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

Odd Thomas (DVD)

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Stephen Sommers has spent most of the past 15-years in mega-budget movie territory with the first two The Mummy movies, Van Helsing and G.I. Joe. However now he’s lowered the budget substantially and made something a bit more personal, although still with plenty of effects and a large dose of the supernatural. [Read more…]

That Awkward Moment (Cinema)

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Zac Efron is branching out from his heartthrob image and is now in the more adult, blokey phase of his career. To be fair, it’s a part that fits him pretty well, and That Awkward Moment, while clearly a vehicle for his talents, has plenty more going for it than just him. It’s bawdy, funny, charming and easy to watch, and gets to the point pretty economically. It’s only real weakness is the casting of Imogen Poots, but more of her later.

Efron is Jason, a book cover designer who is enjoying the life of a single man in New York. When his pal Mikey (Michel B. Jordan) announces he is divorcing his wife (Jessica Lucas) he, Jason and Daniel (Miles Teller) form a pact, to remain single to help each other out in bars, keep each other company and always be there for each other. [Read more…]

Free Fall (Freier Fall) (DVD)

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After finding a lot of success at film festivals, Free Fall makes it way to DVD in the UK. It’s been described as the German Brokeback Mountain, and while there are similarities, they’re more on the surface than going deep. Indeed this is more a morality tale than an examination of forbidden love in a deeply homophobic society.

Marc (Hanno Koffler) seems to have it all – he’s set to be part of an elite police squad, he’s moved in with his girlfriend and has a baby on the way. While training he meets Kay (Max Riemelt) and they start to go on jogs together. After a brief sexual encounter in the forest, Marc runs off and decides it was just a one off. However soon he comes back for more and he starts exploring new parts of himself – although he’s still insistent that he’s isn’t gay or even bisexual. [Read more…]

Rush (Blu-ray)

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There were quite a few people who were expecting Rush to get a few Oscar nominations, but in the end it was shut out. It’s a shame as it’s a damn fine movie and should have got some kudos, even if it was only in the production design and cinematography departments, as it does such a great job of recreating 1970s Formula 1 racing.

The film tells the true story of the intense rivalry between the British James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austria’s Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl). They first meet in Formula 3, where it’s clear they are very different people. Hunt is a playboy whose life is about sex, drugs, partying and being everyone’s friend.  Lauda meanwhile is far more serious, seeing racing as being about business. He spends his time learning the mechanics of the cars, as well as showing off an arrogant streak that ensures none of the other drivers like him that much. [Read more…]

Any Day Now (DVD)

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To many people Alan Cumming is the guy who pops up in supporting roles in the likes of The Good Wife, Goldeneye and X-Men 2. Some have never quite got past him as an insanely camp air steward in the Scottish sitcom The High Life. However he’s far more than that, as the fact he has both a Tony and an Olivier award attests. Here he gets to take centre stage opposite Raising Hope’s Garret Dillahunt in a moving and extremely well made movie.

It’s the 1970s and Cumming is Rudy Donatello, an out and proud gay man who performs in a drag act. His life takes an unexpected turn when he discovers that the kid living next door, Marco (Isaac Levya), has been abandoned by his junkie mother. [Read more…]

Goats (DVD)

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Ellis Whitman (The Good Wife’s Graham Phillips) is a young man who lives in the Arizona desert with his new age mother, Wendy (Vera Farmiga), and her string of boyfriends, as well as a sort-of father figure in the form of ‘Goat Man’ (David Duchovny), a man who goes on goat treks and spends most of his life stoned. Although Wendy hates Ellis’ actual father, Frank (Ty Burrell), Ellis has secretly applied for and been accepted to the straight-laced prep school his father attended.

Over the course of his first year at the school, Ellis attempts to get to know his father, becomes subject to his mother’s whims and emotional guilt trips, and is also forced to reconsider who Goat Man is. [Read more…]

The Frozen Ground (DVD)

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Back in 1997 John Cusack was busy trying to track down Nicolas Cage in Con Air. Now the roles have been reversed in The Frozen Ground. Based on a true story, Cage is Alaska State Trooper Jack Holcombe, who believes a serial killer is on the loose after several bodies are found in the wilderness. He even believes he knows exactly who it is after one of the victims, Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens), escapes and says she was held captive by Robert Hansen (Cusack). [Read more…]

Big Ass Spider (DVD)

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I’m starting to get the impression that with these over-sized monster films, there’s a single script that Hollywood passes around, which is then given a quick polish to give a new location and add in whatever the creature is. Often that results in a pretty rubbish movie, but Big Ass Spider is actually quite fun and has a good sense of humour, even if it has exactly the same plot as 1000s of other films of its ilk.

Greg Grunberg (Heroes) plays Alex, an exterminator who has a bit of a problem on the job and ends up in hospital. At the same time a body enters the morgue that has an over-sized spider hiding inside it. Soon the spider is out and causing havoc, so Alex suggests that in return for the hospital paying his medical bills, he’ll hunt the creature down. [Read more…]

We’re The Millers – Extended Cut (DVD)

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I’m not sure when it was that Hollywood decided that it would be best if all comedies were about people who are essentially assholes, but it certainly seems to be the trend. Often it completely ruins the film as it’s difficult to care about unpleasant people being horrible to one another, even if by the end they learn not to be such big assholes. At the beginning of We’re The Millers I was worried that would be the problem here, but almost to my surprise it began to win me over. [Read more…]

Kick-Ass 2 (DVD)

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2010’s Kick-Ass gained a lot of fans who loved its blend of heart, humour and over-the-top comic book violence. Now we get the follow-up, which sees Jeff Wadlow take over from Matthew Vaughn in the director’s chair. While it’s an okay effort, it’s difficult not to wish Vaughn had stuck around.

Picking up some time after the first movie, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has left his Kick-Ass superhero alter-ego behind and is now attending high school along Mindy McCready (Chloe Moretz), the former Hit Girl. While they may not be trying to fight the bad guys, Kick-Ass has inspired others to take up the costumed vigilante cause. [Read more…]