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

Status Quo: Hello Quo! (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

It’s 50 years since the band that would become Status Quo first started forming, when in 1962 schoolboys Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster came together to make music. This lengthy documentary tells the story from those very early days and goes through the whole Quo story, from the numerous fallings-out and line-up changes, the drug-taking, rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, and on to their later demotion from Radio 1 playlists and becoming elder statesmen of rock. [Read more…]

Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

Much of physics is based on the idea that the laws of gravity are constant across the universe and have been that ways since just after the Big Bang. However that would seem to be contradicted by the fact that for decades Wuxia movies have taught us that during the Imperial past, gravity was far less powerful in China, and people were able to leap about like they’ve just arrived on the moon.  And now there’s CGI to make sure the martial art wire-fu masters’ anti-grav antics can make Newton spin ever faster in his grave. [Read more…]

King Of Devil’s Island (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

I wonder if anyone has ever made a movie where young people in a children’s home or reformatory were treated well and only punished to the extent they deserved,  in an environment that can help them become well-adjusted members of society. King Of Devil’s Island doesn’t just have a brutal borstal, but it’s also set on an island, and groups of people stuck together on an island never bodes well in the movies either. However while it may therefore sound like the film is merely mining movie chestnuts, it’s actually based on a true story. [Read more…]

Red Tails (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

George Lucas first wanted to make a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen in 1988, but it’s taken until now to get it to the screen. That’s partly due to the fact that every studio turned him down, feeling a big, historical war movie with a largely African American cast wasn’t commercial enough. They were wrong, but unfortunately Red Tails isn’t the film to prove it.

After Lucas stumped up the budget himself the film was finally made with Anthony Hemingway directing, but it was plagued by delays and reshoots, and finally got released over two years after it was first shot. The result isn’t a bad film, but it’s one that’s so clichéd it never rises above the passable. [Read more…]

The Night Child (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

The Night Child was directed by Massimo Dallamano in 1975. Unfortunately he perished in a car accident the following year. This is quite tragic considering his pedigree and historical body of work as director, actor and cinematographer. His work also included being the cinematographer on Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars more. After watching this effective film, his death was a huge loss to fans of Italian horror. His name could still be universally recognised alongside the masters of Italian horror, such as Dario Argento (Suspiria and Tenebrae) and Lucio Fulci (The Beyond), to name but a couple. [Read more…]

Storage 24 (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

Sometimes simple set-ups are the best, and sometimes they don’t live up to the promise. Sadly the latter is true of Storage 24.

An ordinary afternoon turns extraordinary when a plane crashes in the centre of London. Charlie (Noel Clarke) and Mark (Colin O’Donoghue) are on their way to a storage centre, so Charlie can pick up some stuff following a bitter break-up with his girlfriend. When they arrive, the crash has caused issues with the centre’s security, which results in them being trapped inside until the technician can reopen the shutters. Charlie thinks things have gotten about as bad as they can be when he finds his ex and a couple of her friends are already in the storage container, but the plane crash has also left something inside the facility with them – and it’s big, bad, alien and incredibly vicious. [Read more…]

The Uninvited (1944) (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

The Uninvited makes a welcome appearance on DVD – not the remake of the excellent Tale Of Two Sisters, but the stunning but much forgotten classic 1944 ghost story starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey.

The Uninvited is a spooky tale set in Cornwall. Roderick Fitzgerald (Milland) and his sister Pamela (Hussey) stumble across a deserted mansion on a clifftop that they immediately fall in love with it, although they have an odd sense about one of the rooms. They hunt down the owners and buy it for £1200 (if only we could buy them at that price now!!). After this, things start to go bump in the night, gradually building up momentum as the daughter of a  woman who died at the house starts visiting the mansion. [Read more…]