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

All Good Things (DVD)

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We’ve had to wait a while for All Good Things. Shot in 2008 it was slated for US release in 2009, but various issues with the distribution meant it didn’t actually hit American cinemas until late 2010 (and even then it only got a small release). It’s take another two full years for it to arrive in the UK, despite the presence of Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst.

Based on a true story, Gosling plays David Marks, who in the early 1980s is the heir to a mega-rich empire. However he massively dislikes his father (Frank Langella) and would prefer to have little to do with the family business. He meets and marries the lower-middle class Katie (Kirsten Dunst), fleeing the city to a place in rural Vermont. However they’re lured back to New York by David’s father. [Read more…]

Hard – Series 1 (DVD)

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Sophie lives a comfortable middle-class life with her husband and two children. However that changes dramatically when her hubby dies and she discovers that he wasn’t in shipping as he’d claimed, he actually ran SophX, a porn website.

She also discovers that her hubby took out new loans on the house, and so she has to step up and turn the business around, even though she finds porn disgusting. Initially she hopes to make something a bit more upmarket that women will  also enjoy, but faces opposition from those entrenched in an old idea of how porn works, as well as adult stars who don’t really know what to do when asked to do proper acting. [Read more…]

Tower Block (DVD)

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Imagine a film celebrating a few of today’s exciting young film and TV and theatre actors, Russell Tovey (Being Human), Sheridan Smith ( Legally Blonde) and Jack O’Connell (Harry Brown), and delivering what really should have been a straight-to-DVD film and this is what we have.

The UK seems to be able to deliver three types of films – urban dramas, romantic comedies and films starring Dame Judi or Dame Maggie! (yes, Potter and Skyfall do feature the previous two Dames!) [Read more…]

A Perfect Ending (DVD)

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Rebecca (Barbara Niven) is a rather uptight, middle-aged, middle-class women who’s used to getting what she wants – from everyone except her prig of a husband (John Heard) – but there’s one thing she’s never had; an orgasm. When she confides her secret to some friends they suggest she hire an escort. After all, who will know how to pleasure a woman better than another woman? [Read more…]

A Liar’s Autobiography – The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman in 3D (Cinema)

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This film has been released 23 years after the untimely death (or not, if you look at his lifestyle) of Graham Chapman. The Film is not calling itself A Monty Python film, but a Graham Chapman film, and after watching it you might understand why.

The synopsis: in 1989 Chapman – ‘a freeloading bastard’ (according to John Cleese at his funeral) sadly ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘E’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! – OK enough Parrot Sketch quotes already!! (which he co-wrote with John Cleese) [Read more…]

The Knot (DVD)

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When The Knot was released in cinemas it’s not an understatement to say it was met with bad reviews. It currently has a score of 0% on RottenTomatoes and the invective spewed at it reached a point that it even led to a spat between a few of the cast (and their relatives) and some of the reviewers.

To be honest, many of the cinema reviews were a lot harsher than the film deserves – that not to say it’s good, just that’s there are far worse films out there. I think perhaps part of the problem was seeing it on the cinema screen, as it’s seems far more suited to television. Indeed it would probably have been better to have made it as a six-part comedy series for TV. [Read more…]

Taken 2 (DVD)

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I’m not entirely sure what it was about Taken that made it a $200+ million grossing film around the world. It was a decent enough action movie, but nothing particularly amazing. However its success ensured we’d get a Taken 2, and it’s not surprising Liam Neeson was keen to return, as the first movie gave his career a real shot in the arm. [Read more…]

Looper (Blu-ray)

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Time travel is a tough nut to crack. It’s an idea that’s full of possibilities but it also has major pitfalls, not least of which are the endless paradoxes and logic knots that time travel films can tie themselves up in. Although Looper doesn’t completely resolve these problems, its gets closer than any film since Twelve Monkeys and presents a reality that’s actually pretty close to how some quantum physicists think time travel could actually work.

Indeed as Twelve Monkeys and Looper both feature Bruce Willis, perhaps all prospective time travel movies need to be given the Brucey seal of approval before they go into production. [Read more…]

Walk A Mile In My Pradas (DVD)

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One of the themes that seems to be emerging in populist gay cinema at the moment is doing LGBT versions of stories that mainstream movies have played with numerous times before. For example a couple of months ago we had a gay Christmas Carol with Scrooge & Marley, and now the Freaky Friday body swap film that gets a homo spin – although this time it’s a sexuality swap.

Tony (Nathaniel Marston) is a macho construction worker who’s preparing to marry his girlfriend. His latest job puts him under the supervision of the openly gay Steve, which brings Tony’s homophobic tendencies bubbling to the surface, culminating in a row at a Christmas party. They accidentally cast a festive wish on one another in front a magical Christmas angel which results in Tony becoming gay and Steve turning straight. [Read more…]

Piranha (1978) (Blu-ray)

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B-movie producer Roger Corman is legendary for giving some of the biggest names in the film their first break. He was among the first to hire Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and 1978’s Piranha also had more than its fair share of people getting some of their first film experience.

Director Joe Dante went on to helm the likes of Gremlins and Innerspace, and it was the first screenplay of John Sayles, who later directed Passion Fish and Lone Star. Editor Mark Goldblatt won an Oscar for Terminator 2, Rob Bottin is now a legend in make-up special effects, and Phil Tippett has an Academy Award for his special effects work on Jurassic Park [Read more…]