TheRetroCritic

SO good.

Still my most popular Bat-video to date ;)

Tangerine lol

Here's a review of the classic Batman NES game from our good friend Nintendo Legend ! Head over to his site for the review to this game and MANY more. You can follow him on Twitter @Nintendo_Legend and check out his other badass retro gaming site 1MoreCastle.com .  Look out for my own reviews on there also every Wednesday.

If you thought the Batman Forever soundtrack was uneven, wait till you get a load of this one... Believe it or not, this OST starts off really well with a Smashing Pumpkins song that, regardless of whether you like the band of not, you gotta admit is pretty darn cool. It's the usual moody, high-pitched angst we expect from the Pumpkins but "The End Is The Beginning Is The End" is definitely worth a listen. It's actually so good there's two versions of it on the album, the slower "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning" (what's with the silly titles, you guys?) ending the soundtrack in style. In between you get the usual mix of teen-friendly rock and hip-hop/R&B. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's "Look Into My Eyes" is a catchy effort and strangely, I quite like it. R. Kelly's "Gotham City" is fine, I guess, if you like that sort of syrupy ballad but frankly if you're gonna sing about Gotham City choose someth

Courtesy of Empire , you can now listen to the soundtrack for The Dark Knight Rises . Wow, sounds awesome.

Yes, The Dark Knight Rises sure comes with its share of rumors. From day one we've had every villain under the sun suspected to appear, we've had every character suspected to be more than who they claim to be, we've had unfounded plot-points thrown out there, you name it: it's been rumored. But now, as the film's release draws nearer (f***in' finally!), I thought I'd take a look back at those rumors I particularly recall hearing about over the past couple of years. I'll start with the unlikeliest and make my way to those possible spoilerrific ones! 10 JOHNNY DEPP IS THE RIDDLER?! Come on, you remember that one. REALLY early on. I totally believed that shit for a while! In retrospect though, I should have known better. When has Christopher Nolan ever gone for what's obvious and popular rather than what's actually more sensible and serious? Maybe if Tim Burton was still directing Batman movies that casting choice would have made sens

Here's another " Top 10 Batman Villains " list courtesy of our good pal  Septicor ! Head over to septicor.com for the article and a lotta of cool stuff ;) Also follow him on Twitter @Septicor

Once Joel Schumacher took over the Batman franchise, it became instantly apparent that Warner Bros. were looking to attract a wider, younger audience. Part of that was achieved through making the films themselves more light-hearted and more cartoonish (and more ASS) but also through releasing teen-friendly soundtracks. So here we go… The Batman Forever soundtrack starts off with U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” , a song I actually quite like. Used to like it even more as a kid but over the years it has kind of dissolved into a near non-event. If an enjoyable one. It’s not bad at all, especially for a U2 song. It goes for a dark, moody tone but unfortunately only half-achieves it because, lets be honest here, how dark and moody can U2 realistically get? There are songs I genuinely like in this album. For one, Michael Hutchence’s take on the classic Iggy Pop tune “The Passenger” is really unique. I mean, the original is hard to beat and I still vastly prefer

NOTE: This review was written using only my thumbs, therefore typos might oxccur. If you are unfamiliar with the great man that is Mr Steve Oedekerk then this is something which must be rectified promptly. The man behind the likes of High Strung , Kung Pow and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls , when Mr Oedekerk isn't making movies he's making Thumb movies. And they are beautiful. You can check some out on Youtube or simply go to THE wackiest site around  for plenty of Thumb-tastic goodness. Highlights include Frankenthumb , The GodThumb , ThumbTanic and, of course... Bat Thumb. Focusing primarily on spoofing the first Tim Burton movie as well as the 60's TV series, Bat Thumb is very, VERY silly but if you expected something else then I'm not sure what part of "Bat Thumb" you didn't understand. The Thumb movies always begin with an absurd intro from Oedekerk himself and this one is no exception: The film is then introduced by a can of beets

Movies. Video games. Pajamas. With the wide variety of media that has been infiltrated by Batman, chances get higher all the time that the next Batman fan you meet won't have ever read a Batman comic. If you or someone you know is looking to meet Batman between the pages of a graphic novel, read on to see my top choices & why I recommend them for getting to know Batman in his original medium. 1   BATMAN: YEAR ONE   (Frank Miller) As you may guess from the title, this is a telling of how Bruce Wayne is inspired to become Batman, what he goes through to achieve that goal & what life is like after he first puts on that cowl. Almost everyone knows the basics of that plot already, but it is truly well done here & I think that it is Frank Miller at his best. Aside from the Batman aspect, I urge everyone to read this comic for the reason that it's not only a portrait of Batman, but also of Jim Gordon (Holy first impression, Batman!). The man is awesome. Non

Weird one... but why not. Yes it IS a manhole cover. And yes Bane has Bat-eyes. Deal with it.

With Bane and Catwoman taking on The Bat this month, I thought I'd take a quick look back at my own favourite Batman villains. Bear in mind I haven't read every single Batman comic-book or seen every single episode of every single cartoon series so there might be some bad guys out there I am not familiar with or not familiar with enough to include in this list. Might amend the list later, we'll see... In the meantime, here are my own picks for best bat-villains: 10 HARLEY QUINN If you'd asked me about Harley Quinn as a kid I would have probably spat in your face. I really wasn't a big fan of the character back in the days of the Animated Series , mostly because she just seemed tacked-on as a character and seemed to only be there to interrupt The Joker and serve as comic relief. That may all be true to a certain extent but looking back at some of the episodes she was in I realized they did try to make her as three dimensional as they could and you do

Here's some cool Batman -themed art from up and coming UK artist Steven Farmer !  More can be found on his Facebook page and on Myspace . Watch out for a very special cameo appearance from Steven himself in one of the new Batman video reviews which will be posted towards the very end of Bat-Month. Stay tuned!

More Prince-tastic goodness...

There was a time when this Prince soundtrack just wasn't for me. It was just so distracting, so 80's and so not in line with anything else in the movie which went for more of a 1940's film noir-style vibe. I actually used to count it as one of the film's (very few) shortcomings. Listening back to it now though, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. It's a guilty pleasure, for sure, but there's just something irresistible about a "funky" Batman soundtrack. Prince opens the album with " The Future" , a song you hear roughly in the background during the opening scene of the film where that family is wandering the streets of Gotham. It doesn't build up to anything particularly memorable but it's fine. Things get good with the second track though, " Electric Chair" sounding like a cross between Stevie Wonder and... AC/DC, as Prince gets to rock-scream a bit near the end of it. Gotta love the rock-screamin&#

Adorable.

Lets begin with a riddle: ‘What weighs six ounces, sits in a tree and is very dangerous’? Answer at the end of this review...   With the release of The Dark Night Rises   drawing ever closer, let us take a nostalgic trip back in time to the year 1966. Bring on the exaggerated acting and props that looked as if Blue Peter had made them. For anyone not familiar with Blue Peter: it’s a British children’s TV show which demonstrated how to make everything from cardboard sea creatures to rockets (I hated that show with a passion!!!!). If you liked the Batman TV series starring Adam West (as Batman/Bruce Wayne) and Burt Ward (as Robin/Dick Greyson) then you will love this film. It’s basically an extended version of the TV show. But having said that, it does stand alone as a movie and feels as if you are watching something more substantial than just a long episode. It has a good plot, lots of retro visual effects and all the mad Gotham villains we have come to love, assemb