TheRetroCritic

It's crazy to think that True Blood came out the same year as Twilight . It's just nuts. I mean, Twilight is the bad Disney movie take on vampire lore! True Blood is just... Good. The show sees that modernized Twilightness and gives it a very welcome, and very clever, tongue-in-cheek anything-goes rock-n-roll attitude combined with an effortless Near Dark cool you certainly haven't seen in a while when it comes to vamp flicks/series. The first season takes a familiar route with random murders being committed by a mysterious killer, typical TV plot ( Twin Peaks , anyone?), the whole thing being a whodunit that just happens to also be about vampires and a whole hidden world humans have no idea about. The show is set in a time where humans and vampires have learned to live side by side with vampires settling on a blood substitute, a drink conveniently called "Tru Blood", but obviously unspoken tensions between both still exist. As the season goes on, wh

Ah Kill Bill, I remember seeing Quentin Tarantino's 4th film at the cinema and having THE best time. This was like watching a compilation of badass revenge movies from the 70's all put together into a fresh, new, exciting, unique package. I hadn't seen anything quite like it and it blew me away. Uma Thurman gives a career-best performance as The Bride, a woman betrayed by her own buddies, namely the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad" and its leader only known to us as "Bill", and left for dead. But a gunshot to the head just wasn't enough to keep her down and super-Uma is soon back and ready to kick ass. We follow her journey from when she wakes up from a long coma to her confrontation with Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii. It's typical revenge movie stuff and it all builds up to a thrilling final fight where the as-yet-unnamed Bride takes on The Crazy 88, easily one of the most useless gangs in movie history. By the end you're so into the Luc

Wes Anderson films aren't for everyone and if you're new to the director's unique style then Moonrise Kingdom is probably not the best place to start. This latest tale is essentially a kids movie for adults so whether you're one or the other you'll find it's a bit of a weird one to fully get into. The story follows two kids in love who one day decide to run away together, this leaves the parents, Scout Master Ward (a perfect Edward Norton), his scouts and Bruce Willis' cop to try their best to hunt them down. This doesn't prove to be that straight-forward as Sam (Jared Hilman), the loose scout, is a skilled survivor and his partner in crime Suzy (Kara Hayward) has a bit of a violent streak. It's a cute love story with  a sweet, touching resolution and Anderson's style compliments the 60's setting perfectly. He does give the film a bit of an edge also which is very welcome as otherwise this would have been one cutesy-ass movie. As it sta

Sure, the very idea of a trippy animation in which Johnny Depp plays a chameleon wearing a Hawaiian shirt ALONE is amazing. But can that image hold up an entire film on its own? Hmmmm, barely. To be fair, this being Gore Verbinski's first venture into animation, this was never going to be pitch-perfect. Then again Wes Anderson's first attempt with Fantastic Mr Fox was pretty polished. I will say this, though: the film looks great. Visually, it is definitely impressive. Although I will nitpick and say that there are way too many close-ups throughout. Like, ok, do we NEED to see every scale on that snake's face? Can't we just assume it has them? Rango really is an ode to Depp. You've got a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas reference, you've got a whole bit where Rango displays his acting chops (one of his characters being, ahem, a pirate)...and yes Depp is great in this. Most of the cast is actually pretty good too. The problem, well, one of them, unfortunat