Queer Beacon

I Love You, Man (2009) - LightShed 8

Finally another movie with Paul Rudd and good gay content. For all the gay buzz Paul Rudd gets, he has actually been in some pretty gay-bad movies (Knocked-Up and Role Models come to mind -- both of which have "faggot" slurs and other jabs at us gays).

Things went our way in I Love You, Man.  In the movie, Paul Rudd plays a recently engaged guy in a quest for a best man; Rudd is a girl's-guy and has no male friends. In his quest toward Jason Segel he meets Reno 911's Thomas Lennon, they go out to dinner. It turns out Lennon is gay and thought he was going on an actual date (as opposed to a man-date) with Paul Rudd...at the end of the date Thomas kisses Paul, he actually leads with the tongue (you can see that on the main theatrical trailer). Paul is surprised but takes it nicely. So, that's our first gay content.

A little later into the movie, we learn Paul Rudd has a gay brother (played by Andy Samberg).

The gay brother is a pretty butch personal trainer. Our gay is an actual guy's guy. The portrayal is very nice, the gay brother is Dad's best friend and even coaches Paul Rudd in the straight art of getting a wing-man.

 

You should see this one. The movie is funny even if Paul Rudd's constant attempt at creating fun catchphrases gets old early into the movie, but he drags on...

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) - No Gay Content

This wasn't bad. It's a pretty decent catastrophe movie.

In this remake of the 1951 movie, Keanu Reaves plays Klaatu, an alien sent to earth to destroy humans because they are destroying mother earth. Jennifer Connelly is a scientist that inadvertently helps him out.

I saw this on iMax, I mean sort of; they use the iMax screen but the projection is not really full iMax (a large part of the top and bottom are cut off). I think that is a problem that affects most wide release movies on iMax. It pisses me off but I keep coming back for more...

Ghost Town (2008) - No Gay Content

In Ghost Town, Ricky Gervais plays a dentist who has major issues with people. After dying for 7 minutes during a surgical procedure, he starts seeing dead people, one of such people is Greg Kinnear's character, who wants Ricky to prevent Greg's wife (Tea Leoni) from marrying this jerk (played by Billy Campbell).

The premise is preposterous but the movie is actually quite good. Ricky's delivery is very very good, and I'll just about see any movie with Greg Kinnear (he looks like my hubby).

We don't really get any gay content, except perhaps for this one comment from a naked guy (played by Jeff Hiller).  The naked guy is dead and his ghost is after Ricky Gervais to ask for a favor.  One time, the naked guy mentions the guy Tea Leoni is supposed to get married to (Billy Campbell's character) is cute. Not really gay, but I thought I'd mention it.

Hancock (2008) - Shipwreck 2

So, we have a homophobic superhero.  Really, really upsetting. 

Let me first give you the good news. Hancock is a good action movie.  This is an interesting story of a homeless guy who happens to be a superhero, he recklessly rescues people and prevents crimes --  after each rescue or intervention, the city is left with millions in unnecessary and usually easily avoidable damages.  Hancock is a drunkard and is constantly grumpy.

Things start to change when he saves the live of major cutie Jason Bateman.  Jason is into public relations and offers to change the image of our super hero.

Now the bad stuff.  The first homophobic content comes right on the first scene. When Hancock is busting these three criminals, he breaks into their car and says something to the effect that he was not even judging the fact that there were three dudes in the car.  He said it in a way that conveys his disgust with the all-dude situation. Bad.  Then, later, Jason is trying to help him choose a super hero outfit by showing the cover of a few comic books.  To every single one of the outfits Will Smith reacts: "homo", "homo in red", "Scandinavian homo" and so forth.  Again, really bad.

I concede that in those two scenes, Hancock had not been "saved" and he was still the baddass idiot; nasty and in bad behavior. But we are clearly made to be on his side at all times and we never forget that this is Will Smith, whose shit is not supposed to stink even when he's playing an idiot.  Also, to be a baddass, do you need to be homophobic?

Wanted (2008) - No Gay Content

Wanted kinda lost me right on the opening scene, when we can read on-screen that the movie is about a society of assassins dating back over a thousand years.  Tacky. I mean, do they really need the "thousand years ago" crap? That ticked me off, they already had a lot going on in the plot, they already had too much for us to deal with, we didn't need the aggravation.

But, once you get over that part of the plot (and that is a big part) and other silly ploys (like that dodging the bullet scene they tirelessly showed to us in TV ads or the fact that the assassins can heal super fast in these pools of candle wax -- pretty much a butched up version of a bubble bath), the movie is actually not bad.  Jolie is drop dead gorgeous. Like, you can cry when you first see her on-screen, she's so pretty (her arms were a little too thin, though -- you can see that on the movie poster above; bitch needs to eat a burger or two). 

