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

The Lost Colony (DVD)

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The Lost Colony of Roanoke has been intriguing people for centuries. One of the first attempts to create a permanent European settlement in North America, a group of Brits established a colony in Virginia in 1585. The new governor then headed back to England to get supplies, and when he returned three years later (having been delayed by war) the settlement was abandoned and there was no sign of what had happened to the people.

There have been all sorts of suggestions as to what happened at Roanoke in the 1580s, from the Europeans integrating with the local Indians to the Spanish killing everyone to hardship causing the settlers to try and sail back to England, but sinking on the way. However The Lost Colony has a new idea – they were attacked by wraiths that are trapped between this world and the next, and who want baby Virginia Dare, the first white person known to have been born in the Americas. [Read more…]

Gang Story (DVD)

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By about two-thirds of the way through Gang Story, there’d be so much death I was wondering how there were any men left alive in France. Then someone mentioned they were from Armenia, and I realised that so many people had been stabbed, shot, drowned, strangled or otherwise dispatched, they were having to import people from other countries just so they could kill them.

Based on a true story, the film is about Edmond Vidal (known as Momon) and Serge Suttel and how the brutality of gang life affects their friendship from their youth right up into their 60s. Most of the film takes place in the 1970s, when the friends are high up in the gang world, with Vidal leading the notorious Gang Des Lyonnais, who pull off a spectacular series of armed robberies. [Read more…]

Faces (Blu-ray/DVD)

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If Steve Buscemi says Faces is his favourite movie, do you need any more reason to watch it? It is a great film that’s undoubtedly the best of John Cassavetes’ directorial outings and one of the most piercing movies about mid-life crises ever made.

Richard (John Marley) is an aging man who feels trapped by his safe but dull marriage. While he can still have fun with his wife, everything else seems more fun and interesting than his domestic existence and so he leaves her, asking for a divorce. He wants to start a relationship with a younger woman called Jeannie (Gena Rowlands), although it’s not clear how interested she is. Richard’s wife, Maria, gets seduced by playboy Chet and embarks on a new relationship of her own. [Read more…]

Private Romeo (DVD)

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Romeo & Juliet but gone gay in a military academy. That’s what Private Romeo is and it’s just as intriguing yet problematic as that sounds. A group of lads at a military school are studying Shakespeare’s great romantic tragedy. However they don’t leave the Bard’s words behind when the bell rings, with Romeo & Juliet taking over their lives as two of the boys develop a forbidden love. However as rivalries grow this newfound love could develop into full blown tragedy.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, especially as the film keeps Shakespeare’s verse, but there are some major problems. Writer/director Alan Brown has chopped Shakespeare’s text down, added some modern music and social media touches and turned Juliet into a boy, but it never quite feels as if he makes the whole concept work. [Read more…]

The Ledge (Blu-ray)

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There’s a lot of talent involved in The Ledge and you can understand what attracted the cast to this philosophical, high concept thriller, but unfortunately a script that’s muddier than it ought to be results in a film that feels as if it’s not living up to its potential.

Detective Hollis (Terrence Howard) is having a bad day, as he’s just discovered he’s infertile and that his kids are therefore somebody else’s. He’s then called to a dramatic situation where a man called Gavin (Charlie Hunnam) is standing on a ledge threatening to jump. While Hollis tries to talk him down, Gavin tells his story, which involves meeting the ultra-religious Joe and Shana Harris (Patrick Wilson and Liv Tyler). As Gavin is an atheist, their initial interactions are rather prickly, especially when Joe is openly homophobic to Gavin’s gay roommate, Chris (Christopher Gorham). [Read more…]

Tash Force (DVD)

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Tash McDermott (Mark Woodward) is the head of Lancashire Constabulary’s Football Intelligence Unit, who’s dedicated to preventing hooliganism. He agrees to allow a documentary crew to follow him around, showing off what he believes is his great skill, but what the world can see as his bungling incompetence.

He’s on the trail of the elusive football firm bad guy Nightmare, but it’s going to be tough to find him, especially as Tash has taken programmes like The Sweeney to heart and seems incapable of moving towards a more modern style of policing, much to the chagrin of his superiors. [Read more…]

Dream House (DVD)

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If you read a lot of the reviews of Dream House on its cinema release, you might be expecting the film to be an absolute stinker. Pretty much disowned by its cast and director, and pilloried by the critics, the film’s not had a lot of luck. However, while it’s certainly not a great thriller, it’s a lot better than you might expect.

Daniel Craig plays Will Atenton, who moves into a seemingly idyllic small-town home with his wife (Rachel Weisz) and two daughters. However their apparently perfect new life begins to fracture when they discover their house was the site of a family massacre five years before. Teens hold séances in the basement and there are rumours that the killer may have returned. And then there’s the next door neighbour, Ann (Naomi Watts), who appears to know more than she’s letting on to. [Read more…]

Acts Of Godfrey (DVD)

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Not many movies open with a man standing in a hotel car park in the pouring rain, absolutely butt naked. However the opening shots of Acts Of Godfrey are a hint right from the beginning that this isn’t the sort of movie that’s going to do things by the book.

However what really marks it out isn’t its penchant for car park nudity but that the whole thing is written and performed in rhyming couplets. Indeed you get the impression that it was the chance to make a film in modern verse that attracted the likes of Simon Callow, Harry Enfield, Celia Imrie and Doon Mackichan. [Read more…]

Griff The Invisible (DVD)

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Superheroes in the real world are quite popular at the moment, with Griff The Invisible being Australia’s entry. True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten stars as Griff, a meek, quiet man trapped in a dull office job by day, but by night he hits the streets as a costumed hero.

Griff is fascinated by the possibility of becoming invisible (literally rather than just metaphorically, which is how he is for most of his life), and is hard at work on a suit he hopes will make him completely see-through. [Read more…]

Switch (DVD)

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Sophie Malaterre (Karine Vanasse) is excited by the idea of a house swap – where you exchange homes with someone so you both get a holiday but save on accommodation – which will allow her to escape her Montreal life for a while with a trip to Paris. However she hasn’t been in France for long when the police raid the flat she’s swapped into and arrest Sophie while she’s in the bath, carting her off to the station after a decapitated head is found in her room. [Read more…]