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

Yossi (DVD)

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Etyan Fox’s 2002 film Yossi & Jagger has become a bit of a gay fave, and now 10 years later he catches up with one of the title characters in Yossi. The earlier movie followed two men in the Israeli army who fall in love against a backdrop of a military that doesn’t look favourably of gay liaisons. Now Yossi (Ohad Knoller) is a doctor in a hospital, leading a rather lonely, solitary life that revolves around his work, internet porn and looking for one night stands (that don’t always go well). [Read more…]

Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8 (DVD) (US Release)

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First a bit of history. In 2008, a California Supreme Court ruling decided that same sex couples had a constitutional right to marry in the state. The only way to overturn that was with a constitutional amendment voted for by the populace, and so in November of that, those against gay marriage ensured that Proposition 8 was on the ballot, which was designed to add a clause to the California constitution saying that, ‘only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.’ [Read more…]

Life Just Is (DVD)

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I always say a film must be doing something right if you have a reaction to it, rather than it blandly flitting across your retina. However it’s preferable if that reaction is joy or admiration, rather than a sense of irritation and a feeling that the whole thing is closer to being pretentious toss than a successful trip into the minds of a group of people in their mid-20s. [Read more…]

New Year’s Eve (DVD)

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New Year’s Eve gives us a look into the way in which we all cross over into each other’s lives on a daily basis without even knowing it, amongst a combination of romance, heartache, laughter and sadness.

With an all-star ensemble cast the audience gets to enjoy the many different plots, in what reminded me of films such as Love Actually. The film is generally good and moves at a steady pace so the audience won’t get bored as they keep zigzagging through the multiple stories, some of which are much better than others. [Read more…]

Step Up 4: Miami Heat (3D Blu-ray)

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While the Step Up franchise looked like it was on its last legs after only two instalments, the re-emergence of 3D gave the things a bit of a kick up the ass, with Step Up 3-D taking $160 million around the world and ensuring it was worth making a part four. Now that new sequel arrives on 3D Blu-ray.

If you’ve seen any of the previous Step Up movies, you’ll know not to expect much from the plot, and indeed this one barely even tries. There are two basic plots for dance films – one is a streetwise poor kid with funky moves falling for a rich girl whose rigid classical dance training needs shaking up, and the other is corporate types trying to bulldoze something, and for some reason only dancing can stop them.  Step Up: Miami Heat crashes both those plots together, with rich, ballet dancing Emily meeting and starting to fall for working class Sean, who’s one of the leaders of ‘The Mob’, a group that stages intricately choreographed streetdance flashmobs around Miami. [Read more…]

Lord Of The Rings – Extended Editions (Blu-ray)

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been 11 years since Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring first appeared in cinemas and blew audiences with its incredible depiction of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Before the first film was released, many had thought New Line was insane spending several hundred million dollars making the three movies back-to-back, especially as at the time fantasy was seen as box office poison. [Read more…]

The Dark Knight Rises (Blu-ray)

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The Dark Knight Rises had a lot to live up to after the superb second instalment in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. While it may not be quite as good as The Dark Knight, the film is a fitting conclusion to the series, tying up the thematic ends and ramping up the spectacle and excitement.

It’s seven years after the events of The Dark Knight and Bruce Wayne is living as a virtual recluse in his mansion. Batman is no longer needed and Wayne is a physical wreck. However when a mysterious figure known as Bane (Tom Hardy) arrives in Gotham with plans aimed at destroying Bruce and potentially destroying the city, there’s no choice but to bring the Bat out of retirement. [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…]

Annie – 30th Anniversary Sing-Along Edition (Blu-ray)

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Tooo-marrow, tooo-marrow, I luv ya, tooo-marrow, you’re only a daaaay, aaaawaaay. It’s been 30 years since Annie first erupted onto cinema screens, and now it’s back in HD form. On its initial release it got rather mixed notices, which was partially due to the fact that after huge amounts of hype and vast amounts of cash were spent on making the film (including a then record $9.5 million paid just for the rights to the stage show), it had huge amounts to live up to. When it was just a pretty fun film and not the second coming of Jesus on celluloid, it came in for a bit of stick from critics, even if audiences quite liked it. [Read more…]

Magic Mike (DVD)

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While there was a lot of interest in Magic Mike before it was released in cinemas, I don’t think many people suspected that this $7 million budgeted movie would pull in over $100 million at the US box office, or get quite so many people so excited. There’s little doubt much of the interest in the film is that while women are routinely sexualised in cinemas, its rarer for a film to come along that offers the girls and gay guys something to get hot under the collar about, with male characters unabashedly served up for their sexual delectation. [Read more…]