TheRetroCritic

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I talk about my favourite (and not-so favourite) Pixar movies.

And so it's time to list my Top 10 Best DC Movie Villains , to even things out with my Top 10 Worst compilation. I'm not counting the animated movies in this list, just so you know. 10 HECTOR HAMMOND Green Lantern Probably the most underrated part of Green Lantern was Peter Sarsgaard's solid performance as Hector Hammond. The pathetic nature of the character is portrayed really well by the actor who gives the villain a growing edge as he is consistently ignored by his father and eventually turns into a macrocephalic monster. Sarsgaard takes the character seriously, even after his freakish transformation, and you do care about Hammond since he didn't start out as a bad guy so seeing him turn into an evil super-villain is surprisingly tragic.   9 THE RIDDLER Batman Forever Here's a villain that easily could have made it into the Top 10 Worst list in that he's both so over-the-top it's distracting but, on the other hand, he's

Well, the polls have finally closed and I can now reveal that the Best Film Of 2012 , for the faithful followers and visitors of The RetroCritic blog is none other than... SKYFALL Seeing as 007's latest was more or less shunned by both the Golden Globes and the Oscars, I'm quite happy that at least here, on this tiny-ass blog of mine, we finally all came together and agreed: Skyfall was awesome. Although I personally enjoyed every Daniel Craig Bond films to date, Quantum Of Solace was hardly a hit with most so Skyfall, in some ways, was a return to form. Not just that but it celebrated the 50 years of Bond considerably better than when Die Another Day tried to reference past Bond outings. After the whole MGM mess, the future of 007 was unsure and we waited quite a bit of time for his next adventure so the fact that Sam Mendes delivered the goods and didn't disappoint was very refreshing. What we got was a smart thriller, a gripping action movie which deve

Love him or hate him, Tom Cruise chooses his movies carefully and, more often than not, he picks some damn good ones. And, more often than not, he's damn good in them! Which is why I've picked 10 of my personal favourites. Of course, I haven't seen every single one of his films but based on the many I've seen, this is the list I came up with. A few guilty pleasures just missed out on the Top 10 including Cocktail and Days Of Thunder , as did a good bunch of decent ones like  A Few Good Men or The Firm . Jerry Maguire , a film I do enjoy very much, would have made it if Renee Zellweger wasn't so darn irritating in it and Legend just fell short due to Cruise's pants just being, well... much too short. Oh and I'll tell you right now: Top Gun puts me to sleep. Planes are boring. You heard me. On that note, let's fly through these bad boys! One maverick at a time... 10 RISKY BUSINESS Yup, Risky Business . Was going to file that one under g

Well, it's that time again and you, yes YOU, my fellow viewers, get to vote for your picks for best and worst films of the year we'll be ending in just a couple of days. You'll see I've opened up a couple of polls on the top right and left of this Home page so go ahead and vote away! Polls will close in early January. The picks I've put up are a mix of films I've seen and wanted to include and films I didn't see but seemed to be particularly decent or terrible. Of course, I don't know everything so if your wanted pick isn't listed, fear not you can always pick "Other" and comment on this here post with your specific film. It will be included in the final results. Last year's best film, if you remember, was Captain America: The First Avenger and your worst was Battle: Los Angeles . So go ahead, if that final Twilight outing was just too much for you, if that Total Recall remake put you to sleep, vote! If Dark Knight Rises blew

Die Hard . How do you beat that movie in terms of action and sheer gripping suspense? I'll tell ya. With a vengeance, that's how. Don't get me wrong, I love Die Hard and it is a classic but when it comes down to it, it's pretty claustrophobic taking place mostly in that skyscraper and all. For me, Die Hard: With A Vengeance is just that little bit more glorious in that the entire city is at stake this time, you've got a villain which would give even the likes of Batman chest pains and it all takes off instantly. You thought Die Hard 2 lacked a certain je-ne-sais-quoi? Well here it is. That's another point: With A Vengeance continues the franchise without feeling like a retread, which Die Hard 2 was a bit, to a certain extent. This time around, John McClane's not exactly at the top of his game. He's been suspended from the police force, his marriage has gone down the drain once again and he's got a bad hangover. So when a new villain on

Starring Billy Dee Williams, sci-fi turkey  Alien Intruder gets the Best Of treatment.

Now Prometheus is finally out, I thought I'd take a quick look back at visionary director Ridley Scott's career and outline which of his films I've personally enjoyed the most so far. Here goes... 10 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE Well aware that this isn't THE most popular choice out there but I'm putting it in the list because of how... weird of a project this actually is. It's Ridley Scott basically making a Werner Herzog film with Gerard Depardieu playing Christopher Columbus and Sigourney Weaver as Queen Isabella I. The film itself is a dark, atmospheric, brutal mess with a lot going for it despite being a million hours long (I'm exaggerating). Underrated. 9  AMERICAN GANGSTER Did not expect to like this one. By the time the film was released I'd pretty much given up on seeing another good Ridley Scott movie ever again (walked out of the unforgivably irritating A Good Year ) but I gave it a shot and found myself weirdly getti

As our poll finally ends, I can now reveal that the Best Film Of 2011 , for the faithful followers & visitors of the RetroCritic blog is... CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Yes, Marvel's latest attempt at adapting the superhero was a winner and arguably the best comic book movie of last Summer. It made it to number 9 in my own Top 20 Best Films Of 2011 list and seeing it take the top spot here isn't too surprising: a great mix of modern action and old-fashioned heroism, Captain America gets it right. And after the dire 1990 version , Steve Rogers deserved his comeback. It was certainly great to see Chris Evans NOT play a smirking douchebag for once. Don't get me wrong, in small doses (see Scott Pilgrim vs The World ) it was fine but... Fantastic Four happened. Twice. Captain America looks the part and boasts a strong cast: Tommy Lee Jones doesn't exactly play against type but stays on good form nonetheless and Hayley Atwell makes a beautiful and ref

There are no bad films, only bad entertainment. Whenever you're watching a film and you just can't stand it anymore you have to make it stop: that means it's not bad enough that it's fun and not good enough that it's actually watchable. Troll 2 is not a bad film...I wouldn't say it's particularly well crafted but it really does work. Like Tommy Wiseau's The Room , this is one of those films which may not have achieved its original goal but which has managed to become something altogether better entirely: a cult classic masterpiece of fail. Pointing out the film's shortcomings could take several days but needless to say it gets everything beautifully wrong. The story is nonsensical and frankly dumb, the acting goes from perplexingly odd to the equivalent of ham eating ham-covered ham, the sets and costumes are hilarious and just about everything else is impressively clunky. That Troll 2 has becomes such a cult phenomenon is no surprise, sooner or