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

CINEMA REVIEWS

The latest cinema reviews from BGPS

Cloud Atlas (Cinema)

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At the beginning of Cloud Atlas Ben Wishaw’s Robert puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. Three tortuous hours later I wanted to do the same.

Cloud Atlas was on a long list of ‘unfilmable’ books that have become reality on the screen, but unlike Life Of Pi, which garnered many an Oscar nomination, this proves that the novel should have stayed just that. On screen it’s a complete mess – sprawling, often dull, frequently incomprehensible, utterly humourless and with a vaguely eco-message that is presumably supposed to save its faults – it doesn’t. [Read more…]

The Fall Of The Essex Boys (Cinema)

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I have to admit I’m a little confused about the British film industry at the moment, or at least the more commercial side of it. Currently we only seem to be able to produce wedding comedies and movies about irredeemable criminal assholes.

The Fall Of The Essex Boys fits squarely in the latter category, telling the true story of the run up to the Rettendon Triple Murders of three drug dealers in Essex in 1995. It’s a crime that seems to have a strange hold on some people as this is the fourth movie made about the events surrounding it, following Essex Boys, Rise of the Footsoldier and Bonded by Blood. Quite why this crime has created a mini industry of films, books and even merchandise is a bit of a mystery, because in the annals of murder, the demise of three impressively scummy drug dealers is amongst the least worth getting exercised about. [Read more…]

Hitchcock (Cinema)

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Anthony Hopkins gave some amazing performances in the 1980s and 1990s, but for the last decade or so it’s seemed like he’s simply turned up for his paycheque. However it turns that to get him to give a real performance you’ve got to give him a role where he doesn’t have much choice but to act. After all, Alfred Hitchcock is far too well known for Hopkins just to have coasted it. Thankfully he doesn’t, not just doing a dead-on impersonations of the master director, but creating a fully realised character in a way Toby Jones couldn’t quite manage in the recent, The Girl. [Read more…]

A Liar’s Autobiography – The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman in 3D (Cinema)

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This film has been released 23 years after the untimely death (or not, if you look at his lifestyle) of Graham Chapman. The Film is not calling itself A Monty Python film, but a Graham Chapman film, and after watching it you might understand why.

The synopsis: in 1989 Chapman – ‘a freeloading bastard’ (according to John Cleese at his funeral) sadly ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘E’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! – OK enough Parrot Sketch quotes already!! (which he co-wrote with John Cleese) [Read more…]

Pitch Perfect (Cinema)

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It films were marked purely on originality, Pitch Perfect wouldn’t do very well. It’s Bring It On meets Glee, with a plot that delves into pretty much every cliché of the underdog competition subgenre it can find. Thankfully though, Pitch Perfect has an excellent trump card, which is that it’s very, very funny.

Beca (Anna Kendrick) heads for college, but she doesn’t want to be there. She wants to go straight to LA and get into the music business, but her father has told her she has to get a degree first. He does eventually make one concession though – if she throws herself into university life and joins at least one club, he’ll support her move to LA after the first year if she still wants to go. [Read more…]

Life Of Pi (Cinema)

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Normally when a book is deemed unfilmable, it’s because it’s thought that the plot and the way it’s told would be tough to successfully transfer to the big screen. With Life Of Pi it was more due to business considerations. It’s largely a story about an Indian boy alone at sea with only a tiger for company, so any adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize winning book was bound to cost a lot to make, not least in special effects. With little room for big stars or traditional action – and just one human character for most of the running time – it was a gamble most believed no studio would take. [Read more…]

Dead Europe (Cinema)

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Following up some of the same themes as his earlier film, Jewboy, director Tony Krawitz this time brings Christos Tsiolkas’ novel to the screen. Ewen Leslie puts in an understated performance as the Australian Isaac, who against the wishes of his family takes his father’s ashes to Greece to scatter them in his dad’s homeland. [Read more…]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Cinema)

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After the gargantuan success of Lord Of The Rings, it was always going to be an uphill battle for The Hobbit to live up to those films’ critical success. That’s already been proved by the rather mixed reaction of the early reviews for An Unexpected Journey.

However, while there are definitely a few issues with the movie, for my money this is a largely successful trip back to Middle Earth, although as with Peter Jackson’s earlier fantasy movies, we’re only really going to be able to judge things once the final movie is released (people may have liked Fellowship and Two Towers, but if Return Of The King had been a load of old balls, it would have completely ruined the entire trilogy, as they’re essentially one very, very long film). [Read more…]

Laurence Anyways (Cinema)

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After directing his first film, I Killed My Mother, at the age of 19 and following it up with the pretty good Heartbeats, many people have been wondering what Xavier Dolan would come up with next. The answer is Laurence Anyways, about 10 years in the relationship between Fred (Suzanne Clement) and Laurence (Melvil Poupaud).

At the outset they are just a normal man and woman who love each other and suffer the usual ups and downs of relationships. However Laurence can’t hold something in any longer and after two years with Fred he tells her that he’s transsexual and wants to start living as a woman. Inevitably this causes problems, with Fred initially wondering whether she should just leave – especially as her sister seems to think is the only solution. However they stay together, but the transition proves tough on both of them, and not solely because of Laurence becoming a woman. [Read more…]

Happy Happy (Cinema)

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I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who guessed that a European movie called Happy Happy wasn’t going to be as jolly as the title suggests. However Anne Sewitsky’s Norwegian movie won prizes at Sundance and was its country’s official entry for last year’s Academy Awards, so it’s certainly got some pedigree.

Kaja and Eirik are a couple who live in the countryside and have been together for years. While they put up a front of happiness and Kaja seems to have accepted her lot, their world is shaken up when a cosmopolitan new couple move in next door, along with their African adopted son, Noa. Kaja looks at them and see what appears to be the perfect marriage, which is far from what she has to deal with. However at a dinner party she discovers that things between Elisabeth and Sigve are actually strained, but she still wants what they have and ends up having a sexual encounter with Sigve. [Read more…]