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

uwantme2killhim? (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

Popular 16-year-old Mark (Jamie Blackley) has fallen for Rachel, a girl he met online. She convinces him to look after her brother John (Toby Regbo), defending him from school bullies. When Rachel’s abusive gangster boyfriend does the unthinkable, Mark and John seek revenge. But Mark is sucked into a world much darker than he imagined, leading him to commit a terrible act. Was it for the greater good as he believed, or has he been taken for a ride?

Like Pain and Gain, Uwantme2killhim? is based on a rather unbelievable true story. Unlike the former, its execution is the biggest tragedy to unfold. [Read more…]

The Last American Virgin (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

Teen films got very raunchy in the early 80s. The Last American Virgin was released shortly after Porky’s, and while it didn’t see the commercial success of that movie (and indeed isn’t quite as full-on with its sexual shenanigans), it did leave its mark on cult cinema. Indeed you have to wonder whether Adam Herz watched this before he decided to write American Pie (just leaving out the more serious bit towards the end). [Read more…]

Sir Billi (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

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

After having a hideous time on the set of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sean Connery said he’d never make a movie again. However he’s come out of retirement to lend his voice to Sir Billi, presumably attracted by the fact that this is Scotland’s first feature-length animated movie (Connery is, after all, determined to be the most Scottish person in the world, despite the fact he hasn’t lived there for decades). He might also have liked the fact it’s a film about an octogenarian. [Read more…]

Fire With Fire (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

It’s clear from the very first scene that there are going to be problems with Fire With Fire. Josh Duhamel’s Jeremy and his band of firefighters bask in the satisfaction of having fought a blaze and get ready to leave, with everyone around congratulating them on a job well done. However what no one seems to have noticed is that behind them the fire hasn’t actually been put out, as flames are still visible. With this sort of lack of care is apparent in the first 30 seconds, it’s little surprise the rest of the movie is far from a masterpiece. [Read more…]

Cal (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

I really liked 2009’s Shank, as while it was a bit rough around the edges, it felt like a really different kind of coming out story, following young Cal (Wayne Virgo), who grew up in the most deprived areas of Bristol. Hanging around a group of rough friends and getting involved in muggings and other criminal activity, he also has to deal with the fact he’s gay. It’s an extremely homophobic environment, but a meeting with a young French man – who he’d help mug – offers the possibility of a very different life. [Read more…]

Dragons: Riders Of Berk – Part 1 (DVD)

By Leave a Comment

DreamWorks Animation has a bit of a problem. When it has a hit movie, its share price goes up and they make a lot of money, but if they have a flop, things go bad very fast, which eventually led to a lot of layoffs. To try and stem this boom and bust cycle, they’ve gone heavily into sequels that should be sure-fire winners and more recently tried to take their product to TV, in the hope it can ensure they have a healthy bottom line at all times. After a Kung Fu Panda series comes Dragons: Riders Of Berk, based on How To Train Your Dragon. [Read more…]

Iron Man 3 (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

Iron Man 3 presented an interesting challenge to Marvel, as it’s the completion of the Iron Man trilogy – with no stand-alone adventures for Downey Jr’s metal man likely to follow – but also the follow-up to The Avengers and a prequel to his appearance in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. As such the movie could have ended up a complete mess, unsure what it was meant to be doing. However it actually handles the challenge fairly well, sewing up themes from the earlier Iron Man movies, while having Tony Stark rocked by the events of the Battle Of New York, which have started causing him to have panic attacks. [Read more…]

More Than Honey (Cinema)

By Leave a Comment

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

I’d like to coin a new genre of documentary, called the ‘Aren’t humans assholes’ genre. It’s becoming increasingly popular, where whatever the subject, at some point it has to get around to how people are screwing everything up. I’m not saying we aren’t screwing things up, but in everything from David Attenborough docs to More Than Honey, there’s an inevitability that at some point you’ll have to feel a bit guilty. [Read more…]

Star Trek Into Darkness (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

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

While JJ Abrams’ reinvention of Star Trek has proven very popular with audiences, there are quite a few uber-fans of the TV incarnations who pretty much seem to think Abrams is the anti-Christ. If they’d been hoping that Star Trek Into Darkness would be an olive branch, taking things back to exactly how they’d been before, they were sadly mistaken. Instead the movie forges forward with its parallel reality, doing things that will ensure classic Trek fans who didn’t like the first film will be absolutely spitting feathers at its twisting of earlier stories, while others will love the way it cleverly renews things. [Read more…]

Mud (Blu-ray)

By Leave a Comment

Director Jeff Nichols impressed many with his film Take Shelter and has got a lot more critical acclaim for Mud. Part Huckleberry Finn, a little bit dark fairy tale, and with more than splash of Southern Gothic and Whistle Down The Wind thrown in, it’s an absorbing film even if it likes to take its time doing anything.

Ellis (Tye Sheridan) is a young teen who lives with his parents on a houseboat in Arkansas. The river is his father’s life, although his mother is on the verge of packing up and leaving. Along with his friend, Neckbone (Jacob Loflan), Ellis heads off to find a boat that’s gotten stuck in a tree during a flood. They want to make the vessel theirs but they discover it’s being used by a man called Mud (Matthew McConaughey) as somewhere to sleep. [Read more…]