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

Dolphin Tale (DVD)

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Based on a true story (loosely at least), Dolphin Tale is about a slightly lonely young boy (Nathan Gamble) who comes across a beached baby dolphin that’s managed to get its tale caught in a crab trap. After it’s rescued, the animal is taken to a marine hospital run by Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.), who realises that the tale is too damaged to recover. While many vets would just put the dolphin down, he decides to amputate the tail and see if the animal, now dubbed Winter, will survive.

Nathan soon becomes Winter’s steadfast companion, and when it appears the dolphin’s lack of a tail could cause permanent nerve damage that will inevitably lead to death, the boy is inspired by a tragedy that’s happened to a member of his family to enlist the help of Dr. Cameron McCarty, to do something that’s never been done before – make a prosthetic tail for a dolphin. [Read more…]

Cleopatra (Blu-ray)

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If you ask someone about Cleopatra, they’re more likely to talk about how it famously went over-budget and nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox than they are the movie itself. It’s known for its incredibly difficult production (you can read more about that fascinating story here), being a flop (which it wasn’t, incidentally) and for being the first movie where the main star pocketed $1 million upfront for a single movie.

Indeed Elizabeth Taylor ended up with a lot more than that. Her contract meant she got paid extra for every day production overran compared to initial projections,  so after an illness nearly killed her, production moved from England to Italy, the director and actors around her changed and other overruns added months to the production, it meant she got paid millions. Cleopatra is famous for perhaps being the most expensive movie ever made, if adjusted for inflation, and Elizabeth Taylor may well still be the best paid actress ever for a single movie, by the same measure. [Read more…]

To Kill A Mockingbird (Blu-ray)

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There are a lot of classic books that have been made into very good movies, and a lot of classic movies that are based on very good books, but To Kill A Mockingbird is a very rare beast – one of the greatest books of the 20th Century, turned into one of the greatest movies of the 20th Century. It’s an almost perfect movie adaptation, which understands perfectly what makes Harper Lee’s novel work and manages to bring that across into a different medium. And now it’s getting an HD restoration and upgrade to celebrate both its 50th birthday and Universal Studios 100th anniversary. [Read more…]

Legend (Blu-ray)

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If movies were judged purely on how pretty they look, Ridley Scott’s 1985 movie Legend would undoubtedly be considered one of the greatest films of all time. As you’d therefore hope, it looks utterly amazing on Blu-ray, to the point where some scenes are truly mesmerising.

The plot and other aspects of the film sadly remain somewhat problematic. However, with the European Theatrical Cut included on the disc beside the more recently rediscovered Director’s Cut version, you do get a hint that Legend could have been something truly special on all counts, but whether due to the script, story or studio interference, it never quite made it. [Read more…]

Teen Wolf (Blu-ray)

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If someone at your school turned into a werewolf halfway through a basketball game, do you reckon everyone would have been okay with it as long as they played the sport better? When rewatching Teen Wolf, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Michael J. Fox’s hoop dreams hadn’t improved by getting hairy. The film kind of gives the impression it might have been pitchforks and silver bullets time.

But that’s the thing with Teen Wolf. It’s a stunningly silly movie, where nobody acts in ways real human beings do, but which gets by and is deemed worth giving a HD release to 28-years-on, due to its charm, sense of humour and warm-heartedness. [Read more…]

The Artist (Cinema)

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I don’t know why people are saying The Artist should win at the Oscars. It’s obvious director Michel Hazanavicius doesn’t know how to make a movie. For a start, he made the film in black and white. Doesn’t he know the world got coloured in during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s? Plus, he’s so incompetent he forgot to record the dialogue, so he just plays some music and occasionally has a caption card come up on screen, as if that’s a sensible way of telling a story.

He doesn’t even manage to make it in the right aspect ratio, as it’s the same width-to-length as old style-TVs. Hell, it’s not even in 3D! Hazanavicius needs to go back to square one, watch some Michael Bay movies and learn how to make real, proper films with explosions and stuff. This is the 21st Century! [Read more…]

West Side Story (Blu-ray)

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If you ever told someone about West Side Story who didn’t know anything about it, their response is likely to be, ‘That sounds awful!’ It is a concept you really wouldn’t think would work on the screen, except for a niche audience. After all, it is essentially a film that asks you to accept a bunch of street toughs who sort everything out with ballet, and which features plot twists (admittedly borrowed from Romeo & Juliet) that are far-fetched to say the least.

However thanks to an incredible conjunction of talent, it doesn’t just work but is one of the greatest musicals ever created. As you probably know, the film is essentially Romeo & Juliet but transferred to the streets of New York, with the Capulets and Montagues replaced by the white street gang The Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. [Read more…]