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 Other Woman (DVD Review)

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Carly (Cameron Diaz) is a lawyer who thinks she’s found the perfect man – the handsome, romantic Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). However when she tries to surprise him at his home, she discovers he’s not there, but his wife is. While Carly is ready to just dump Mark and never see him again, his wife, Kate (Leslie Mann), isn’t about to let it lie, and soon the two team up teach him a lesson.

However neither of them is prepared for the fact that Mark has another, even younger woman that he’s dating (Kate Upton), and may also be involved in some shady dealing. Together all three women set out to take revenge. [Read more…]

The Maze Runner (Cinema Review)

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With any teen action/fantasy film, there are always going to be comparisons to the very obvious Twilight, Divergent and the box office Phenomenon that is The Hunger Games – all film franchises adapted from highly acclaimed books aimed initially at the teen market.

Like many of these successful franchises, The Maze Runner is a trilogy also with prequel to follow, this one written by James Dashner.

The plot? Well to no real surprise, again we have a lead character thrown into a situation out of their control, where they have to battle against all odds for survival using sheer willpower and strength of character – also seen in past classics Lord Of the Flies and Battle Royale. [Read more…]

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Blu-ray Review)

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Mr. Peabody & Sherman started life in the late-50s as part of the Rocky & Bulwinkle cartoon series. However they soon became popular in their own right with their mix of the silly and the educational. I don’t know whether the characters are still that popular in the US, but in the UK few kids will know them, which made it a surprise when DreamWorks Animation announced they were making a Peabody and Sherman film.

The idea behind the film is that Mr. Peabody is a super-smart, Nobel Prize-winning dog who has adopted a human boy, Sherman. Peabody’s greatest scientific accomplishment is his time machine, the WABAC, which he uses to take Sherman all across history, introducing him to the great figures of the past. [Read more…]

Joe (DVD Review)

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Nicolas Cage may be an Oscar-winning actor, but in recent years he’s largely become synonymous with an endless string of not particularly great movies where he gives one of his interchangeable extreme wild-man performances, where restraint is regarded as an alien concept.

Joe gives us something a little different, with Cage playing title character Joe Ransom, a character who spends much of the movie trying to keep a lid on the fiery, violent temper that lies underneath. It was an extremely smart move to cast the actor, as you can genuinely feel Cage pulling in the tics and extreme tendencies he has shown in endless movies in the last few years. [Read more…]

Lilting (DVD Review)

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An aging Cambodian-Chinese woman (Cheng Pei Pei) talks to her son, Kai (Andrew Leung) in a nursing home. However he’s not really there. It’s her remembrance of the last time she saw him a few weeks before, the day before he died. Now she is left alone, living in Britain but unable to speak English.

Her son’s partner, Richard (Ben Whishaw), wants to help her, even though he’s going through his own grief, something that’s complicated not just by the language barrier but also because Junn didn’t know her child was gay (or perhaps she did know but was in denial). Richard’s remembrance of his lover revolves around his gentle coaxing of him to come out, so that perhaps Junn can come and live with them, something he hopes will assuage the guilt he knows Kai feels. Now he still wants to help Junn, but she’s not sure she wants his help, partly because she always disliked him and doesn’t trust him. [Read more…]

Space Station 76 (DVD Review)

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Space Station 76 is an odd but interesting idea. It’s a movie set in the future, but the 1970s version of the future, complete with bell bottoms, big hair and attitudes to sexuality and gender that haven’t fully gotten to grips with the sexual revolution.

Jessica  (Liv Tyler) comes aboard Space Station 76 and is immediately faced with suspicion due to the fact she’s a woman, and so people wonder why she isn’t at home making dinner and raising children. However that’s soon the least of her problems as she’s been dumped in the middle of a melting pot of fractured relationships, simmering resentment, and tortured sexuality. [Read more…]

Gone Girl (Cinema Review)

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Want a nailbiting, edge-of-your-seat thriller perfect for those crisp autumn nights? David Fincher is your man. From Se7en to Zodiac he has proved he can crank up the tension to almost unbearable levels, and he knows exactly how to treat Gillian Flynn’s potboiler book. When the flaws and cracks start to appear it’s more Flynn’s fault than Fincher’s – she adapted her own screenplay so has no-one else to blame when the plot starts to develop holes bigger than a sponge. It’s been portrayed as the struggle between men and women, but actually it’s more subtle than that, and hits its stride when it is a look at the American class system. [Read more…]

Haram Queen (Review) Brunei’s first ever LGBT-themed short film

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In the last few years it’s seemed like the world of filmmaking has been opening up to everyone. No longer do you need money and equipment to buy and develop film, then manually edit and do all the other relatively expensive things it used to entail. Now most people wander around with cameras in their pockets – under the guise of smartphones – that offer a picture quality that would have exceeded what even a semi-professional videographer could have managed just 20 years ago.

However there are still limitations, not least that in different parts of the world certain subjects are still completely taboo and may even be criminal. You may be wondering why I’m talking about all this. Well, Haram Queen is the first (as far as it’s possible to tell) LGBT-themed film to emanate from the Bornean nation of Brunei, something that’s only possible due to the democratisation of filmmaking. [Read more…]

Fading Gigolo (DVD Review)

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Fioravante (John Turturro) is a florist whose life – and career – takes a surprising turn when his friend, Murray (Woody Allen), talks him into becoming a male escort. Murray’s dermatologist (Sharon Stone) has always dreamed on having a threesome and will pay handsomely for first having an individual session and afterwards bringing in her friend (Sofia Vergara).

Then Murray decides to expand the ‘business’, by hiring Fioravante as a ‘healer’ to the widowed Avigal (Vanessa Paradis), whose been living a hidden, buttoned down Orthodox Jewish life, kept in check by the overzealous neighbourhood patrol. To his own surprise, Fioravante start to have feelings for her. [Read more…]

Hannibal – Season 2 (Blu-ray Review)

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Hannibal should have been cancelled after Season 1, but not because of its quality. It got extremely low ratings in the US (and Season 2 was just as bad), which normally means a swift demise. However thanks to the fact it’s co-production between several countries, and therefore costs NBC comparatively little to make, it’s lived on.

And that’s a damn good thing, as while it’s found it tough to find its audience on American network TV, it’s also one of the most critically lauded shows around. It’s often said that a TV show has a ‘cinematic style’, but normally it’s just hyperbole. In Hannibal’s case it’s really true. It’s visually meticulous – something you can really appreciate on Blu-ray – has a great cast and a storytelling style that doesn’t assume the audience is made up of morons. [Read more…]