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

Brazil (Blu-ray)

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A masterpiece to some, a source of utter befuddlement to others, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil has been dividing opinions now for over 25 years. Now it reaches Blu-ray, which is certainly a good way to show off the film’s extraordinary production design.

Set in a dystopian mix of the future and the past, Jonathan Pryce plays Sam Lowry, a man trying to live a quiet life as part of a vast bureaucracy, but who has extravagant dreams where he’s a flying, monster-slaying hero. During his waking life though, he’s mainly trying to be efficient and stop his plastic surgery obsessed mother from pushing him around. [Read more…]

We Were Here (DVD)

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Although it’s a bit of a shame We Were Here didn’t hit DVD  last week, just in time for AIDS Awareness Day on December 1st, the powerful documentary about the impact of HIV and AIDS in San Francisco in the 1980s has now been released. It’s already received plenty of plaudits, including being shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar.

We Were Here consists of interviews with San Franciscans who lived through the early years of the emergence of AIDS, giving testimony about its effect on them and those around them. For a younger generation for whom HIV has largely seemed like a manageable condition (whether that’s the truth or not), it’s sobering stuff. [Read more…]

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (DVD)

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Harry Potter has undoubtedly been one of the greatest phenomenons in movie history. It’s managed eight films without a dud, grossed more cash than any other franchise in history, and perhaps most impressively has kept nearly all the same actors throughout its run. It’s been a part of many people’s lives for a full decade, especially those who’ve grown up alongside Harry and co. Indeed, when I saw Deathly Hallows Part 2 in the cinemas I was sat behind a university-aged young man who announced as the end credits began to roll, “Well, that’s my childhood over.” [Read more…]

Eating Out: Drama Camp (DVD)

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A few years ago, the idea that a gay film series could prove so popular that it would have reached a fourth entry, with a fifth on the way, would have seemed impossible, but Q. Allan Brocka’s Eating Out has. While the first film in 2004 was a rather sweet rom com, things have increasingly headed in the direction of farce ever since, particularly since the third entry, which featured a mostly new cast and a more gross-out attitude (only Rebekah Kochan as the very loud Tiffani has appeared in all the Eating Out movies, although her role in Drama Camp is tiny). [Read more…]

The Thing (Cinema)

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From the second it was announced a film was in the pipeline that was somehow related to John Carpenter’s 1982 movie, The Thing, there’s been much grumbling from fans. However this is a slightly unusual case, as while Carpenter fans have been predictably wary of anything tampering with a classic they love, the early 80s film was actually a remake itself, of the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World. As a result it’s tougher to argue here that things from the past should be preserved in aspic and never touched.

What we have here though isn’t a straight remake, but (as the movie studio insists on calling it) a ‘prelude’ to the Kurt Russell movie. Quite why they gave it the exact same name as the other film is a bit of a mystery then, but it just goes to show some of the muddle-headed business-butting-up-against-entertainment thinking that went into the new The Thing. [Read more…]

Buffering (DVD)

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Bristol wouldn’t spring to most people’s minds as a hotspot of gay cinema, but it’s been getting that way in the last few years thanks to a bunch of dedicated guys who between them have brought us the likes of Shank, Release and now Buffering.

Seb (Alex Anthony) and Aaron (Conner McKenzy) are two young gay guys trying to live out a suburban idyll in their own house full of the domestic niceties. However the recession has hit and unbeknownst to Seb, Aaron has lost his job and they’re way behind on the mortgage. It’s gotten to the point where there’s only a short time to sort things out before the bank comes and takes their home. Things are compounded when Seb loses his job as well. [Read more…]

Uncle David (DVD)

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It’s not often that a film can elicit two completely different reactions from me, but Uncle David managed it. If you asked for my knee-jerk feeling, I’d have to say I hated it. While watching it I found it slow, tedious, rather annoying and more than a little pretentious. Despite this, the movie has stuck in my head and kept me thinking about it for days afterwards.

The plot is relatively simple. David (David Hoyle) is a middle-aged man living with his young lover, Ashley (Ashley Greene), in a chalet in a remote, windy, British seaside town. While their life seems rather basic and deprived, David lives in a world of his own philosophical making, endlessly lecturing the receptive Ashley about his ideas on life, and how nearly everybody in the world is buying into what he believes is a corrupt and corrupting system. [Read more…]

Longhorns (DVD)

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Thing I learned about Texas from Longhorns:
1: If there aren’t any women in the room, all Texan men will have a group wank together
2: If a Texan man isn’t included in the group wanks, he’ll start to feel shunned and will do his best to get an invite
3: While a Texan man will almost certainly be happy to let you give him a blow job or wank him off, your relationship will never be the same if you try and kiss him
4: If they’re not having a group wank, Texan men will find contrived reasons as to why at least one guy in the room should be naked [Read more…]

50/50 (Cinema)

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Ok, here’s my pitch to try and get a poster quote for 50/50 – ‘The funniest film about possibly dying of cancer you’ll see all year!’ I doubt the studio is going to use that one, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. It also kind of sums up 50/50’s problems, because while it’s very funny, extremely moving, quite sweet and extremely entertaining, the fact it’s about someone with cancer will inevitably limit its audience.

It’s a real shame, as a lot of people will undoubtedly miss out. It doesn’t really matter what I or anyone else says – a movie about cancer sounds like a bummer, and so getting people through the door is gonna be tough. [Read more…]

Harvest (DVD)

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As the gay son of a farmer, Harvest is a movie that should have spoken to me – or at least if it was going to speak to anyone, it should have been me. Sadly though it didn’t.

The film is set on a large industrial farming operation on the very edge of Berlin. The farm takes in interns who learn the ropes and do exams to become fully qualified farmers (and yes, whilst not compulsory, you can indeed take exams to be a farmer – in fact you can take entire degrees in it). Jakob (Lukas Steltner) is one of the interns and while the bosses are happy with his work (despite the fact he spend a lot of time slacking off), he’s struggling with his studies. [Read more…]