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

Brokeback Mountain The Opera (DVD Review)

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Yes, there really is a Brokeback Mountain The Opera. It’s not a satire like Jerry Springer The Opera; it’s a proper, legit opera, and even has a libretto by the creator of the original short story it’s based on, Annie Proulx. It was originally written to be performed by the New York City Opera’s programme that creates new works around ideas and stories that are familiar to a younger, less elite audience. However when General Director Gerard Mortier moved from New York to the Teatro Real in Madrid, he took the piece with him.

It is initially an odd mix. Watching big, tough burly cowboys singing in a singularly operatic fashion takes some getting used to. I’m sure you’re familiar with the story though. Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar meet when they are hired to look after sheep one summer on Brokeback Mountain. Initially Jack finds it difficult to connect with the quiet and somewhat taciturn Ennis, but soon they bond and embark on an intense love affair. [Read more…]

Cucumber & Banana (DVD Review)

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Cucumber arrived on British television with huge amounts of fanfare. After all it was a return to gay Manchester for writer Russell T Davies more than 15 years after Queer As Folk. Plus it came with the interesting idea of having a secondary show, Banana, which aired on E4 and told a half-hour story about one of the characters from the main Cucumber episode.

However after the first episode the critical response was somewhat muted, and while many viewers hung around hoping Cucumber would suddenly become great, a lot of people gave up partway through. However now that the whole thing is complete and has been released on DVD, should everyone have stuck around until the end? [Read more…]

No Good Deed (DVD Review)

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Sometimes getting two really good actors to take on a rather run of the mill script can raise the whole thing to new levels. There must have been hope No Good Deed could do the same, but it doesn’t really work.

Colin (Idris Elba) is a very bad man, who police believe is a serial murderer but who they’ve only managed to lock up for manslaughter. After a parole hearing he escapes custody and heads for the house of his girlfriend, whom he promptly kills (just in case we were wondering just how bad he is). [Read more…]

The Skeleton Twins (DVD Review)

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With SNL alumni Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader in the lead roles, you could be forgiven for thinking this would be a riotous gross-out laugh-fest, but right from the first few scenes The Skeleton Twins sets itself to be something far more indie dramedy.

Hader and Wiig are twins Milo and Maggie who aren’t completely estranged but have severely drifted apart after he left for LA to become an actor. Things aren’t going to well though, as the movie opens with Maggie narrowly escaping death and Milo attempting suicide. He heads back to their hometown to stay with Maggie and try to start over, but they soon discover that reuniting isn’t easy and that neither of them is in a place in their lives where they feel they should be. [Read more…]

Horns (DVD Review)

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Horns is a certainly a bit of an odd film, not least because it can’t quite decide what it is – comedy, horror, fable, fantasy, thriller, murder mystery, drama – flitting between them all with little sense of consistency. It’s probably this difficulty in pigeonholing the movie that has limited its audience so far, but in many ways that’s a shame, as while very uneven it is oddly entertaining and just a little beguiling.

Daniel Radcliffe is Ig Perrish, whose girlfriend (Juno Temple) has been murdered and everyone in his small town has decided he’s the killer, despite there not being enough evidence to charge him with anything. Things get a little bizarre when he wakes up one morning to discover he’s grown horns out of his forehead, and that he now has the power to get people to admit to all the things they’d normally keep hidden away (he discovers a lot of these things involve what they’d really like to do to him, as they believe he’s gotten away with murder). [Read more…]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Blu-ray Review)

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Mockingjay was always going to have a struggle, despite the success of the previous movies. Anyone who’s read the books will know that the third instalment is rather different from the earlier two, not least because there’s no Hunger Games arena and things get pretty dark and glum. Many also wondered whether there was enough material to make two films out of it, or if this gambit to get more cash from the Panem cow was a stretch too far.

It’s pleasing to see then that Mockingjay Part 1 is pretty good. Quite how good it is is difficult to say at the moment, as it’s tough to escape the feeling that this is a long build-up to Part 2, and it’s only going to be with the hindsight of the final instalment that we’ll really be able to properly judge. [Read more…]