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 Harry Hill Movie (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

Harry Hill is a bit of a love him or loathe him comedian, and so it’s no surprise that a film he wrote and stars in is the same. However the problem is that his current main fanbase knows him from his television show TV Burp, and while that serieswas silly and sometimes surreal, it never really showed quite how nuts he can be when left to his own devices.

Harry plays himself (or at least his usual big-collared character), who lives with his Nan (Julie Walters) and a talking hamster called Abu (voiced by Johnny Vegas). When he takes Abu to the Vet, Harry thinks his pal only has a week to live and so decides to take him on a trip to Blackpool. However what he doesn’t realise is that he’s actually caught up in a plan by his evil twin brother (Matt Lucas), who wants revenge. [Read more…]

52 Tuesdays (BFI Flare Review)

By Leave a Comment

The premise of 52 Tuesdays – Sophia Hyde’s directorial debut – is interesting. It’s a film showing every Tuesday during one year in the life of an increasingly estranged family (hence the title).

The family in question consists of James, a transgender man beginning his transition to live fully an a man; his daughter Billie who’s a rebellious and sexually curious teenager with a video camera; and a largely distant father who has a beard. Oh, and Charlie, a sexually ambiguous brother/uncle/party boy. [Read more…]

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

It seems The Hobbit is determined to follow the same pattern as Lord Of The Rings. The first film was good but essentially just involved a lot of walking with a plot where much of it could have been cut out without hurting the overall arc of the story. The second is overall a better movie, but leaves things in a way where it’s difficult to fully judge it without seeing part three, as it spends so much time setting things up for that movie.

The Desolation Of Smaug picks up where the last film left off, with Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the band of dwarves heading towards the Lonely Mountain in order to take on the dragon Smaug, who many years ago took smote Erebor and displaced the dwarves who lived there. [Read more…]

Tom At The Farm (Tom à la ferme) (Cinema/DVD)

By Leave a Comment

This is Xavier Dolan’s fourth film as a director, and he’s still only 25. It’s difficult to know whether to be impressed or whether to dislike him on principle. Indeed that’s true of much about Dolan – he has a supreme confidence that is simultaneously exciting and a little exasperating, his grasp of plot and theme is both engrossing and frustratingly underdeveloped, and he manages to imbue his films with a hipster vibe that is too pleased with itself and yet gives his films an unexpected vibrancy.

All that’s true of Tom At The Farm, even if it is a bit of a sidestep from his earlier movies into the world of the psychosexual thriller. [Read more…]

Lilting (BFI Flare Review)

By Leave a Comment

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

We managed to catch the excellent Lilting for the BFI: Flare: London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival gala, courtesy of American Airlines. And we’re glad we did!

Lilting, written and directed by Cambodian-born (but British resident) Hong Khaou tells the story two people finding each other in the aftermath of a devastating bereavement: A non-English-speaking mother (Cheng) whose only lifeline into an alien and intimidating culture is suddenly severed; and her son Kai’s secret boyfriend Richard (Whishaw), whose world crumbles when the love of his life is so cruelly taken away. Having previously battled him for her son’s love and attention, mother and boyfriend must now come to terms with the reality of life without Kai, and what that means for both of them. [Read more…]

Campaign Of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda (US DVD)

By Leave a Comment

Director:
Running Time:
Certificate:
Release Date:

In the last year Michael Lucas hasn’t just done a U-turn in his porn empire by allowing performers to go condom-free, he’s also struck out into the legit film arena as a documentarian. A few months ago he released Undressing Israel, which presented an incredibly rosy image of LGBT life in that country, and now comes Campaign Of Hate, which paints a pretty gloomy picture of life for gay people in Putin’s Russia. [Read more…]

Frozen (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

Over the weekend thanks to a continued strong performance in Japan, Frozen became the number one animated movie of all time at the global box office, overtaking Toy Story 3. It now stands at number 10 on the all-time list and will end up with over $1.1 billion.

It’s not bad for a movie that six months ago had relatively little buzz. The film came as a surprise to many, as evidenced by how its box office worked. It got a pretty good but not spectacular opening (it wasn’t even the number 1 film in the US on the weekend it got its wide release), but then continued to play in cinemas for months, due the fact it had such amazing word of mouth. [Read more…]

Dom Hemingway (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

How you react to Dom Hemingway is completely reliant of how you react to the title character. It’s easy to imagine that some will quickly be on his side, seeing him as a funny and entertaining wide-boy, but there will be plenty of others who will never be able get past the fact Dom is often a complete asshole.  It essentially depends on if you find the fact Dom thinks he’s a legend but is actually a mess is oddly charming and empathetic, or whether it just makes him a dick. [Read more…]

Saving Mr. Banks (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

Cor blimey Mary Poppins! It’s 50 years since the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke starrer arrived in cinemas, won the Best Picture Oscar and became one of the greatest family classics ever. However as Saving Mr. Banks shows, Disney’s attempt to get the character on the screen started a long time before the movies 1964 debut, as the character’s creator, PL Travers, wasn’t keen on selling the screen rights. [Read more…]

Don Jon (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his writing and directing debut with Don Jon and also takes the lead role – so he was certainly busy. You have to wonder whether he thought his previous movies didn’t have enough sex scenes, so he wrote himself a movie where he got loads of them, and where he also had the chance to buff up to show off a very impressive physique. (I’m sure those weren’t his motivations though). [Read more…]