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

Dark Shadows (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

Dark Shadows has always been a somewhat problematic proposition for a film conversion, especially as it’s been brought to the screen by people who are obviously in love with the original US soap opera that ran between 1966 and 1971. The show ran for over 1,000 episodes and featured a vast array of characters and all sorts of different supernatural shenanigans. Those then needed to be distilled down to a single movie that’ll work for a generation who’ve never seen the show.

It’s a challenge that Dark Shadows only partially succeeds in, with the whole thing having the whiff of being filled things Johnny Depp and Tim Burton wanted to include, but which might have been better to have dispensed with. [Read more…]

Avengers Assemble (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

After years of build up, it’s finally here. While fanboys have long worried The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble as Disney wants us to call it in the UK, apparently because Brits are incapable of telling the difference between a 1960s TV show and a 2012 superhero movie) couldn’t live up to the hype, Joss Whedon has delivered.

It’s an action packed, rip-roaring juggernaut of a film, which pulls off the impressive trick of perfectly balancing a large ensemble cast, so that it feels as if everyone is there for a reason and has their own character arc. [Read more…]

Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) is a buttoned down man living a buttoned down life. He works as a scientist at the Department Of Agriculture & Fisheries, working on projects that will only be of interest to a tiny few fishermen and wishes nothing more than to be left alone to get on with his studies. Outside his job his marriage is stuck in a rut, where it feels like things have reached an end, but nobody wants to say it.

Things begin to chance when he’s forced to go to a meeting with Harriet (Emily Blunt), who looks after the UK holdings of a ridiculously wealthy sheikh (Amr Waked). The sheikh has a dream – to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen. Without spending any time thinking about it, Fred brands the project ludicrous and decides the sort of person who’d want to do must be incredibly selfish, putting their passions ahead of their people. [Read more…]

Battleship (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

Just picture it – writer goes to see producer and says I have an idea for a movie, “Let’s base it on a game, say Battleship. We’ll make the enemy Aliens (Transformers style), set it in Pearl Harbor – with our allies being the Japanese, of all people – and let’s debut the worlds biggest pop star in her movie debut! You can think of it as Top Gun meets Independence Day!” Producer proceeds to mentally count the cash he thinks he’ll make.

This is basically the premise of one of the most anticipated films of the year – which to be honest isn’t a great state of affairs, if this is all Hollywood can deliver. That said, with an estimated budget of over $200M, you have to hope it’ll do better than last years’ two alien invasion efforts, Skyline and Battle Los Angeles. [Read more…]

The Hunger Games (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

As many know by now, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is a young adult bestseller that’s become a phenomenon around the world. It’s now been transferred to the screen and is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year. So far the novel trilogy has amassed over 26 million in book sales (mostly due to popular word of mouth) and this will no doubt grow after the pretty much inevitable success of the movie.

The Hunger Games is set in North America in a dystopian future. The Hunger Games have been introduced by the government as a tactic invented to help control and punish each District for a previous uprising. Each of the 12 Districts have to select a male and female teenager, who must then all fight each other to the death in a televised event, for the honour and hope of their Districts. [Read more…]

How To Re-Establish A Vodka Empire (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

Director, subject and star Dan Edelstyn sets off to the Ukraine looking into his family’s past, and to find out more about how his great grandfather was once a rich, factory owner, before the October Revolution came along in 1917. Once in Eastern Europe, Dan discovers his family’s past wasn’t just in sugar but also in Vodka. Dan returns to the UK with ideas of buying the still-standing distillery and reviving the old family business, but soon realises that’s way beyond his means. Instead he embarks on an odyssey to import the vodka into the UK and launch a new brand, hopefully helping the locals in the Ukraine along the way. [Read more…]

John Carter (Cinema)

By 1 Comment

This was always going to be an eagerly anticipated take on an American Classic, now brought to us by Disney and directed by Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame, who helmed the brilliant Wall-E and Finding Nemo.

The John Carter books, by Edgar Rice Boroughs (of Tarzan fame), are relatively little known outside the US, but to a certain extent they’re America’s equivalent of British classics such as Lord Of The Rings and Narnia, loved by children and adults alike. I knew very little of John Carter prior to hearing about the release, but the Avatar-esque trailers were promising. Unfortunately though the end result feels more like the dodgy adaptation that turned out to be The Golden Compass, although thankfully not as bad as that movie. [Read more…]

This Means War (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

I know the exact moment when I gave up on the idea that This Means War was going to be a good movie. Fairly early on Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) is shopping with her friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), a character who only exists to give Lauren an excuse to say exactly what she’s thinking at any point in time.

However it wasn’t the lazy exposition (something the film loves to engage in) that made me realise that behind the fireworks there wasn’t much going on in This Means War, it was because the scene was set up so that the two women were doing their entire supermarket shop based on what was on the end of the aisles. They picked out detergent, looked at special offers and neither of them seemed to need anything that wasn’t right there in front of them. [Read more…]

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel doesn’t have the catchiest title I have ever heard. However, based on the novel by Deborah Moggach, the film stars the ‘crème de la crème’ of our favourite geriatric British film and TV actors, and is directed by John Madden (Shakespeare In love, Mrs Brown and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin).

After the phenomenal success of Slumdog Millionaire, it was inevitable that at some point mainstream British cinema would be return to India. The premise of the film is that seven elderly people decide to up-sticks from the UK and go to India, moving into a hotel for the ‘elderly and beautiful’. However it doesn’t quite live up to the image of the photoshopped promos! [Read more…]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date: ,

This sequel has a lot of expectations to live up to. The first Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes amassed over $524 million at the worldwide box office and remains in the Top 100 grossing films of all time.

As you’d hope, in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows the original bromance is back with a vengeance! Guy Ritchie has delivered once again (after a few turkeys mind!), as the on-screen chemistry between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jnr. is superb – reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The supporting cast is also tremendous in their roles, although some of the parts are just too small. Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade is most notably missing screen time – blink and you’ll miss him – as is the excellent Geraldine James as the long-suffering Mrs Hudson (though I can’t help but think of her as one of the prostitutes from Band Of Gold!). [Read more…]