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

Shut Up & Kiss Me (DVD)

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I’m starting to think that the reason that a lot of the gay men – especially those who aren’t into endless one night stands – are having trouble in the dating field is because they’re all sat at home writing movies about how difficult dating is for them. Really, we need support groups so these people can meet one another, as if these films are anything to go by, each of them thinks they’re the only one, when actually there are trillions of them – none of whom seem to speak to one another.

Ben is 35-years old and single, but he’s definitely looking for love. He tries out video dating and the world online, but none of them works out. His friends think he’s a commitment-phobe, while simultaneously trying to set him up with just about every gay man they meet. [Read more…]

Our Paradise (DVD)

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There must be a lot of very angry sex going on in France. While cinema has long linked sex and violence, there’s little doubt that it’s a much bigger theme in French films than those from anywhere else. Indeed, prostitutes who kill is almost a subgenre of Gallic entertainment. Our Paradise follows aging hustler Vassili, who’s just coming back from fleecing a trick when he stumbles over the unconscious young Angelo at a cruising ground and takes him back to his flat to nurse his wounds.

The two spark up a passionate affair, with Vassili and Angelo working together to service clients and often violently rob them. When the heat gets too great, they head out of Paris looking for somewhere to be happy. Soon they begin to see a way to get the comfortable family life they crave, but it can’t be achieved without more violence. [Read more…]

Romeos (DVD)

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Earlier this year, Tomboy was released, which saw a pre-adolescent taken in by a new group of friends who believe he’s a boy, even though he was born female. Romeos takes a similar theme, but moves the story into young adulthood, with a character who’s already started the transition from female to male.

Lukas (Rick Okon) is a pre-op transsexual who is taking hormones but is yet to have surgical gender reassignment. He heads off for a social service year to a place where only one person knows him, his lesbian friend Ine (Liv Lisa Fries), who used to know him as Mimi and has been by his side during the early stages of his transition. However nobody else is aware of Lukas earlier life, and while bureaucracy means he’s assigned to the female living block, everyone assumes he was born a man. [Read more…]

Cleanskin (DVD)

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Ewan (Sean Bean) is a British secret service agent who starts to realise that a dangerous terrorist plot in being planned. While being manipulated by his superiors, he’s essentially given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to get to the plotters, something he’s more than happy to do, as he wants revenge for the atrocity that took his wife. However he starts to realise he’s mixed up in an ever deepening conspiracy.

Ewan’s incredibly violent and single-minded journey is contrasted to young Muslim Ash, the man who’s going to commit the suicide bombing. In flashback we discover how he got radicalised, while in the present things get ever more vicious as he prepares himself for what he believes he must do. [Read more…]

The Amazing Spider-man (Cinema)

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Considering the amount of money studios spend on their tentpole flicks, you’d think that they’d at least be able to come up with something entertaining each time. However history has told us that each summer brings a slew of movies that promise much and deliver little. The moment it was announced that Sony was rebooting Spider-man only a decade after Sam Raimi’s first arachnid flicks, the fanboys and Internet doom-mongers immediately decried the whole idea and decided on principle that the film was a middle-finger to fans and to be ignored.

While some saw Marc Webb coming on-board to direct as a sign of promise, others immediately decided his lack of experience with big budget movies spelled disaster. Well, all the naysayers and incessant prophets of pessimism had better eat their words (and hopefully find something better to do with their lives, such as wait until movies are actually made and then go watch them), as The Amazing Spider-man is great. [Read more…]

This Means War (DVD)

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Note: Some of this review was previously published in connection with the cinema release

I know the exact moment when I gave up on the idea that This Means War was going to be a good movie. Fairly early on Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) is shopping with her friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), a character who only exists to give Lauren an excuse to say exactly what she’s thinking at any point in time.

However it wasn’t the lazy exposition (something the film loves to engage in) that made me realise that behind the fireworks there wasn’t much going on in This Means War, it was because the scene was set up so that the two women were doing their entire supermarket shop based on what was on the end of the aisles. They picked out detergent, looked at special offers and neither of them seemed to need anything that wasn’t right there in front of them. [Read more…]

Falling Skies – Season 1 (DVD)

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It’s tough to make a successful sci-fi TV show. Many arrive each year but most quickly fall by the wayside, some getting cancelled because the ratings don’t justify the expense and others ending quickly because they’re simply not very good. Falling Skies however was a ratings hit on its US debut last year, and for the most part tells a compelling story.

In the aftermath of an alien invasion, the major cities have been destroyed, modern civilisation has fallen and only ragtag groups of survivors are around to resist the brutal extra-terrestrials. While he’s spent most of his life as a history professor, in this new world Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) has become second in command of the 2nd Massachusetts, a military unit fighting the ‘skitters’ and also sheltering a group of civilians. [Read more…]

The Rise And Fall Of A White Collar Hooligan (DVD)

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The Rise And Fall Of A White Collar Hooligan feels like a movie made in shorthand, taking a fairly well-worn tale and rushing through it so it seems like you’re getting the bullet points rather than the whole story.

Mike (Nick Nevern) lives for football and the violent disorder that he and other engage in after the match. However he has dreams about getting a decent job and being somebody – unfortunately he has few skills and a tendency to say completely the wrong thing at job interviews. His friend, Eddie (Simon Phillips), offer him a nice, simple, but well-paid position, couriering boxes around London. Mike is initially convinced it has to be drugs, but it turns out he’s actually got himself involved in credit card fraud, where criminals are cloning cards and heading out to cash machines each night to take money. [Read more…]

Magic Mike (Cinema)

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When I first saw the advert I thought, ‘Oh no, it’s Showgirls meets The Full Monty’, however I was perplexed somewhat that Oscar winning director Stephen Soderbegh was at the helm. He’s delivered some brilliant films over the years, including Traffic, Erin Brockovich and Solaris, although his work of recent has not been as impressive, namely Haywire and Contagion.

However, with Magic Mike, he has given us is a crowd pleasing, energetic, realistic behind-the-scenes look at the glamorous but shady lives of the stripping community, in a tight, well scripted gem of a movie. [Read more…]

Blue Briefs (DVD) (US Release)

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While we’ve mainly concentrated on the UK releases of gay interest entertainment, now we’ve got one from the US. Following on from last year’s release of Black Briefs comes Blue Briefs, a selection of six award-winning, gay-themed short films, ranging from looks at unrequited love to dealing with being gay in a restrictive environment. It’s a great selection. Let’s take a look at the shorts: [Read more…]