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

John Wick (DVD Review)

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I’d imagine some stars would think twice before agreeing to appear in a movie directed by their stunt double/martial arts choreographer, but that’s what Keanu Reeves has done with John Wick, and it turned out to be a good idea. I’ve always thought Reeves is a really good actor – as long as he doesn’t speak. John Wick gives him a character that’s who isn’t big on words, but which allows him to showcase that physically he’s very good, especially when given some slick action to dispense.

Keanu is the title character, an ex-assassin who left his life of crime behind when he met the perfect woman. After his wife dies, he’s barely holding on and is sent over the edge when the spoiled, selfish son of a criminal kingpin steals his car and kills the dog John’s wife gave him. [Read more…]

Spooks: The Greater Good (DVD Review)

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While Spooks (known as MI5 in the US) ended on British TV in 2012, it’s now been resurrected for the big screen with Spooks: The Greater Good. It’s certainly not necessary to have seen the show though, especially as it’s largely about new characters, with the main holdovers being the Secret Service setting and the presence of Peter Firth as counter-terrorism chief Harry Pearce.

Harry’s career comes crashing down around him after he makes the call to free dangerous terrorist Qasim (Elyes Gabel), after his prisoner transport is held up by armed men, which makes many people in MI5 feel he needs to be removed. He also becomes convinced that Qasim couldn’t have escaped without help from inside MI5, and so decides to disappear and go into hiding, in order to investigate. [Read more…]

The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie) (DVD Review)

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Throughout his career French director Francois Ozon has shown a great interest in both sexuality and femininity. Those two things come together in The New Girlfriend, which is based on a story by Ruth Rendell, but is certainly not a murder-mystery.

Claire (a brilliant performance from Anaïs Demoustier) is devastated when her best friend since childhood, Laura, dies. She has promised she will look out for Laura’s husband, David (Romain Duris), and their young child, but due to her grief she puts off this duty. When she finally decides to visit she is shocked to discover David looking after his baby while dressed as a woman. [Read more…]

Big Game (DVD Review)

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Big Game will not be winning the award ‘Most Sensible Movie Of The Year’. Indeed it reaches Fast & Furious levels of preposterousness, where you either have to submit to its inherent silliness or alternatively break down in tears and decry the state of modern entertainment. Personally I went for the former.

The US President (Samuel L. Jackson) is flying to some important talks when an evil terrorist (played by an actor who looks the dictionary definition of ‘stereotypical foreign bad guy’) blows Air Force One out of the sky. The Pres is put in an escape capsule and dropped into the middle of the remote Finnish wilderness. [Read more…]

Unfriended (Blu-ray Review)

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While the title is enough to make any discerning person cringe and its unusual concept could have gone horribly wrong, Unfriended is actually quite an effective slice of teen horror – as long as you beef up your ability to suspend disbelief (or you already think teenagers are total morons).

The whole thing takes place in real time and for the entire movie you are watching the computer screen of a teenage girl called Blaire. It’s a year after her friend, Laura, killed herself, but Blaire, her boyfriend Mitch, and three of their friends are more interested in video chatting than mourning the loss. [Read more…]

The Wedding Banquet – The Ang Lee Trilogy (DVD Review)

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Before Ang Lee was the double Oscar-winning helmer of Brokeback Mountain and Life Of Pi (incidentally, neither of which won the Best Picture Oscar) he was a young director who from his very first movie was mixing his Asian heritage with the West. Indeed, when talking of the rise of Ang Lee, one of the keys is his partnership with James Schamus, who co-wrote and produced most of his movies. This mix of Eastern and Western storytelling helped Lee to be able to fully inhabit a variety of different worlds like few other directors ever have.

Before he came to many people’s attention with Sense & Sensibility he made three features – Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman – which have been brought together for the first time in the UK for the Ang Lee Trilogy DVD release (others have referred to the films as the ‘Father Knows Best’ trilogy). They are entertaining and interesting movies, with the first two in particular feeling like they’re from a director in training but with great hints at where he ended up. [Read more…]

Child 44 (Blu-ray Review)

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When it was first announced Child 44 seemed like a good bet – based on a hit book, directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Easy Money) and a really good cast. However, when it arrived in cinemas it was met with bad reviews and made hardly any money at the box office.

I’m not entirely sure where all the animosity came from though, as while it has quite a few problems it’s certainly tense, uneasy and very watchable.

Set in post-World War II Soviet Russia, Tom Hardy is Leo Demidov, an investigator for the feared MGB who roots out traitors for Stalin. The organisation is judge, jury and executioner – and it extracts ways to find guilt in everyone they arrest. It’s an era of massive paranoia and one where deviating from the official line on something can be a death sentence. [Read more…]

Stand (DVD Review)

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In the time since Russia enacted it’s rather draconian ‘gay propaganda’ laws, much has been written about the chilling effect it’s had on LGBT people in the country and also how it has emboldened homophobes to feel they can act against gay people with impunity, which has led to vicious attacks, torture and beatings.

Stand takes us into this world and the lives of gay Russian couple Anton and Vlad, who live together and have a life where they know that as long as they keep their sexuality behind closed doors and amongst those they trust, they can live a fairly safe and happy life. However, while driving along they witness a vicious attack on a gay man. With Vlad fearful of what will happen if they intervene, they end up doing nothing. [Read more…]

Smosh: The Movie (VoD Review)

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The world of Internet fame is a strange thing. The bigger names of Youtube have millions of fans, people throng to their videos, books and other paraphernalia and some of them make millions of dollars from it – however outside a very specific demographic, names like Tyler Oakley and Joey Graceffa mean absolutely nothing. It’s almost like there’s a parallel world which most older people aren’t even aware exists.

Comedy duo Smosh (aka Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla) were one of the first, having the most viewed video on Youtube and the most followed channel back in the days when the video sharing site was still growing into the behemoth that it is today. And now they’ve got their own movie. [Read more…]

Of Girls And Horses (DVD Review)

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What is it with female sexuality and horses? Of Girls And Horses is far from the first movie to thematically link the two, and indeed in lesbian-themed movies it’s almost a mini sub-genre of its own.

Alex is a 16-year-old whose life in on a fast track to nowhere. She’s dropped out of school and has little time for authority. In the hope of setting her straight, her mother signs her up for an internship where she will help to look after horses, deep in the countryside. Riding instructor Nina attempts to rein in Alex’s indolence, something that isn’t easy, especially when she discovers the teenager has been stealing from her. Things don’t initially improve after the posh Kathy arrives, who seems Alex’s polar opposite. [Read more…]