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

Sunshine On Leith (Blu-ray)

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Unless you’re a fan, you could be forgiven to think Scottish musical twins The Proclaimers only had one song, the ubiquitous I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), although some might also be able to tell you Letters From America is also one of their tunes. As a result to some it may seem odd to base a musical around their songs, but it’s actually a surprisingly smart idea.

Firstly, you may well recognise more of their songs than you expected, and it’s certainly true their music is pretty well known in Scotland, even if not all of it is as popular in the rest of the UK. Secondly, while many acts sing rather airy tunes that talk about abstract ideas and attempt to be universal by being deliberately vague, The Proclaimers music is far more personal, with seemingly naïve but actually rather complex lyrics that place the music resolutely in the shoes of someone living a real life. The songs reference specific Scottish locations and talk about the sort of small scale events of life and how they affect someone emotionally. [Read more…]

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Cinema)

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There’s one thing to be said of Ben Stiller’s reimagining of famous daydreamer Mitty – he certainly captures the mood of the times. Mitty works at Life magazine, which is going digital, and most of the staff are being laid off. The ‘digital takeover’ is being handled by Ted (a gloriously oily Adam Scott) and there are many scenes of upset worker carrying brown boxes containing their meagre possessions out of the building, security guard in tow. [Read more…]

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (Blu-ray)

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After Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief failed to become a massive success, most people thought that would be the last we’d see of Rick Riordan’s boy demigod. While it took Fox a while to decide to make a follow-up, it’s now here.

This time around Percy (Logan Lerman) is living at Camp Half-Blood alongside the other half-human kids with Olympian parents, which is the only place they’re safe, thanks to a protective barrier that prevents the forces that would like to kill them from getting in. However just as Percy learns that his nemesis from the first film, Luke (Jake Abel), isn’t dead, the tree that’s responsible for the maintaining barrier begins to die. The only way to reverse the poisoning is with the mystical Golden Fleece. [Read more…]

Planes (Blu-ray)

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Planes is an entertaining movie almost in spite of itself. A spin-off from Cars made by Disneytoon Studios (and originally planned to go straight to DVD), you can feel the competing desires behind the movie coming off the screen, not all of which are about telling an entertaining story. The wish to keep the feel of Cars results in a plot that’s a mash-up between the two Pixar movies, complete with major characters that are almost carbon copies of Doc Hudson and Mater, as well as a protagonist who may not have Lightning McQueen’s initial arrogance but still has more than a dash of his attitude. [Read more…]

Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – The New Generation: Alive On Stage (DVD)

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In the 1970s unusual albums were the flavour of the times, from The Who’s Tommy to the surprise success of Tubular Bells. However when Jeff Wayne released his musical version of HG Wells’ War Of The Worlds in 1978, I’d be surprised if he thought that 36 years later it would still be going strong re-envisioned as an arena spectacular. Many people mistakenly think it started out as a stage musical, but it wasn’t it was a concept album, with the voice of Richard Burton and various people singing the songs. [Read more…]

Chasing Mavericks (Blu-ray)

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Chasing Mavericks is a biopic of surfer Jay Moriarty, following his teenage years when he went from keen amateur so surfing some of the biggest waves in the world. Jay (Jonny Weston) is a little bit of a misfits and often pushed around by the other kids. However he loves to surf and discovers that just up the coast from his Californian home are some truly monster waves. [Read more…]

The Mummy (1959) (Blu-ray)

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Following the success of Dracula and Frankenstein, it was little surprise that Hammer decided to take on one of the other characters that Universal had success with in the 1930s – The Mummy. The British film company’s 1959 take on bandaged ancient Egyptians reunites Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and director Terence Fisher, and while the results aren’t as memorable as with the earlier movies, it is fun. [Read more…]

Berlin 36 (DVD)

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After the rise of the Nazis, young Jewish high-jumper Gretel Bergmann (Karoline Herfurth) is thrown out of her athletics club and so goes to England where she becomes British champion. While the German rulers are glad to be rid of her, protests in America suggest they won’t send a team unless Jewish people are allowed to compete in the upcoming Berlin Olympics. [Read more…]

The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mum (DVD)

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With a title as awesome The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mum, this film has a lot to live up to, and thankfully it’s a pretty good and rather sweet movie. It’s also a fairly good example of what cinema is lacking because there are so few women directors, as when you get a movie like this, with a genuine female voice, you realise how rare it is and how lop-sided the movies generally are.

It’s 1976 and Elizabeth is on the verge of puberty. During a class assignment about how blood groups are hereditary, she realises that she cannot be her parents’ biological child. Understandably she’s a little upset and confused about this, and becomes gripped with the idea of find her ‘real’ mother. After thinking it over, she comes to the conclusion that perhaps Dolly Parton is her mum, due to the singer’s trailblazing ways and love of poetry. [Read more…]

Doctor Who: The Dalek Films (Blu-ray)

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You could be forgiven for not knowing that in the 1960s there were two Doctor Who movies. The reason they’re slightly obscure is that they weren’t made by the BBC and aren’t considered part of the official canon – and for good reason. While they feature some familiar elements from the TV show, such as the Daleks and the police box TARDIS (in the movies it’s just TARDIS, not ‘the’ TARDIS), in other respects things are considerably changed. [Read more…]