2008 Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Shock To The System

January 2, 2012 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Chad Allen, Sebastian Spence, Michael Woods, Morgan Fairchild
Director: Ron Oliver
Running Time: 87 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: March 24th, 2008

The second of four Donald Strachey movies starring Chad Allen (following Third Man Out) sees the gay actor back as the gay detective, this time delving into the exceedingly dodgy world of ex-gay therapy. Strachey is hired by a young man, Paul Hale, who almost immediately afterwards turns up dead, after apparently killing himself. While Donald isn’t sure exactly why he was hired, he starts to investigate the death, which leads him to the door of the Phoenix Foundation and its director Dr. Trevor Cornell, who practices controversial techniques that attempt to turn gay people straight. [Read more…]

I Dreamt Under The Water (DVD)

November 2, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Hubert Benhamdine, Caroline Ducey
Director: Hormoz
Running Time: 103 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: October 6th, 2008

I know the world can be a dark place, but some filmmakers and artists seem to believe that just because a story is unrelentingly bleak, it’s good or realistic. I Dreamt Under The Water suffers terribly from this. Angel’s lover dies in his arms from a drug overdose, and after that he descends into a hell of intoxication, public gay sex and life as a rent boy.

I’m sure if your lover died it’d be terrible, but here it just becomes tedious, mainly because the film is more interested in making you think the world is a terrible place than telling a story with momentum that actually seems rooted in the real world. Unfortunately, it’s difficult not to wonder whether the film got a release more because it includes brief hardcore gay sex shots, rather than the merits of the film itself.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Third Man Out (DVD)

November 2, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Chad Allen, Sebastian Spence, Jack Wetherall, Woody Jeffreys
Director: Ron Oliver
Running Time: 95 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: 4th February, 2008

Private eye Donald Strachey is asked to look into an attack on a man called John Rutka, who’s famed for outing powerful people as gay. While Strachey and Rutka’s ideas on gay politics differ dramatically, the PI gets pulled into the case after his boyfriend is attacked and Rutka is killed. [Read more…]

Touch Of Pink (DVD)

November 2, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Jimi Mistry, Suleka Mathew, Kristen Holden-Ried, Kyle McLachlan
Director: Ian Iqbal Rashid
Running Time: 88 mins
Certificate: 12
Release Date: 11th February, 2008

Gay, Canadian, Muslim Alim is living in London with his boyfriend, happy to be far away from the expectations of his Islami mother and family. When mum Nuru comes to visit, Alim tries to hide his relationship, but that proves tougher than he thought.

Gay movies are a strange breed, largely because they often try so hard to be resolutely ‘GAY’, that the end result is that nobody, gay or straight, can identify with what they’re seeing (it’s also true that a lot are made by people who shouldn’t have progressed beyond shooting holiday videos). [Read more…]