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

Kingsman: The Secret Service (Cinema Review)

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The idea of updating James Bond and making him a younger character has been done before – witness the Alex Cross films and even Jason Bourne. Matthew Vaughan’s attempt, with a script by Jane Goldman, could have worked in theory, but it doesn’t, because of disastrous shifts in tone, and dreadfully cynical product placements. Director Vaughan seems to have become so carried away with his Kick-Ass franchise that he has transposed the idea to Britain, but used pretty much the same formula. The result leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth, which is a shame, because there are a few strengths on display here. [Read more…]

Oh Boy Online Mini-Series – Episode 1 ‘Sébastien’ (Review)

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Normally with gay-themed online series, we can just post the episodes and let you decide for yourself whether you like it or not. However Oh Boy, from porn model/actor/director Damien Moreau, is a little different, both because it’s being released on a pay-to-view basis and also because it’s sexual nature means it’s a bit too rude for us to post here anyway.

While quite a few straight filmmakers have tried to explore the point where art and porn meet, in the last few years it’s been on the gay side that a lot of the more interesting work has been taking place, whether it’s Travis Mathews’ In Your Room and I Want Your Love films, or the Black Spark hardcore vignettes that set the internet on fire a couple of years ago (and which many have said resulted in an increase in production values for real gay porn). [Read more…]

Looking – Season 1 (DVD Review)

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This time last year we previewed the first four episodes of Looking ahead of its first airing on Sky Atlantic in the UK. While I definitely felt it had promise, there’s no doubt that those four eps alone also had quite a lot issues, largely due to the fact that with each episode only clocking in at 30 minutes it had trouble properly setting up its world and moving the story along at a decent pace. However even within those four instalments there was improvement, so how does the full season stack up now it’s arriving on DVD?

The show follows a group of gay friends in San Francisco, mostly focussing on Jonathan Groff’s Patrick, a videogame designer who’s feeling a bit lost and is looking for love. He meets Richie (Raul Castillo) but the path of true love certainly doesn’t run smooth, especially with the arrival of Patrick’s new British boss Kevin (Russell Tovey), who offers the possibility of passion and a real connection, even though he’s in a relationship with someone else. [Read more…]

Erebus: Into The Unknown (DVD Review)

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Many of the best documentaries are based around incredible stories that few people know much about, and that’s certainly true here. The docudrama Erebus: Into The Unknown heads back to 1979, when an airplane taking 257 passengers on a sightseeing tour of Antarctica mysteriously crashed into the remote and frozen Mount Erebus.

In order to recover the victims, 11 New Zealand police officers – none of whom had much experience with snow or survival situations – were sent to Antarctica and onto Erebus, to deal with the horrific job of finding, cataloguing and recovering the now totally frozen bodies. [Read more…]

Retribution (Hellion) (DVD Review)

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DVD covers don’t always 100% reflect the actual movie, and that certainly seems the case with Retribution. Looking at the cover you could be forgiven for thinking the film is an action thriller, but it’s not, it’s actually a rather serious indie drama.

The movie itself – originally called Hellion – is set in Texas and centres on 13-year-old Jacob ( Josh Wiggins), an angry and difficult young man who’s only one step away from juvenile detention. He’s still deep in grief for his dead mother, not helped much by his emotionally distant father, Hollis (Aaron Paul), who’s barely holding on himself. [Read more…]

Foxcatcher (Cinema Review)

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So that’s the Best Actor Oscar sorted then. Steve Carrell, that lovely chap from the US Office and 40-Year-old Virgin, has gone deep to play the deeply disturbed, and disturbing, John du Pont, and the results are stunning. The film itself is impressive on many levels, if a little one-note, and not quite satisfying, but Carrell’s performance is utterly mesmerising.

The charming, likeable, warmly funny persona is utterly gone. In its place is a portrayal of du Pont, the heir to a vast chemical fortune, enormously wealthy but painfully lonely. His mother, Jean (Vanessa Redgrave), looms like a huge dark cloud over his life, her disappointment in her geeky, fragile, unattractive son all too obvious. She pours her love into horses, he into the sport of wrestling – horses are stupid, he says, all they do is eat and shit. His love of his pastime is so great he decides to basically take over and run the US wrestling team to train them for the 1988 Olympics. Top of his shopping list is Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), brothers who won Gold in Los Angeles in 1984. [Read more…]

Into The Woods (Cinema Review)

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Ah, Stephen Sondheim, writer of amazing tongue-twisting lyrics, flat tunes and dark themes. That’s been his formula for many a year – the flat tunes aren’t deliberate presumably – and they are all present and correct in this film version of his adult take on fairy tales. Adult is certainly the word here, the underlying theme being human beings’ reluctance to grow up and face the real world, and the terrifying prospect of sex, while superficially there are blindings, stabbings, a prince whose eye wanders, an absent father, and plenty of death.

Throw in a top-notch cast – and James Corden – and you get a polished, great-looking and sounding, entertaining fable. The story itself peaks a little early and there are longeurs in the story of the giant, but overall it’s a successful adaptation of Sondheim’s stage musical. [Read more…]

Angels With Tethered Wings (Review)

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Last year Steven Vasquez’s erotic horror anthology, Eroddity(s), hit DVD, offering a collection that had a lot of penises but was only sporadically successful in storytelling terms. Now he’s back with Angels With Tethered Wings, which is a step up from Eroddity(s) but still suffers from a few of the issues of the earlier release.

Although it tells one complete story, the film is split into three parts. The first chapter shows us what happens before and after part two, introducing us to identical twins Grant and Garret Gleason (both played by Cory Tyndall). Garret is a mean and callous porn producer who’s just received a briefcase containing $200,000 dollars, which he must hand over to the mysterious Carmine. After an argument with his main star, Timothy (Brandon Rife), the twink storms out, with Garret thinking the young man has taken the money with him. [Read more…]

Let’s Be Cops (Blu-ray Review)

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God bless Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. They’re both very talented comic actors who struggle valiantly in Let’s Be Cops to make it work, but thanks to a script that’s far too dumb and clunky it’s all to little avail.

Ryan (Johnson) and Justin (Wayans) are friends who’ve reached their 30s and are struggling with the fact that neither of them are even close to living their dreams. When they’re invited to a reunion ‘costume party’ (which turns out to be a masquerade ball), they decide to go as cops. While the reunion is a disaster, they can’t help but notice the effect their police uniforms have on those they pass on the streets. [Read more…]

Exodus: God & Kings (Cinema Review)

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Ridley Scott is one of the most revered directors of our time. While he’s worked in all sorts of genres, he’s had particular success with ground-breaking classic sci-fi such as Alien, as well historical biographies or fiction, which often turn out to be masterpieces such as the multi award winning Gladiator. There is no doubt that Scott is one of cinema’s greatest storytellers.

This time Ridley Scott brings to our screen possibly the third greatest story ever told (after the birth of Jesus and Noah) – the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. This Old Testament tale of Moses was immortalised by Charlton Heston in 1956’s The Ten Commandments, but who could possibly fill this famous pair of sandals this time? Well, none other than Batman himself – Christian Bale. [Read more…]