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

Blackfish (DVD)

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Since the 1960s millions of people have gone to the various SeaWorld parks in the US, many drawn by the opportunity to see killer whales up close in the famed Shamu shows. Blackfish takes a close look at the parks and its animals, mainly focussing on the largest killer whale in captivity, Tilikum, who’s been implicated in the deaths of three people.

Using interviews with former trainers and various others, the documentary tells Tilikum’s story, surrounding this plenty of footage and other info that questions whether SeaWorld puts profits before the safety of its staff and even whether it’s right to keep these animals in captivity at all. [Read more…]

I’m So Excited! (DVD)

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In the last decade or so, Pedro Almodovar has become a master of taking ideas and spinning them in unexpected and complicated directions, filling his movies with larger than life, complex characters who draw you into a world that seems slightly absurd and yet uncomfortably close to the murkiness of real life.

I’m So Excited takes him in a slightly different direction as it’s far simpler, a lot camper and more interested in being pure entertainment than most of his movies. This has disappointed some, who were expecting an ‘Almodovar’ movie, but that doesn’t mean it lacks its own small-scale charms, even if it’s unlikely to amaze many. [Read more…]

Beyond The Walls (DVD)

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Sometimes when I watch a movie, I can’t help but wonder if the effect it has on the viewer (or at least me) is intentional or not. Sometimes that’s because it’s done something that’s totally undermined the entire movie, but other times it’s because it’s more interesting and intriguing than it might actually have intended to be. The latter is true of Beyond The Walls, although as it went on I became more convinced it was intentional. [Read more…]

Phantom (Blu-ray)

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The words ‘inspired by a true story’ are worth less and less in the world of film as movies drift further and further from the true story and more towards the inspired by. With Phantom we’ve got to the point where they tell you more about the true story in the special features, and it’s actually massively more interesting than the actual movie.

In Phantom, Ed Harris plays a Russian nuclear submarine in the 1960s, who’s about to retire – not least because he’s been having seizures and hallucinations – but is forced to go on one more sub mission. However once out to sea, things go horribly wrong when a radical faction emerges and tries to take control of the vessel. They have a horrifying plan that could alter the course of the Cold War and change the world forever. Only the Captain and the remaining loyal members of the crew can stop them. [Read more…]

The Comedian (DVD Review)

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Ed (Edward Hogg) is in his early 30s, a northerner who’s been living in London for a decade and is hoping to make it big as a comedian. However few people seem to laugh at his jokes, with a compere describing his act as ‘interesting’ rather than funny.

Outside comedy he’s stuck in a phone call centre job he hates and has a slightly dysfunctional relationship with his flatmate, who’s in love with him even though he’s gay. After striking up a conversation with a man (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) on a bus, they start a relationship, which begins to highlight the ennui and sadness at the heart of Ed’s life. [Read more…]

A Late Quartet (DVD)

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The world famous Fugue Quartet has reformed a year after cellist Peter’s wife passed away. Determined to play Beethoven’s notoriously challenging Opus 131, the aging Peter (Walken) is now facing retirement due to the early onset of Parkinson’s, while second violinist Robert (Hoffman) and his wife, violist Juliette (Keener), have reached a breaking point in their relationship. All the while the cold first violin, Daniel (Ivanir), refuses to accept that the people in his quartet are struggling to survive together. Can the quartet keep it together for one last grand farewell to Peter? [Read more…]

Side Effects (DVD)

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I don’t think they did the early marketing of Side Effects very well, particularly in the US, as it was presented as if this was in the vein of Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble tales like Traffic and Contagion, but this time taking on the pharmaceutical industry. However it isn’t anything really like them – although it rather deliberately starts out like them and retains a streak of questioning our love of prescription drugs – as this is really a full-on twisty, turny thriller designed to keep you guessing as to what’s really going on. [Read more…]

The Birth Of A Nation (Blu-ray)

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If ever there was a ‘difficult’ film, it’s Birth Of A Nation. The 1915 silent movie is massively important, changing cinema forever by creating the movie epic and hastening the move from short, one-reel films to feature length movies. Directed D.W. Griffith showed the scope and scale of what cinema could be in a way never seen before. In doing so he created the first monster hit, which played for a year (at live-theatre prices) in New York and was re-released pretty much every year for a couple of decades after that. [Read more…]

The Newsroom – Season 1 (Blu-ray)

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Aaron Sorkin’s TV shows are loved by some and loathed by others. While some have adored the likes of Sports Night, The West Wing and Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, others have found them pretentious and too concerned with politics – and more particularly promulgating a left wing philosophy that has had some US conservatives frothing at the mouth. [Read more…]

Falling Skies – Season 2 (DVD)

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Falling Skies – Season 3 has just started on UK TV and so to tie into that the second season has now arrived on DVD. The series is set after aliens have arrived on Earth and essentially taken over, harnessing teenagers with their technology and turning them into drones.

Most of the rest of the human population is either dead or scattered, but remnants have gathered together to try to either survive or fight back. This includes the 32 Mass, a ragtag military outfit plotting against the invaders, which also has a civilian contingent under their protection. [Read more…]