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

The Mentalist – Season 4 (DVD)

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The end of The Mentalist – Season 3 was certainly dramatic, with CBI (California Bureau of Investigation) consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) gunning down a man in a shopping mall. The ‘victim’ claimed to be Red John, the serial killer who slaughtered Jane’s wife and child.

For pretty much every other person on the planet, shooting someone to death in cold blood would be the end of their law enforcement career, but this is TV, so former ‘psychic’ Patrick quickly gets out of this sticky situation and is back to solving crimes using his unique brand of mental manipulation. Not only that, but he doesn’t believe the man he killed was really Red John, ensuring that Jane still has his single-minded pursuit of the killer to drive him. [Read more…]

Suicide Room (DVD)

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The Polish film Suicide Room is a strange beast; a tale of teenage angst and depression set partly in the real world and partly in a CG online realm (the titular Suicide Room). Dominik (Jakub Gierzal) is a rather emo teen, who’s surrounded by friends and thinks life is his oyster. However, after he’s dared to snog a good looking guy by his friends, he finds his sense of acceptance spiralling downwards, which gets worse when he has an orgasm during a particularly frenetic judo bout with the boy he kissed. His former friends begin mercilessly making fun of him online as his private struggle with his sexuality takes a very public form. [Read more…]

Into The Lion’s Den (DVD)

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A few years ago, gay themed horror films were pretty much unheard of, but very slowly more of them have been emerging, although it’s not exactly like we’ve had a flood. Now a new one has arrived in the form of Into The Lion’s Den, which also marks the first UK release from a brand new British branch of the successful US LGBT distributor Breaking Glass Pictures/QC Cinema.

The film sees three gay friends, Michael (Ronnie Kroell), Johnny (Jesse Archer) and Ted (Kristen-Alexzander Griffith), on a cross-country road trip heading for the big city. Johnny is busy shagging his way across the country, something the others have reservations about. When they arrive in a small town, Michael just wants to go to sleep, but Johnny drags them all to a rough looking bar, where he’s organised to meet someone for sex. However the evening turns out to be far more dangerous that any of them expected. [Read more…]

13 (DVD)

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Hollywood has done another remake of a genre breaking, thought provoking film noir and delivered another very average film.

The French film, 13 (Tzameti), shocked cinemagoers around the world with its back and white edgy raw filmmaking, and left stark unforgettable images ingrained in your mind long after you had seen the movie. The remake does nothing of the sort. [Read more…]

Rock Of Ages (DVD)

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The film adaptation of the 2009 Broadway musical is two hours of high energy 80s rock music coupled with laugh out loud comedy, as we see a young girl search for fame and fortune in the bright lights of Hollywood, set against the underside of the rock music industry.

Filled with great songs of the classic rock era – which has no doubt led it be being one of the last decade’s most popular musicals – the film makes you want to dance around and sing for the whole duration of the film. Although the music in the film is great, credit has to be given for the themes, of which several run through the film, with a sweet young love story evolving whilst the upside and downside of fame counterbalance each other in the background. Another theme that the film touches on is the clear mockery of the right wing with their wholesome image hiding a few dirty secrets. [Read more…]

iLL Manors (Blu-ray)

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Let me first start with a warning, if you’re hoping for an evening that isn’t too traumatic, don’t watch iLL Manors. However if you want a movie that’s innovative, challenging and has a lot of ambition (particularly for a microbudget British movie), it’s quite a ride.

Written and directed by Ben Drew – aka Plan B – it’s a film where he tries to push the envelope and go beyond the usual ideas of the Brit flick, in the same way as he’s done with his music. That’s signalled from the outset, where he truncates 20-odd years of a young man’s life into a few minutes, telling the story through the lyrics of a rap song (which includes samples from the score to Disney’s Beauty & The Beast, no less). It’s unconventional but surprisingly effective. [Read more…]

Hart Of Dixie – Season 1 (DVD)

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Most American TV is focussed on the urban middle-classes in major metropolitan areas, but every so often they remember that dotted in between the big cities are tens of thousands of smaller settlements, and that maybe they’d like something aimed at them (and so might city sophisticates who like the idea of small town charm). That’s where Hart Of Dixie fits on the spectrum, a show you’d be forgiven for never having heard of, as in the UK its first series was tucked away on the TV channel Really.

Now it’s coming to DVD, so you can catch up if it sounds like the sort of thing you’d like. If you’re a fan of Gilmore Girls, for example (the tone of which Hart Of Dixie often seems to borrow from liberally), this should be right up your street. [Read more…]

Bones – Season 7 (Blu-ray)

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While a normal US TV season lasts between 22 and 24 episodes, we only get 13 instalments of Bones – Season 7. The reason is that Emily Deschanel rudely decided to have a baby. While her being up the duff was written into the show, she gave birth partway through the season’s shooting schedule, and by the time she returned there was only time to make 13 episodes. It just goes to show how important she is to the series, as normally pregnant women getting written out of a show for a few episodes when it’s time to drop the sprog, but here things had to stop to make way for the appearance of Deschanel junior. [Read more…]

Modern Family – Season 3 (Blu-ray)

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Before Modern Family came along, a lot of TV pundits were all ready to pronounce the death of the US sitcom. Then the series came along, became a darling of the critics and found huge audiences too. It’s managed to keep up the quality through its first three seasons, so that just a few days ago it picked up five Emmys.

It’s a great show, where strong writing and good direction come together with one of the best casts ever assembled for a television show. The acting really is top notch (it’s notable that when Julie Bowen and Eric Stonestreet won their Emmys for the show, they had to beat out four of their castmates, who were nominated in the same categories) and it’s not just the adults, as the kids are all great too. Much of the time with sitcoms, you’re sort of having to forgive the younger cast members their lack of comic skill, but here they’re all great – even four-year-old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who plays Lily, has her moments. [Read more…]

Sinister (Cinema)

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Sinister should be rubbish. The plot is rather silly, numerous things happen that make little sense (and not just because of supernatural shenanigans), and it has a title so generic its feels like they simple couldn’t be assed. However thanks to some excellent make-you-jump moments, a mystery plot that holds enough interest to keep you watching and a creepy atmosphere, it’s a surprisingly effective chiller.

Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a writer of true-crime books who moves his family to a small town to investigate the murder of four members of a family, and the disappearance of a small girl, for which no perpetrator has ever been found. What he hasn’t told his wife and kids is that the house they’ve moved into is the one where the family were hung from a tree in the backyard. [Read more…]