TheRetroCritic

Originally titled “ The Bop Decameron” , To Rome With Love was this year’s Woody Allen and boasted yet another all-star cast in yet another European setting. But where Midnight In Paris really pushed the whole romantic, nostalgia vibe, this one takes a different route altogether. For one thing, this is closer to the likes of You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger or Everyone Says I Love You where you follow not one but several characters in their own little continuing vignettes. Woody Allen and the ever reliable Judy Davis play a married couple who go to Rome to meet their daughter’s boyfriend’s parents only to find that the father sings amazingly well in the shower, which Allen’s character promptly plots to exploit. A young architect, played by Jesse Eisenberg, is involved in a love triangle between his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig) and one her best friends (played by Ellen Page) althewhile being mentored by one of his favorite architects (Alec Baldwin), or his gh

As seen in Hannah And Her Sisters : Coincidence?! Just sayin'...

It seems Woody Allen films these days either hit or miss with the critics. It's like it all depends on how good the holiday was with sunny Vicky Cristina Barcelona doing surprisingly well despite its lack of any lasting impact or depth. But Cassandra's Dream and its dreary London gloom? No thanks. Now comes Woody Allen's Paris holiday which starts off as an obvious love letter to the famously (read: cliched-ly) romantic city (minus the homeless) but which soon takes a welcome sci-fi turn almost elevating itself to Purple Rose Of Cairo -style surrealism. Sadly the film refuses to go any deeper than its key message making it more of a cute little idea than a heartbreaking, moving, important story. It's a welcome return to thinking-outside-the-box type films like Scoop in which the afterlife made an appearance. Here, spending midnight in Paris can literally transport you back to a simpler time: the 1920's. Where Ernest Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds and Picasso a

Many have tried before or since the Indy franchise to recapture the magic and the fun of the old adventure serials with efforts like Romancing The Stone , The Phantom , Doc Savage or Alan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold but all have come short of Spielberg's classic trilogy. So what makes Indiana Jones so successful? For one thing you've got the iconic casting of Harrison Ford as the archaeologist-turned-adventurer which feels like the role Ford was born to play: cool, witty, always on-the-ball, occasionally goofy, strong, good-hearted, a ladies' man...he's the ultimate action hero. He's Han Solo with a whip and leather jacket, can't go wrong with that. Then you've got the Lucas/Spielberg/Williams trilogy of movie masterminds, a team which, in the 80's anyway, were at the top of their game. Fresh from Star Wars , Lucas knew how to produce a catchy flick, The Berg could direct a masterpiece in his sleep and John Williams' scores were ab