Insurgent (DVD Review)

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Divergent arrived last year with a lot of fanfare and the hope on the part of its studio that it would become the new Hunger Games. While it did fairly good business at the box office, it didn’t exactly leave much of an impression. Now its sequel, Insurgent, arrives, which like its predecessor mainly leaves the viewers with the impression that, ‘Well, that happened’.

Following the events of the first film, Tris (Shailene Woodley) and many others are on the run. Meanwhile Jeanine moves on with her plan to take control of all the factions. Although she continues to see the divergents – those with multiple personality traits – as dangerous, she also knows she needs them, as it is only divergents who can open a box left behind by the city founders, which she believes will help her cement her power and end the divergent issue completely. [Read more…]

Boys In Brazil (DVD Review)

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Also known as The Pink Pact, Boys In Brazil follows four men – teenage friends Mauro and Rodrigo, Mauro’s uncle Vicente and a man they meet at Sao Paulo’s Pride Parade, Roger. After Roger is gay-bashed the quartet end up at Vincente’s apartment, where the outrageously camp Mauro decides that something must be done about the fact they are all in the closet. He makes them promise that by next year’s parade, they will have all come out.

Rodrigo is scared to tell his parents but does manage to embark on a relationship with a good-looking school friend. Vincente meanwhile is afraid to let his work colleagues know about his sexuality and even enlists his female friend to pose as his wife. Roger is married, has a child and his thoughts of escape get more complicated when he discovers his wife is pregnant again and has to be on bed rest until the baby comes. [Read more…]

Jupiter Ascending (Blu-ray Review)

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When Jupiter Ascending was moved from a prime Summer 2014 cinema release to early 2015, it didn’t auger well. And when the reviews finally rolled in, it looked like people were right to be suspicious of the Wachowskis’ $175 million space opera. However, while it’s far from being a masterpiece, there is just about enough fun peeking through the nonsense.

Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones, a seemingly normal girl from a Russian immigrant family, who is working as a cleaner and unsure what to do with her life (or even if she should bother to do anything). However, it turns out she is the genetic reincarnation of a murdered space queen, and because of that, she should be able to inherit the queen’s vast wealth. [Read more…]