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

Into The Woods (Cinema Review)

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Ah, Stephen Sondheim, writer of amazing tongue-twisting lyrics, flat tunes and dark themes. That’s been his formula for many a year – the flat tunes aren’t deliberate presumably – and they are all present and correct in this film version of his adult take on fairy tales. Adult is certainly the word here, the underlying theme being human beings’ reluctance to grow up and face the real world, and the terrifying prospect of sex, while superficially there are blindings, stabbings, a prince whose eye wanders, an absent father, and plenty of death.

Throw in a top-notch cast – and James Corden – and you get a polished, great-looking and sounding, entertaining fable. The story itself peaks a little early and there are longeurs in the story of the giant, but overall it’s a successful adaptation of Sondheim’s stage musical. [Read more…]

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Blu-ray Review)

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Most of DreamWorks Animation’s output has been okay but nothing particularly special. They hit on something good with Shrek (and I personally love Prince Of Egypt), but with How To Train Your Dragon it seemed like they’d suddenly stepped up a gear, with great storytelling, a massive scale and genuine heart. However after that nearly everything they’ve made – from Turbo to Mr. Peabody & Sherman – has gone back to being rather rubbish. However with How To Train Your Dragon 2 they’ve made what is probably their best film yet.

It’s several years on from the first film and Hiccup is now older and has led a major change on the Viking island of Berk, where rather than fighting dragons they now befriend and ride them. However not every Viking is as enlightened as they are, after finding an ice cave that’s home to hundreds of new, wild dragons, Hiccup and his friends discover they’re under threat from a man called Drago, who’s determined to rule the dragons by force and if he does that he believes he can control the people too. [Read more…]

Earth To Echo (Blu-ray Review)

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The makers of Earth To Echo certainly seem to like 80s family films, as the movie mixes bits of the likes of ET, Stand By Me and The Goonies with the more modern found footage genre.

Alex, Tuck and Munch are best friends living in a community that’s being forced to move due to a new construction project. It’s their last week together, which takes an unexpected turn after they realise strange electromagnetic anomalies are happening. When they decide to investigate they come across a small, damaged, semi-robotic alien, who needs help to rebuild his spaceship so that he can get home [Read more…]

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Blu-ray Review)

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Mr. Peabody & Sherman started life in the late-50s as part of the Rocky & Bulwinkle cartoon series. However they soon became popular in their own right with their mix of the silly and the educational. I don’t know whether the characters are still that popular in the US, but in the UK few kids will know them, which made it a surprise when DreamWorks Animation announced they were making a Peabody and Sherman film.

The idea behind the film is that Mr. Peabody is a super-smart, Nobel Prize-winning dog who has adopted a human boy, Sherman. Peabody’s greatest scientific accomplishment is his time machine, the WABAC, which he uses to take Sherman all across history, introducing him to the great figures of the past. [Read more…]

The Wind Rises (Blu-ray Review)

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While Japanese anime that covers weirdly sexual sci-fi, giant robots and horror has found its place in the West, what still seems like an anomaly to us are animated movies for grown-ups that don’t go that far into the fantastical. In fact for several reasons, and despite how good it is, it’s difficult to imagine The Wind Rises ever getting a release over here if it weren’t directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki (and it’s probably his last film).

The movie is a biopic of one of Miyazaki’s heroes, Jirô Horikoshi, starting with his youth as a young boy in the 1920s who dreams of being able to fly, but knowing that due to his bad eyesight he can never be a pilot. Once grown he heads off to university to become an engineer before getting a job helping to design planes. [Read more…]

Legends Of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (DVD Review)

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I get the impression that whoever did the casting on Legends Of Oz: Dorothy’s Return must have a fondness for the 1980s. After all bringing in Dan Aykroyd (the Scarecrow), Kelsey Grammer (Tin Man), John Belushi (Lion) and Martin Short (Jester) to play some of the voices can’t be a coincidence.

But that’s by-the-by to this sequel to The Wizard Of Oz, which is pretty much the same as the earlier story but different. Dorothy is just back from Oz when she gets snatched up (by a rainbow this time) and dumped back in the magical country. Once more she needs to get to the Emerald City, this time enlisting the help of an overweight owl, a prissy princess made of bone china, a marshmallow soldier and a talking tree that gets turned into a boat. [Read more…]

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Blu-ray Review)

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In the 80s and early-90s, the world of film had a great sideline in female-focussed movies that traded in sentiment, nostalgia and emotion. They were heart-warming and charming and many of them became major successes (Fried Green Tomatoes cost $11 million to make but grossed more than $80 million in the US alone back in 1991). They don’t seem to make that sort of film much anymore. Indeed they don’t seem to make that many major female-focussed movie at all that aren’t rom-coms or potential Oscar bait.

It’s a great pity as these sorts of film can be excellent and Fried Green Tomatoes is a wonderful example – even if there are some reservations. [Read more…]

Maleficent (Cinema Review)

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At long last one of the most eagerly anticipated films of 2014 has arrived. However it’s one of those films that could either have been excellent or a total mess. Thankfully Maleficent is in fact magnificent!

Disney has released a few very expensive live-action movie in the Spring and Summer in the last few years – Alice In Wonderland, John Carter, Lone Ranger etc – some more successful than others. However this time they will have the jackpot, despite a budget of an estimated $200M. If there’s any justice Maleficent will make that back in spades. [Read more…]

The Harry Hill Movie (Blu-ray)

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Harry Hill is a bit of a love him or loathe him comedian, and so it’s no surprise that a film he wrote and stars in is the same. However the problem is that his current main fanbase knows him from his television show TV Burp, and while that serieswas silly and sometimes surreal, it never really showed quite how nuts he can be when left to his own devices.

Harry plays himself (or at least his usual big-collared character), who lives with his Nan (Julie Walters) and a talking hamster called Abu (voiced by Johnny Vegas). When he takes Abu to the Vet, Harry thinks his pal only has a week to live and so decides to take him on a trip to Blackpool. However what he doesn’t realise is that he’s actually caught up in a plan by his evil twin brother (Matt Lucas), who wants revenge. [Read more…]

Saving Mr. Banks (Blu-ray)

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Cor blimey Mary Poppins! It’s 50 years since the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke starrer arrived in cinemas, won the Best Picture Oscar and became one of the greatest family classics ever. However as Saving Mr. Banks shows, Disney’s attempt to get the character on the screen started a long time before the movies 1964 debut, as the character’s creator, PL Travers, wasn’t keen on selling the screen rights. [Read more…]