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

REVIEWS

Cinema, DVD and Blu-ray reviews

Walk A Mile In My Pradas (DVD)

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One of the themes that seems to be emerging in populist gay cinema at the moment is doing LGBT versions of stories that mainstream movies have played with numerous times before. For example a couple of months ago we had a gay Christmas Carol with Scrooge & Marley, and now the Freaky Friday body swap film that gets a homo spin – although this time it’s a sexuality swap.

Tony (Nathaniel Marston) is a macho construction worker who’s preparing to marry his girlfriend. His latest job puts him under the supervision of the openly gay Steve, which brings Tony’s homophobic tendencies bubbling to the surface, culminating in a row at a Christmas party. They accidentally cast a festive wish on one another in front a magical Christmas angel which results in Tony becoming gay and Steve turning straight. [Read more…]

The Blue Angel (Blu-ray/DVD)

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As a lover of old Hollywood films, especially those made during the film industry’s golden age – because in my opinion the films were just better as they had a type of mystical Hollywood gloss painted over them – I was excited at the prospect of reviewing a film from 1930. This was in part to see a film from this era that I’d not heard of. It was also because the film was made not long after the transition into the talkies and, of course, it features film legend Marlene Dietrich. [Read more…]

Holy Motors (Blu-ray)

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Now here’s a movie to divide audiences. As its 90% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes suggests, it’s had an awful lot of love from the critics (several critics groups have given it their Best Foreign Film prize), but when I was watching it I couldn’t help but think a lot of people will find it infuriating and obtuse. But then, it almost seems to be challenging the viewer to think that, constantly hinting at the threads that tie it together before flying off on another flight of fancy that seems designed to frustrate the audience’s expectation. [Read more…]

Piranha (1978) (Blu-ray)

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B-movie producer Roger Corman is legendary for giving some of the biggest names in the film their first break. He was among the first to hire Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and 1978’s Piranha also had more than its fair share of people getting some of their first film experience.

Director Joe Dante went on to helm the likes of Gremlins and Innerspace, and it was the first screenplay of John Sayles, who later directed Passion Fish and Lone Star. Editor Mark Goldblatt won an Oscar for Terminator 2, Rob Bottin is now a legend in make-up special effects, and Phil Tippett has an Academy Award for his special effects work on Jurassic Park [Read more…]

Now Is Good (DVD)

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Making a movie about someone who’s dying is a tricky business. On one level it’s a subject that involves inherent drama, but equally you don’t want to make something that sounds like such a downer no one will want to watch it. Likewise, you want people to get emotionally involved, but you don’t want it to be so emotionally manipulative and sentimental that people are nauseated rather than moved.

It’s a balance Now Is Good is constantly trying to work out, succeeding better at some times than others. [Read more…]

The Sweeney (DVD)

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If the Metropolitan Police are hoping to get away from their image in some sectors as oppressive cowboys with a penchant for shooting people they don’t need to, The Sweeney isn’t going to help the cause. The film takes the stereotype of the old school, rulebook ignoring cop and ramps it up the nth degree. Indeed it’s more the cliché of the original 1970s TV series it’s based on than anything close to the series itself. [Read more…]

That’s My Boy (DVD)

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With Razzie nominations, a 22% rotten score on RottenTomatoes and plenty of critical derision – one reviewer said, ‘It may be the worst film, in any genre, ever made’ – I can’t say I had much hope for That’s My Boy, especially as I’m not exactly a member of the Adam Sandler fan club. However That’s My Boys wasn’t quite as dreadful as I expected – don’t get me wrong, it’s not a great movie, but it was just about watchable [Read more…]

The Campaign (DVD)

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Director Jay Roach had a bit of a political 2012. He made the HBO Sarah Palin biopic Game Change and the comedy The Campaign. For my money it was the former that was the most successful.

The Campaign is the sort of movie that will divide audiences – if you don’t mind films that leave reality in the dust and find their humour in stupidity, you’ll probably like it, but if you want your films to have some sort of logic to them, you’ll probably give up about 20 minutes in. [Read more…]

The Possession (Blu-ray)

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With Hollywood having run through pretty much every horror cliche going, The Possession reaches out to Jewish folklore and the legend of the dibbuk box, a wooden container said to contain the spirit of a dibbuk, an evil spirit that can haunt and even possess people.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Clyde, who’s recently divorced from Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick). He takes his two daughters to a yard sale near his new home, where his youngest, Em (Natasha Kalis), becomes intrigued by a locked wooden box. As you can probably guess, it’s not long until strange things are happening and the daughter has become obsessed with the box. [Read more…]

Dance Hall (DVD)

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In the pantheon of Ealing films, Dance Hall is one of the ones that normally gets ignored. That’s partly because when it was released it was dismissed by male critics who looked at is as rather irrelevant, due to the fact it was about working class women. However in recent years it’s had a bit of a reappraisal, not because it’s actually an overlooked masterpiece, but because it’s one of the few movies made not long after the Second World War that does concentrate on the lives of normal women. [Read more…]