TheRetroCritic

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Based on a novel by Yann Martel,  Life Of Pi  was directed by Ang Lee, who won the Best Director Oscar that year. It was a significant commercial and critical hit back in 2012, banking on its impressive 3D visuals and unusual scenario. The plot sees a Canadian journalist (Rafe Spall) meet a man called Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) who has a wild story to tell that might be worth writing about. He describes his childhood and how he wrestled with various faiths throughout, from Christianity to Hinduism. His father eventually decides to leave India with all the animals from his zoo so the family, including a teenaged Pi, sets off on a long boat trip. One night, a storm suddenly sinks the boat and only Pi appears to survive. He sails off on a lifeboat with a couple of animals, one of which, we eventually find out, is a tiger he calls Richard Parker who turns out to be both the biggest liability and the one thing keeping Pi alert and alive. While the first act of the film sets the main theme

Despite the relatively unkind feedback Robert Zemeckis received after experimenting with CG animation in The Polar Express , he persevered and, in 2009, he delivered his own version of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey as Ebeneezer Scrooge... and the three ghosts. While the animation in Polar Express gave an unwanted creepy puppet quality to the child characters, here the visuals are much more polished and the actors' expressions are captured perfectly. It's fascinating to see Jim Carrey being turned into, not only an old man, but a younger Scrooge, a candle ghost and a big bearded spirit dude. The rest of the cast, which includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins, are also beautifully rendered into their CGI characters. There are still creepy visuals but this time it's very much on purpose as Zemeckis appears to have picked the scariest aspects of Polar Express and Beowulf in order to give every kid watching this movie nightmares throughout the holiday se

I n this 76th episode of  The Big Rewind , we review  D unkirk and talk Terminator 2 3D . CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE Email us here if you have any questions, requests or contributions:  bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com Or simply comment below :) Oh and you can also find us on  iTunes ,  Stitcher ,  Soundcloud  and  Player FM  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #TheBigRewind retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

I talk a bit about the 3D re-release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day .

Oh boy... Just when you think a franchise can't sink any lower... That Michael Bay-produced remake was just what I expected it to be: dumb, annoying, shot like a music video, missing the point of the original completely. I frankly couldn't stand that movie. Then, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning came out and, as unnecessary as it was, it was surprisingly not that bad. It still ripped off Tobe Hooper's first film to death but it was harmless enough as far as random prequels go. Then we get Texas Chainsaw 3D and, shockingly, we get what is quite probably the worst of the bunch! Boy I'm glad we rebooted that franchise! Aren't you? The film opens on blurred, cheaply 3D-ed footage from the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film and although they've somehow managed to make it look rubbish, it's still good enough to put you in the right mood. We're then brought forward to just after the events of the film and it turns out that a bunch o

That The Nutcracker 3D lost about $70M at the box-office (ouch!) shouldn't cloud our judgment of it as a film, I feel. Jumping on every bandwagon that comes along is hardly productive so let's take a look at Andrei Konchalovsky's take on Tchaikovsky's ballet (and E.T.A. Hoffman's story) as objectively as we possibly can. The film seems to want to distance itself from what it's based on as much as possible to allow for new creative input, which is fine because often that can mean that directors can allow their unique style to merge with a familiar story to create something fresh and interesting. Unfortunately what's added here just doesn't make sense with everything else. You've got Albert Einstein in some kind of Geppetto role played, oddly enough, by Nathan Lane who once again gives us a cartoon accent we could have done without (also see The Addams Family musical). You've also got a lot of weird Nazi imagery linked to rats and the Rat Kin

There's a new judge in town and he's... slightly less bulky. Yes, Karl Urban takes on Judge Dredd in this slick reboot which sees the moody Mega City judge with the super-cool voice-activated gun make his way up a tower block with a blonde psychic rookie taking out any unlawful culprits along the way. Like a video game, it all gets harder and harder as the levels get higher and you can expect one-liners aplenty and a lot of gory action. That Dredd is an 18 and not a 12A is the best thing that could have happened to this movie. Proving once again that a dark, violent comic-book movie should, indeed, be dark and violent regardless of whether the kiddos will flock to it or not. Sometimes you just have to let movies be themselves. Here, the blood and gore  adds a tough edge to Dredd (a tough, edgy guy) and makes it not only a worthy action flick but a satisfying adaptation. Which, after months of watching that unimpressive trailer on and off, is not so much a surprise as

Making a film called Conan The Barbarian and not expect people to compare and contrast it with... Conan The Barbarian is pretty dumb. Actually, a remake/reboot at this point really makes very little sense. Hell, if you're going to remake anything remake Conan The Destroyer or Red Sonja ! But oh well, we're here now and we'll just have to deal with it. This time around Jason Momoa (he was in Baywatch ) is our favourite barbarian and although physically the guy looks the part he's got about as much charisma as a cardboard cutout. Granted Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance in the original Conan was not exactly Oscar-worthy but it worked and Arnie had enough badass charm to make Conan feel like Conan and not just some blank generic action movie drone. And what a blank, generic action movie this remake is. The film lost me early on as we are led by a Morgan Freeman voice-over (penguins not included) into Conan's mum's uterus where baby foetus Conan is r

Probably the most hilarious thing you'll ever see. Prepare yourselves...

After a month devoid of any cinematic depth whatsoever, all hopes of seeing something worthwhile rested on Mr Herzog's shoulders. Thankfully, the off-beat director stayed true to himself and, indeed, didn't disappoint. I should point out that Cave of Forgotten Dreams is by no means Herzog's best film, or documentary for that matter and for the uninitiated this might not be the best place to start in terms of watching Herzog's films. That said, it is a great experience and a thoughtful, important film. At times COFD feels a bit like documentation and I'm guessing that was part of the intention since the titular caves aren't actually open to the general public. The director jumps on the 3D bandwagon but what seemed like an odd move, from the very first shot feels right. The depths of the cave are impressively re-created and you really get a sense of being there. In many ways, this is a typically Herzoggian experience: soothing voice-over monologues, albino