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

Hard – Series 1 (DVD)

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Sophie lives a comfortable middle-class life with her husband and two children. However that changes dramatically when her hubby dies and she discovers that he wasn’t in shipping as he’d claimed, he actually ran SophX, a porn website.

She also discovers that her hubby took out new loans on the house, and so she has to step up and turn the business around, even though she finds porn disgusting. Initially she hopes to make something a bit more upmarket that women will  also enjoy, but faces opposition from those entrenched in an old idea of how porn works, as well as adult stars who don’t really know what to do when asked to do proper acting. [Read more…]

Tower Block (DVD)

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Imagine a film celebrating a few of today’s exciting young film and TV and theatre actors, Russell Tovey (Being Human), Sheridan Smith ( Legally Blonde) and Jack O’Connell (Harry Brown), and delivering what really should have been a straight-to-DVD film and this is what we have.

The UK seems to be able to deliver three types of films – urban dramas, romantic comedies and films starring Dame Judi or Dame Maggie! (yes, Potter and Skyfall do feature the previous two Dames!) [Read more…]

Score (1974) (Blu-ray/DVD)

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I have to say, Score came as a bit of a surprise. It’s one of three Radley Metzger erotic features that have just been released in the UK in double format Blu-ray and DVD editions. Metzger specialised in ‘high class erotica’ (or ‘art porn’), making numerous films in the 60s and 70s with a sexy bent. The other two movies released are Camille 2000 and The Lickerish Quartet. [Read more…]

Antique Bakery (DVD)

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Sometimes you see a film, the popularity of which defeats you – Antique Bakery (2008) is one such movie. That’s not to say that this smash hit from Korea (based on the bestselling manga series of the same name), directed by Min Kyu-dong (Five Senses of Eros (2005) and All About My Wife (2012)), and featuring Korean stars Ju Ji-hun, Kim Jae-wook and Yu Ain, isn’t fun. It’s more that, like the cakes which are served in the bakery, there isn’t a lot of substance beneath its sugary sweet coating. [Read more…]

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (DVD)

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Starting high school can be tough for anyone, but Charlie (Logan Lerman) has more on his plate than most. He’s recently out of the hospital after suffering from mental health problems, he’s still reeling from his best friend’s suicide and when he turns up at school, even the few people he does know ignore him.

Despite being quiet and generally keeping to himself, he manages to befriend seniors Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson), who introduce him to their group of friends. Charlie starts to open up, has his first relationship and begins to fall for Sam, allowing him to put his issues to one side. However as teen traumas inevitably arise and his friends get closer to leaving school, he faces losing the support network he’s built and may have to actually deal with his problems. [Read more…]

Darling Companion (DVD)

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Darling Companion ought to have been really good. It’s the first film in seven years from Lawrence Kasdan, writer of Raider Of The Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back, and director of The Big Chill and Wyatt Earp. It also has a cast to die for, including Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass.

However it’s about a dog that goes missing and then they all look for it – and that’s about it. Well, technically they realise there that they can’t ignore the problems in their relationships and they have to work on mending it, but mainly it’s about the dog. [Read more…]

The Fall Of The Essex Boys (Cinema)

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I have to admit I’m a little confused about the British film industry at the moment, or at least the more commercial side of it. Currently we only seem to be able to produce wedding comedies and movies about irredeemable criminal assholes.

The Fall Of The Essex Boys fits squarely in the latter category, telling the true story of the run up to the Rettendon Triple Murders of three drug dealers in Essex in 1995. It’s a crime that seems to have a strange hold on some people as this is the fourth movie made about the events surrounding it, following Essex Boys, Rise of the Footsoldier and Bonded by Blood. Quite why this crime has created a mini industry of films, books and even merchandise is a bit of a mystery, because in the annals of murder, the demise of three impressively scummy drug dealers is amongst the least worth getting exercised about. [Read more…]

A Perfect Ending (DVD)

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Rebecca (Barbara Niven) is a rather uptight, middle-aged, middle-class women who’s used to getting what she wants – from everyone except her prig of a husband (John Heard) – but there’s one thing she’s never had; an orgasm. When she confides her secret to some friends they suggest she hire an escort. After all, who will know how to pleasure a woman better than another woman? [Read more…]

Pusher (2012) (Blu-ray)

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Normally remakes of European movies are made in the US but Nicholas Winding Refn’s 1996 movie Pusher got to the UK and decided to do the double, with two remakes in the past three years. The first was a British Indian take, while this new one brings across a Spanish director for a London-set version of the story. [Read more…]

Hitchcock (Cinema)

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Anthony Hopkins gave some amazing performances in the 1980s and 1990s, but for the last decade or so it’s seemed like he’s simply turned up for his paycheque. However it turns that to get him to give a real performance you’ve got to give him a role where he doesn’t have much choice but to act. After all, Alfred Hitchcock is far too well known for Hopkins just to have coasted it. Thankfully he doesn’t, not just doing a dead-on impersonations of the master director, but creating a fully realised character in a way Toby Jones couldn’t quite manage in the recent, The Girl. [Read more…]