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

47 Ronin (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

I’m glad I didn’t live in Feudal Japan, what with the all the monsters and never being allowed to smile. You see, back then men had to hold their emotions in to the point they made Anthony Hopkins in The Remains Of The Day look positively expressive in comparison. Woman meanwhile had to spend half their lives pining over men and the other half crying about men (unless they were a witch, and then they’d be allowed to spend 100% of their time being evil). Oh and even back then Keanu Reeves couldn’t act.

Or at least that’s the impression I got from 47 Ronin. [Read more…]

Veronica Mars (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

Ever since the teenage private eye show Veronica Mars was cancelled after three seasons in 2007, the cast and creator have talked up the possibility of a movie. However as it was canned due to low ratings, it seemed unlikely they’d ever get the funding to do it – even if many of those people who did like the show were absolutely rabid fans.

Then along came the concept of internet crowdfunding, and so creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell decided to give that a go. As is now well known, the project hits its $2 million target in 10 hours and ended up with over $5 million in funding – and so the film version got the greenlight thanks to ordinary people putting up the cash. [Read more…]

CSI: New York – Season 9 (DVD)

By 1 Comment

Starring: , , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

After nine years CSI: New York comes to an end with the final 17 episodes. Thankfully though, while most shows simply get yanked off the air, they knew this would be the end for the Big Apple’s finest crime scene investigators, giving them time to wrap some things up and give the characters a proper send-off.

That’s particularly true for the show’s central character, Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise), who finds romance in Season 9 – which is certainly fitting considering the series started with Mac still reeling from his wife’s death on 9/11. [Read more…]

The Railway Man (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

There is undoubtedly an incredible true story behind The Railway Man, but while this movie certainly lets you know that, as a film in its own right it’s rather spotty.

The movie follows two periods in the life of Eric Lomax. As a middle-aged man (Colin Firth) he meets and falls in love with Patti (Nicole Kidman), however their marital bliss is severely hampered by the fact he suffers severely from what would now be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. [Read more…]

Bad Neighbours (aka Neighbors) (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

The title is the first clue. Any film with a duh title like that is clearly the product of the Hollywood sausage machine, and Bad Neighbours is a classic example. The script seems to be written on autopilot, or on a software programme that probably looks like settings>frat boy comedy>couple of stars>condom gags>90 minutes. It’s predictable, utterly unfunny, full of tiresome knob and beer gabs and a total waste of the talent involved. [Read more…]

American Hustle (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

American Hustle recently joined a select band of movies to get 10 Oscar nominations but not win a single award (although The Turning Point and Color Purple still hold the record with 11 noms and no wins). However the fact a film like this got 10 nods is a pretty impressive achievement on its own.

Christian Bale is Irving Rosenfeld, a small time hustler who finds his con man empire growing when he teams up with the smart and beautiful Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). However things look like they’re going south after the FBI’s Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) fingers them. [Read more…]

Nymphomaniac – Volumes 1&2 (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

This is the Gone With The Wind of movies with ‘real’ sex in them, at least in terms of the fact that Nymphomaniac has roughly the same running time.

As you may have guessed though, in most ways they’re very different movies – in Gone With The Wind Scarlett O’Hara vows never to hungry again, while in Nymphomaniac Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) vows never to go without sex again. [Read more…]

All Is Lost (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring:
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

All Is Lost is a movie where you can imagine two people sitting down to watch it, with one deciding it’s a transcendent masterpiece, while the other thinks it’s a pointless, crushing bore.

These days Robert Redford makes comparatively few movies, but here the 77-year-old doesn’t just take centre-stage, he’s the only person who appears on-screen throughout the running time. Not only that, but he has virtually no dialogue either.

Hell, he doesn’t even have a name. [Read more…]

The King and the Mockingbird (Le Roi et l’Oisieu) (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Starring: , ,
Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

You could easily be forgiven for having never heard of the 1980 animated French movie The King and the Mockingbird. However it’s had a profound effect, not least that Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata have said it helped show them what animation could be, with the lessons they learned from it helping fuel the creation of Studio Ghibli.

Director Paul Grimault and screenwriter/poet Jacques Prevert started work on the film in 1947, when it was planned it as France’s first animated movie. However production was stopped partway through due to a dispute (an unfinished version that wasn’t approved by the director or writer was released at the time). After endless funding and rights battles it took another 30 years to finish it in the way Grimault and Prevert envisioned it. However it was worth the wait. [Read more…]

Kill Your Darlings (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

When reading the press surrounding Kill Your Darlings, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was a movie all about Harry Potter having bum sex. Half the questions Daniel Radcliffe and director John Krokidas were asked seemed to be about the sex scene. However that’s only a very small part of the movie, and while Radcliffe does indeed get bummed, it’s merely part of a montage rather than anything with a big fanfare.

The movie is actually about some of the Beat generation writers and their brethren before they became well known, following one of the infamous events that helped shape who they were. Radcliffe plays Allen Ginsberg, who would go on to be the openly gay man behind the wonderful Howl. He heads to Columbia University, where he immediately riles against the college’s old fashioned attitude to literature and poetry. [Read more…]