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

A Map For Love (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

South America is becoming a bit of a hotbed for interesting LGBT cinema. Now Chile has added one more film to the roster with A Map For Love.

Roberta is a young woman with a child, who tells her mother, Ana, that she is now living with someone she knew in school, Javiera, in a lesbian relationship. The conservative Ana isn’t immediately full of acceptance, suggesting her daughter just needs to wait for a man who will love her the right way, and guilt-tripping Roberta over how it will affect her son. [Read more…]

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg – 50th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg is a very unusual film – an experiment that created one of the most unique and enchanting movies ever made. What makes it so different is that the entire thing is sung, but even so you wouldn’t describe it as either an opera or a musical. It’s somewhere inbetween, while also being a surprisingly straightforward movie. Most of it is essentially sung dialogue, so when the garage attendant asks whether someone wants Regular or Super petrol, he sings it. Jacques Demy wrote a normal screenplay and then Michel Legrand put it to music, so it really isn’t quite like anything else. [Read more…]

Not Another Happy Ending (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

Jane’s (Karen Gillan) novel has been turned down by an endless list of publishers, so she’s thrilled when Tom Duval (Stanley Weber) say he’ll bring out her book. However when he changes the title without telling her they have a massive falling out. She says she’ll complete the second book she owes him and then they’ll have nothing to do with one another. [Read more…]

Le Week-End (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) head to Paris for their 30th wedding anniversary. However Nick’s romantic gesture soon begins to head off course when Meg wants to upgrade to a more expensive suite. As the weekend continues, the problems between the couple become increasingly apparent, with Nick pondering his future after he’s been forced to retire from the university he works at, while Meg isn’t sure whether she even wants to stay married now that the children have left. [Read more…]

Dallas Buyers Club (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

The last of the Oscar contenders to be released in the UK turns out to be one of the strongest. Sometimes the circumstances behind the making of a film shine through on the screen, and this story, with its lengthy birth, tiny budget and rushed schedule is a perfect example. It gives the film an urgency, a roughness and a pace that might not have been the case with a bigger budget, and it also ensure extremely committed performances from all concerned – they are doing it for love, not money. [Read more…]

Capital Games (US DVD)

By 2 Comments

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

Author G.A. Hauser has gained a lot of fans although some may not realise this doyenne of male-gay romance novels is a woman. Capital Games is the first of her books to become a movie, with the writer onboard to produce and co-write the script with Wendell Lu.

It follows Steve Miller (Eric Presnall), an ex-LAPD cop who’s now finding success in advertising. He feels immediate rivalry with new boy Mark Richfield (Gregor Cosgrove), who it appears may have been brought in to take on the massive account Steve has been after. As a result the men get off to a fractious start, which isn’t helped when they head off for a bonding weekend with other colleagues, at which Steve seems more interested in showing what a big man he is, rather than properly leading the team. [Read more…]

Prisoners (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is a family man with a wife, teenage son and young daughter. His life is upended when his youngest child and her friend disappear. The only clue is an RV seen parked on their street shortly beforehand, which leads Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) to the vehicle’s owner, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), a young man with the mental age of 10.

As there’s no real evidence that Alex was involved in the girls’ disappearance, the police are unable to hold him. However the fact he ran from the cops and something Alex says in the parking lot convinces Keller that he was involved. Frustrated by the cops, Keller decides to take matters into his own hands by kidnapping Alex and holding him in a dilapidated house he owns. Taking the law completely into his own hands, Keller turns up the pressure on Alex in order to try and force answers out of him. [Read more…]

Bates Motel – Season 1 (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

As with Hannibal, the moment Bates Motel was announced, you could feel critics getting ready to seethe and denounce the series as a travesty, as well as preparing to set up an underground webcam so we could all watch Hitchcock spinning in his grave. However with both shows they ended up eating their words.

Bates Motel is a prequel to Psycho, but it smartly ensures it can’t be too directly compared to the 1960 classic as it’s set in the modern world, although a slightly heightened world where everyone looks like they could have just fallen out of the 1950s. It also makes sure it pays homage to its source in both its setting (the motel and house are an exact replica of the original) and central characters, while doing enough to strike out on its own so you’re not just wishing years would pass and Marion Crane would to turn up at Norman’s motel. [Read more…]

Odd Thomas (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

Stephen Sommers has spent most of the past 15-years in mega-budget movie territory with the first two The Mummy movies, Van Helsing and G.I. Joe. However now he’s lowered the budget substantially and made something a bit more personal, although still with plenty of effects and a large dose of the supernatural. [Read more…]

Romeo & Juliet (2013) (Blu-ray)

By 1 Comment

There was plenty of eye-rolling when it was announced a new version of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet was in the works. Many asked whether after Franco Zeferelli and Baz Luhrmann’s versions, we needed another take. However in my opinion there’s no real problem with doing Romeo & Juliet on film again – but you do need to bring something new to the party, or at least do the old stuff so well it’s riveting in its own right. [Read more…]