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

Bullet To The Head (DVD)

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When his partner is killed, Jimmy Bobo (Stallone), a Louisiana hitman, joins up with a by-the-book police officer Taylor Kwon (Kang) who is investigating the death of his own partner. Together they set out for vengeance, uncovering police corruption and hunting down a ruthless mercenary (Momoa) who’s out to kill them both.

Considering the action pedigree of Bullet to the Head — Sylvester Stallone looking great at 66, Walter Hill (Deadwood, The Warriors) at the wheel and producer Joel Silver (Commando, The Matrix) riding shotgun — the audience can expect a little more from this action film than a mindless gun slinger. The opening sequence promises as much: a stylish grunginess greets the audience. Throughout the film there’s a satisfying grimy-New Orleans feel with an icy-cool soundtrack that you’d find happily playing in a bar deep in Louisiana swamp-land. [Read more…]

The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mum (DVD)

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With a title as awesome The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mum, this film has a lot to live up to, and thankfully it’s a pretty good and rather sweet movie. It’s also a fairly good example of what cinema is lacking because there are so few women directors, as when you get a movie like this, with a genuine female voice, you realise how rare it is and how lop-sided the movies generally are.

It’s 1976 and Elizabeth is on the verge of puberty. During a class assignment about how blood groups are hereditary, she realises that she cannot be her parents’ biological child. Understandably she’s a little upset and confused about this, and becomes gripped with the idea of find her ‘real’ mother. After thinking it over, she comes to the conclusion that perhaps Dolly Parton is her mum, due to the singer’s trailblazing ways and love of poetry. [Read more…]

The Visitor (Cibrâil) (DVD)

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A lot of gay-themed films are low budget efforts, so you have to make allowances for the fact they don’t have polished production values and the actors aren’t going to be hired by the Royal Shakespeare Company anytime soon. However sometimes it’s tough, and that’s certainly the case with The Visitor. The film is almost like something you’d make to show potential investors what the movie would be like if they were given the money to do it properly.

I really tried to look past the film’s low budget  shortcomings, but things such as the fact everyone sounds like they’re speaking from the end of a long tunnel (and sometimes background noise threatens to drown out the speech), make it difficult. It also doesn’t help that first-time feature director Tor Iben makes quite a lot of amateurish moves. [Read more…]

The Numbers Station (VoD)

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The Numbers Station is available on VoD in the UK now, and will reach DVD & Blu-ray on July 1st

The success of ‘Nordic Noir’ such as The Killing and Headhunters has caused Hollywood to look towards Scandinavia for a new crops of directors to mine. Denmark’s Karspar Barfoed is one of those who’s heard the call of American film, making his English-language debut with The Numbers Station. However he certainly hasn’t jumped into the big budget realm, as it’s a relatively small-scale, claustrophobic thriller, with limited locations and much of it taking place between just two people. [Read more…]

Doctor Who: The Dalek Films (Blu-ray)

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You could be forgiven for not knowing that in the 1960s there were two Doctor Who movies. The reason they’re slightly obscure is that they weren’t made by the BBC and aren’t considered part of the official canon – and for good reason. While they feature some familiar elements from the TV show, such as the Daleks and the police box TARDIS (in the movies it’s just TARDIS, not ‘the’ TARDIS), in other respects things are considerably changed. [Read more…]

The Liability (Cinema)

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After a run-in with his nasty brute of a stepfather (Peter Mullan), 19-year-old Adam (Jack O’Connell) is sent to chauffeur a taciturn man called Roy (Tim Roth) up north. Adam doesn’t know what they’re supposed to be doing, but it soon becomes apparent Roy is a hitman who’s keen to give up the game. They’re heading to a rendezvous with a Latvian man who Roy has been hired to kill, while making it look like a local serial killer who’s been chopping off people’s hands did it. [Read more…]

The Great Gatsby (Cinema)

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It’s been just over 20 years since Baz Luhrmann swished his way into the film industry with the ultra-camp Strictly Ballroom. Since then he has only directed three films – the exciting Romeo and Juliet, the manic and colourful Moulin Rouge, and the very forgettable Australia.

Baz has now returned with his controversial version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic, The Great Gatsby. [Read more…]

Quartet (Blu-ray)

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A couple of years ago, if you’d put a bet on Dustin Hoffman’s first movie as a director being about a bunch of musicians in a British old folks home, you would have been very rich when Quartet opened. It’s a surprising choice for the veteran actor, especially as it’s such a quintessentially British movie, but he has a steady hand behind the camera, and also ensured he had some pretty powerful acting talent in front of the camera. [Read more…]

Les Miserables (Blu-ray)

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The shortest acting performance ever to win an Oscar is Beatrice Straight in Network, who picked up the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award despite only being on-screen for five minutes and forty seconds. Anne Hathaway can’t beat that, as her Fantine gets a comparatively lengthy 15 minutes of screen time in Les Miserables. However I’d argue she won the Best Supporting Actress gong purely for the 277 seconds she spends singing I Dreamed A Dream. [Read more…]

Suits – Season 2 (DVD)

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I’m finding is difficult to write a review of Suits, because much of what I want to say about it sounds like an insult, but I don’t really mean it like that.

Okay, imagine you’re one of the contestants on The Apprentice. You know, the ones who think they’re god’s gift to business and that they crap genius – and whose favourite activity is telling everyone else how brilliant they are. [Read more…]