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

Eastern Boys (Cinema Review)

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I’m not a big fan of French cinema. Although the country has produced some magnificent movies, I find most of it to be ponderous and far too impressed with itself. However after Stranger By The Lake and now Eastern Boys, I’m starting to think France may be becoming the premier place for gay-themed cinema.

Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin) solicits a young Eastern European man, Marek (Kirill Emelyanov), for sex at the Parisian train station, negotiating a price and arranging to meet at Daniel’s place later that week. However when the time comes it’s not Marek who turns up, but all his ‘friends’, led by their intimidating boss (Daniil Vorobyov), who proceed to party in the apartment and then completely clear it out, threatening that they will accuse Daniel of being a paedophile if he does anything. [Read more…]

Jon Richardson – Nidiot (DVD Review)

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If you’ve seen recent episodes of 8 Out Of 10 Cats you’ll know life has changed in the world of comedian Jon Richardson. He made his name for being a fastidious man on the edge of OCD, with a worldview which he seems to believe is misanthropic but is closer to constantly disappointed optimism – and he’s also known for being perennially single.

However now he’s not just got himself a girlfriend, he’s engaged and will probably be getting married soon. His stand-up show Nidiot is largely based around the story of how he decided to take stock of his life to become a happier person, as well as how he met and started dating his fiancée. [Read more…]

Jack Whitehall Gets Around – Live From Wembley Arena (DVD Review)

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Jack Whitehall is a bit of a Marmite comedian, although you do get the impression that his detractors are more annoyed that he’s young, good-looking and funny than being bothered about the edge of smugness that some accuse him of. He’s certainly come a long way in a short time, with this DVD documenting his Wembley gig, which was part of a huge arena tour that attracted audiences in the 10s of thousands. And he’s still only 26.

As with many young comedians who become a big headline act, there is undoubtedly a sense that he’s still learning his trade and coming into his own. That’s particularly clear by his reliance on ‘mistakes’, which probably work well when you’re watching him live, but on DVD it’s clear that these are not mistakes at all, or at least perhaps they were at one point during the tour but have now been woven into the act and are now very deliberate. Comedians making deliberate mistakes is extremely common, but it shouldn’t look like that’s what they’re doing. [Read more…]

Nina Conti Live – Dolly Mixtures (DVD Review)

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The sort of variety acts that were a staple of British TV up until the 1980s have largely disappeared (while Britain’s Got Talent may have brought it back to primetime, it still exists pretty much in isolation). And with the death of variety, ventriloquism pretty much disappeared too.

However in the last few years Nina Conti has slowly but surely been rising up the comedy ranks and becoming more of a household name. To be honest she ought to be more famous than she is, as her CV includes appearances in Christopher Guest movies and slew of TV shows, but it seems that with ventriloquism looked down on in many circles she’s had more difficulty pushing through than she perhaps should have. [Read more…]

Russell Howard – Wonderbox Live (DVD Review)

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Thanks to Mock The Week and Good News, Russell Howard is now one of the UK’s biggest stand-up acts. While many comics have a shtick to help them stand out, Howard is a more traditional stand-up, telling funny stories and jokes, and finding the general silliness of life.

What help makes it work is that he comes across as such a friendly, slightly dorky but cool guy. He’s the sort of person where it feels like if you went out for a drink you’d have a good time and a lot of laughs, and what he manages to do with Wonderbox better than he has on previous DVDs, is fully pull the viewer into so that it truly feels you’re truly part of a fun night out. There’s none of the anger or snide-ness that so many comics trade in, as even when he’s making fun of something there’s a positive edge where he feels the need to point it out not specifically to tear it down but because he thinks there’s something better. [Read more…]

Family Guy – Season 14 (DVD Review)

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Having just ended on BBC3 in the UK, Family Guy – Season 14 arrives on DVD in the UK. It’s perhaps the most controversial season in the show’s history – which isn’t bad going for a series that’s previously had two episodes that were fully animated and then rejected by the Fox network due to worries about their content.

However the controversy this time wasn’t due to Family Guy taking on abortion or concern about jokes about Jews – it’s because they killed off one of the main characters. Yep, a few episodes in to Season 14 Brian the faux-intellectual dog bites the big one (or at least bites the tarmac, seeing as he gets run over). However it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock to discover that this might not be the last time we see him. [Read more…]

The Newsroom – Season 2 (DVD Review)

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Aaron Sorkin is perhaps the best known writer working in entertainment today. He’s part of a very select group of people where an entire show can be sold purely on the fact he created it. He’s renowned for taking on the issues of the modern world, dissecting and criticising the problems he’s sees with America and the things that are taking it away from being the glorious nation he believes it is at heart. As a result he’s often been criticised by those who have a different view of the world – usually a more sharply right wing view – and that was certainly true of the first season of The Newsroom. [Read more…]

Sharknado 2: The Second One (Blu-ray Review)

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Oh dear God, here we go again. Sharknado became a bit of an odd sensation last year, not because anyone thought it was going to be a good film, but purely because of the title. Indeed as director Anthony C. Ferrante openly admits in the Featurette on the Sharknado 2 Blu-ray, the first film was only made after the Syfy Channel liked a joke about a sharknado in one of Ferrante’s earlier movies and decided they wanted to create an entire movie based around that word being the title.

After the success of the first one – it was admittedly success mired in utter derision, but it was success nevertheless – a sequel was inevitable. And to be honest it’s rather like the first one – unable to decide how much of a comedy it is and what sort it should be, as well as constantly flirting on the line between trying to ensure the audience has a good time and having so little respect for them that there are moments that feel like the cinematic equivalent of someone giving you the finger. [Read more…]

3 Days To Kill (Blu-ray Review)

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Co-written and produced by Luc Besson, Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) has discovered that he’s dying and so he decides to leave his job killing terrorists for the Secret behind and go see his family in Paris, hoping to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld) before he meets his grace.

However his plans get complicated when Vivi (Amber Heard) contacts him about one last assignment, helping to hunt down one of the world’s most lethal terrorists – and in return he will get injections of a top secret serum that could extend his life. Ethan knows though that if his wife and daughter find out what he’s up to, he’s unlikely to be able to have any sort of relationship with either of them. [Read more…]

Oculus (Blu-ray Review)

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Tim (Brenton Thwaites) is just out of the mental institution where he’s spent most of his childhood after being blamed for the brutal death of his parents. However, while his sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan) was bounced around the foster system, she held tight to the idea that Tim wasn’t really responsible – it was the Lasser Glass, an antique mirror she is convinced has supernatural powers and which destroyed her family.

She now has possession of the Lasser Glass and takes Tim back to their old house where she has set up cameras and alarms which she believes can prove that the mirror is evil. However she may have underestimated its power, as while Tim is initially convinced his sister is just trying to deny what he did (as his psychologists have made him take responsibility), strange things start happening where neither of them can trust what they’re seeing. [Read more…]