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

Real Steel (Blu-ray)

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I’m not a big fan of the people who like to say everything about modern Hollywood is rubbish and films were better in the past (largely because if you look at it objectively, it’s nonsense), but one thing a lot of big Hollywood flicks do seem to have lost in the last few years is real heart. It’s as if a fear of being labelled sentimental or phoney has ended up with films that don’t even try to tug on your heartstrings or really engage you emotionally. It’s nice then when a film comes along that wears its heart of its sleeve and isn’t afraid to be a full-on, feel-good, heartwarmer. [Read more…]

Repo Man (Blu-ray)

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Repo Man is one of the cultiest of cult movies and has been ever since the day it was made. As director Alex Cox explains in the newly filmed introduction, Universal was initially intent on burying the movie (partially because some seemed to think the film was pro-Communist), but after the soundtrack started selling well, it got a wider release, found its audience and gained enough fans to keep it alive nearly 30 years on.

The film tells the story of Otto (Emilio Estevez), who quits/gets fired from his supermarket job and almost inadvertently ends up working as a repo man after a run in with an experienced repossessor called Bud (Harry Dean Stanton). That leads him into an increasingly bizarre world involving a car that disintegrates anyone who looks into the trunk, people looking for the body of a dead alien, blond-haired men in black and Otto’s punk friends/thieves. [Read more…]

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark (DVD)

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Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is a bit of a passion project for producer Guillermo Del Toro. The 1973 TV movie it’s based on made a huge impression on the Pan’s Labyrinth filmmaker as a child and he remembers it as one of the scariest things of his childhood. However what fuels childhood nightmares doesn’t necessarily translate to a remake for an adult audience, especially when you add in fairy tale lore that makes things seem sillier than they need to be.

While in the original it’s a grown women who has problems when she moves into a new house, in the new version it’s a little girl called Sally (Bailee Madison), who comes to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes) in a massive old house they’re renovating. Sally feels rather unwanted and initially takes a disliking to her dad’s girlfriend, Kim, however that takes a backseat when she starts to hear whispering coming through the heating ducts and then strange little creatures escape from a boarded up basement. [Read more…]

The Well Digger’s Daughter (DVD)

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Daniel Auteil has been one of France’s top stars for decades, and perhaps got his biggest international exposure playing Ugolin in Jean De Florette and Manon Des Sources in the mis-80s. Those films were both adapted from novels by Marcel Pagnol, and Auteil has chosen a 1940 film by the same man to remake as his feature-film directorial debut. Indeed Auteil must feel a true affinity with Pagnol, as he’s currently writing, directing and starring in three films under the title La Trilogie Marseillaise, based on stories by the author.

The Well Digger’s Daughter in set in France just before the First World War and follows Patricia (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), who is the titular offspring of a well digger, whose father places her on a pedestal. [Read more…]

Doogie Howser, M.D. – Season 1 (DVD)

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1989 was a more innocent time. It was a time when you could put a programme on TV about a 16-year-old doctor and rather than people going, ‘Hang on, this is a bit stupid’, it’d become a hit.

A very young Neil Patrick Harris plays the titular teen doctor, a genius who managed to get his doctorate at the age of 14 and now works as a 16-year-old surgeon in a hospital. Other than getting a few comments, nobody seems that bothered about being treated by somebody who should be at home popping pimples. [Read more…]