TheRetroCritic

If there was one Marvel movie everyone expected to be a flop, that was Guardians Of The Galaxy . Based on a less obvious comic-book with no traditional superheroes, made for a hefty sci-fi budget and starring the likes of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper as a talking tree and a talking raccoon respectively, this looked set to be another Lone Ranger -style disaster and an overly jokey trailer certainly didn't help. And yet here we are, with fanboys and girls everywhere saying (and tweeting) "I Am Groot!" like they really are Groot, rocking out to old pop tracks your weird uncle probably sings at weddings and Marvel once again making millions somehow. It's a mad, mad world. If you don't already know, the film sees an Earth dude-turned "Starlord" (and his trusty Walkman) setting out to steal some powerful sphere only to then meet with a bunch of galactic misfits who help him escape from a space prison. They team up to take down some bad guy who als

David O. Russell is back with yet another Oscar-nominated film starring both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. This time, though, we're at the heart of 70's Jersey with added Christian Bale and Amy Adams. The plot sees con man Irving (Bale) get together with Amy Adams' sexy bad-English-accent-imitating gal Sydney as they start a relationship and form a partnership which both turn sour when cocky FBI agent Richie (Cooper) decides to use them in order to expose corruption high-up. The nutty plan involves getting close to Mayor Carmine Polito (a perfect, vastly underrated Jeremy Renner), getting the mob involved using a fake Sheik and taking dodgy dealings as far as possible so the FBI can just swoop in and pick up the pieces. Unfortunately, Richie is no convincing con man and his inexperience keeps getting in the way, as does Irving's mouthy wife Rosalyn (Lawrence) and about a thousand other things. Russell's film can be seen as a homage to Martin Scorsese

And so Todd Phillips ends his gross-out opus with a third film that critics are already not liking very much at all. After complaining that The Hangover Part II was too similar to the original film, now people are complaining that this one isn't really about a hangover and is, in fact, too different. All this can be boiled down to one simple truth: The Hangover shouldn't have been a trilogy to begin with. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first film. It was completely overhyped and ultimately completely overrated but it had a fun Memento -esque concept and a fresh, enjoyable cast. It was a good comedy, an entertaining watch, nothing more. In order to turn something like The Hangover into a trilogy, it was obvious that both the cast and the original concept would need to return. Which they did, in The Hangover II. A film which certainly upped the danger-factor for our characters but ended up feeling a bit too mean-spirited. Yes, it's the humour that has suff