The special effects are superb and I must say I am happy James McAvoy are getting these big roles. I think he is ugly, but he is on the normal side of ugly, and that's good for us (he makes the world think that us ugly guys can be hot too), and, more importantly, he is talented. Bitch can act.  This is not the movie you should bring your Oscar ballots to (that's a line from my hubby, who didn't really like the movie, by the way) but it's worth seeing -- you can catch McAvoy's real acting talents in The Last King of Scotland and Atonement.

No gay content.  Just loads of special effects and violence.  I'm still saying: good movie, though.

Iron Man (2008) - Shipwreck 3

Even though RDJ's portrayal of a superhero was a little over the top for me, I still liked Iron Man -- the gay content, not so much.

In Iron Man, RDJ plays a rich arms dealer (he owns a company that manufactures high tech missiles) who, after being kidnapped in a rogue country, is forced to rethink some of his values and actions. Cute.

While being driven in a military convoy to this site where he was going to make a demonstration of the latest weapon developed by his company, RDJ acts all surprised when he realizes the driver is actually a girl -- not so nice to the butch looking ladies.  Later into the movie, RDJ makes a joke with real life homophone Terrence Howard -- something about Terrence going out with a tranny or something like that.  Very derogatory. Not nice.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) - No Gay Content

What a perfect, somber, vehicle for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  They both rock in Sweeney Todd.

In the movie, Johnny is unjustly imprisoned by this nasty judge -- when he's out of the joint all he wants is revenge.  Helena helps him out. 

Again, the acting is superb, but I didn't really like the songs.  The movie is good but could have been much better.  I think the plot should have us see more of Johnny's perfect little life before his imprisonment so that we could better taste his revenge.  As it is, the movie feels almost gratuitously gory -- revenge for revenge sake.  Just my two cents...you should still see the movie.

Eastern Promises (2007) - Shipwreck 2

Cronenberg's superb A History of Violence left me with high expectations for his next movie, and that is, in a way, unfair to Eastern Promises.  EP is a great movie, but it is not even in the same category with A History of Violence.  The building blocks of EP's plot are quite interesting, but the execution, the details (especially the ancillary dialogs) are lame; distracting at best (like the cheesy-ass attempts at comedy from Naomi's racist uncle).

In Eastern Promises, Naomi Watts is a nurse who helps out a teenage mother.  The teenage girls dies during labor and Naomi feels like she needs to find out the whereabouts of the girl's family so that the baby can be sent them.  In her quest for information, she becomes entangled with the Russian mafia.  We have Armin Mueller-Stahl as the big boss, Vincent Cassel as his son, and Viggo Mortensen as the family's, uh, driver.  That's all you need to know.

In Eastern Promises you get the gory violence Cronenberg is famous for right in the first few minutes.  There are other gory scenes, one of which is quite original.  Viggo fights two guys -- totally naked.  The two guys are not naked but Viggo is, which, I think, adds a very interesting layer of risk to the fight.  We see Viggo's parts swinging left and right, dodging the blades and small knifes.  Superb.

Eastern Promises packs quite a bit of gay content, but my discussion of the homo scenes will ruin the part of the plot.

Breakfast with Scot - LightShed 10

What a cute movie. 

In Breakfast with Scot, Canadian hottie Tom Cavanaugh is a former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player who is gay, he is married to the team's lawyer (Ben Shenkman) and they become the parents of an 11-year-old boy. The boy is super-fem and that challenges Tom's perception of what it means to be gay, a man, masculine, a father etc.  It's all good.

Breakfast feels like a holiday family movie -- that's probably intentional and could explain why our gays are asexual (all we get is one grandma-type kiss between Tom and Ben).  Still, great light for the gays; we are shown to be parent material; normal.

Gone Baby Gone (2007) - Shipwreck 4

I am quite impressed with Ben Affleck's directorial debut.  I think he put together a great movie: dialogs are meaningful, regional accents are done right, the plot is full of twists and turns, and, more important, the acting is first rate.  Pretty much everybody does very well -- Amy Ryan, who was unknown to me, kicked ass as a trailer-park trash mom whose little daughter goes missing.  Casey Affleck (I always liked him) is also very good as a private dick out to help the search for the missing girl.  Ed Harris, who can be excellent, was a little off -- I'm blaming Affleck; but, still, great job.

As expected from trailer-park crack-whores, the mother homo-curses a few times (mostly 'faggot').  She is pretty much alone though; so, the light for the gays is not that bad.