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 Lego Batman Movie (Blu-ray Review) – Has the Caped Crusader gone a little gay?

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The Lego Movie was a surprise to many – a film that when it was announced sounded like such a bad idea turned out to be one of the funniest, most original animated movies of the last few years, and a major hit to boost. Warner Bros. suddenly realised they had the potential for something much bigger, so rather than just putting a sequel in the works, they started working on spin-offs, including a Ninjago movie and The Lego Batman Movie.

We first met the Lego version of Batman (Will Arnett) in The Lego Movie – an arrogant vigilante convinced of his own greatness and jealous of the praise other superheroes get. He starts out the same here, saving Gotham City from The Joker and a Rogues Gallery of villains, and confident about how awesome everyone thinks he is. However, he’s also obsessed with doing things alone, with the result that when he’s back at Wayne Manor, he only has his butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) for company. Batman thinks that for the best, but it may be because he’s afraid of having a family. [Read more…]

Hotel Transylvania 2 (DVD Review)

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Hotel Transylvania was a far bigger success than many people expected. Indeed, even Sony Pictures appeared to be taken by surprise, but it didn’t take them long to decide a sequel was needed. That follow-up quickly takes us through the next few years of the story, which sees monsters and humans starting to get along better across the world.

Dracula’s daughter Mavis marries slacker boyfriend Jonathan and they have a child, Dennis. As Dennis is only half-vampire, it’s not clear whether he will end up being a monster or not, but Dracula is determined that before he’s five, his grandson will spout fangs, as he knows that otherwise he will remain human forever. Mavis meanwhile feels that if Dennis is indeed more human than monster, perhaps it would be better if they went to live in the ‘normal’ world. [Read more…]

Minions (Blu-ray Review)

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I severely doubt that when the creators of Despicable Me came up with the Minions as a bit of comic relief they ever thought they would become the phenomenon they have. Indeed, you could be forgiven if you’d forgotten those films were about Gru, due to the massive wave of Minions merchandise in the shops, and now a spin-off movie that has massively eclipsed its predecessors, becoming only the third animated film ever to gross more than a billion at cinemas worldwide.

The film takes us back to the origins of the little yellow creatures, who have been look for the evilest boss to follow around for millions of years, from prehistoric fish to the T-rex. However, the last few hundred years have been tough, with the Minions losing all their masters and retreating from the world and hiding away at the South Pole. [Read more…]

Inside Out (Cinema Review)

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Pixar have consistently delivered some of the greatest animated family movies of the last 20 years. I say family, as not only are these aimed at youngsters, but they also charm adults as well. We have had movies about fish, toys, monsters, cars, balloons and bugs. Now they are going inside your head – literally.

For those who have not seen the trailers or the adverts, the film is centred around five emotions in young girl Riley’s head. These characters represent Sadness, Joy, Fear, Disgust and Anger, all emotions we are familiar with – in fact everyone in the film has these emotions (no more). [Read more…]

A Letter To Three Wives (Blu-ray Review)

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I have always wanted to see A Letter To Three Wives, but I’m almost ashamed to say I’d never watched it before. The reason I was keen to see it is that All About Eve is one of my favourite movies ever, and this is the other film for which Joseph L. Mankiewicz won both a Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscar.

I’m glad to say I wasn’t completely disappointed by the film, although I can see why the movie has fallen out of favour compared to much of Mankiewicz’s other work, such as Cleopatra and The Barefoot Contessa. While not that many younger people have seen the 1949 Oscar winner, they may find the plot oddly familiar, as more recently it served as the basis for an episode of The Simpsons. [Read more…]

Shaun The Sheep The Movie (Blu-ray Review)

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It’s amazing to think that Shaun The Sheep started off as a minor character in one of the Wallace & Gromit shorts, as since then he’s become a bit of a children’s entertainment powerhouse, with a TV series, loads of merchandise, a spin-off (in the form of Timmy Time), and now a movie.

In the film Shaun decides that once more he must try to outwit the farmer so that and the flock can take the day off. However a series of accidents results in the sheep ending up in the big city. They dress up as humans and set out to look for the farmer, who has been knocked over the head and has amnesia. During to his shearing skills, the farmer becomes a celebrated hairstylist, but can Shaun and co. get to him and help him recover his memories, before the evil animal control man can get them? [Read more…]

Penguins Of Madagascar (Blu-ray Review)

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I’m becoming increasingly convinced that DreamWorks Animation have given up on making films and have instead decided to make a series of 90 minute chase scenes. With some of their output this strategy has resulted in a giant mess, but with others it’s worked surprisingly well, and that’s the case with Penguins Of Madagascar.

Despite the title, this doesn’t really have much to do with the Madagascar films bar the presence of the military-minded penguins and a few jokey references. In the new film Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private come up against a surprising opponent when they meet Dr. Octavius Brine, who seems to be a brilliant human scientist, but is actually an octopus called Dave. The purple cephalopod harbours a hatred of the penguins due to the fact that they used to be loved far more than him at the zoo. [Read more…]

Cinderella (Cinema Review)

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After the success of Maleficent (2014) it’s little surprise that Disney is remaking some of their classic animated stories as live action movies. In a few years we will also have Beauty And The Beast and Tim Burton’s Dumbo (complete with a Danny Elfman soundtrack) and one day hopefully a version of Snow White where Peter Dinklage plays all the dwarfs.

To be honest though any studio can do these films as the stories are public domain (although Disney does like to bring in elements they have exclusive rights to due to them first appearing in their animated versions).

However what the other studios don’t have is the Disney magic. [Read more…]

The Book Of Life (Blu-ray Review)

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Comparing The Book Of Life to Fifty Shades Of Grey may seem od, but there is one thing that brings them together – in my head at least. If Fifty Shades had been written by a man, I can’t help but feel it would have been thought of as horrifically sexist, and with The Book Of Life, I couldn’t help but wonder if some would have accused it of racism if it hadn’t been directed and co-written by people from Mexico.

I’m not necessarily criticising the film, but the movie doesn’t have many qualms about delving into Mexican stereotypes. However the fact is that behind the scenes it had a massive Mexican influence, not just from director Jorge R. Gutiérrez and co-writer/producer Guillermo Del Toro, but also many of the crew, who may infuse the movie with sombreros and bullfighting, but they do so with snarking or belittling, instead attempting to pay tribute to the rich culture. [Read more…]

Spirited Away (Blu-ray Review)

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As Spirited Away is the movie that helped Studio Ghibli become far better known in the West than it ever had before – particularly when it walked away with the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s never come out on Blu-ray in the UK before. However now it’s here, getting a release of its own before it becomes part of an 11 disc Studio Ghibli Blu-ray collection on December 8th.

It is undoubtedly a strange and often weird movie, but also a beautiful and incredibly involving one. There’s an odd sense of randomness to much of it, but then there also was to The Wizard Of Oz and Alice In Wonderland, which undoubtedly served as inspiration for the way the story is told. [Read more…]