TheRetroCritic

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I talk about Disney's latest remake Pete's Dragon .

Another month, another Disney remake... An update on the 1977 musical, Pete's Dragon sees a young child named Pete wander into the woods after his parents perish in a car crash and a friendly green dragon he calls Elliot takes him under its wing: years later, the inhabitants of a nearby town finally find Pete. Not that they were looking... The original Pete's Dragon may not have enjoyed quite as much praise as, say, Mary Poppins over the years but it remains one of Disney's most charming live-action films to date so a remake would certainly need to get Pete and his dragon right. Fortunately, the film achieves just that as young Oakes Fegley gives an appropriately wild performance as Pete and Elliot, while looking hairier and more dog-like, is still pretty adorable. Their friendship is once again the heart of the story and it still works. The big difference with this remake, however, is that Elliot isn't so much Pete's dragon as he is just a random

I finally talk about the new dino-reboot/sequel Jurassic World .

At first, Jurassic "anything" sure didn't sound like the best idea seeing how unpopular both sequels to Steven Spielberg's genial 90's blockbuster Jurassic Park were. Then the idea of a Jurassic World popped up and, suddenly, we all perked up about the project a little. The trailers had a lukewarm flavour to them, though, so who knew if this reboot/sequel was going to be any good. Especially sans Goldblum! Having the doors of the Park actually open and allowing guests to go on (mostly unsupervised) prehistoric rides certainly offered a lot of opportunities for mindless dino-destruction and an unparalleled body count for the franchise. In that sense, Jurassic World delivers exactly what we needed: pure Summer blockbuster chaos complete with people getting chewed-up by fab-looking CGI dinosaurs, tons of suspense and that iconic John Williams score (arranged by Michael Giacchino) punctuating the show throughout. The plot sees two kids whose parents are go

Here's one I've been defending from the beginning. Before M. Night Shyamalan suffered his first flop ( Lady In The Water ) and made what most consider to be his worst film to date ( The Happening ), he divided audiences with The Village . Back in the day, Mr Shyamalan was all about the twists and this one either made people mad or... didn't. Personally, I liked The Village and still do. A period piece, the film bears Shyamalan's trademark slow-burning pace and dark undertones but demands that you pay attention and immerse yourself in that strange little world. The village in question is overseen by a group of elders, which include William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver, who may or may not be hiding some sort of secret. Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard play two of the young people living in the village with Adrian Brody standing out like a sore thumb as a mentally challenged buddy of theirs. Look out for a young Jesse Eisenberg and Michael Pitt in there too. E

Before The Happening , there was... Lady In The Water . Here's a movie you'll either appreciate or dismiss completely. Based on a bedtime story M. Night Shyamalan told his child, Lady In The Water sets out to not so much be a typical horror/fantasy flick but instead to capture the made-up-as-it-goes-along feel of bedtime stories. An odd, kinda random project, for sure, but a daring one. One year prior, Terry Gilliam's Tideland had also tried something different with a similar genre by telling its story as seen through the boundary-free mind of a child and asking the audience to try and remember that while watching the film. Whether you like Lady In The Water or not, I don't find it necessary to be overly harsh with it since it's really more of an experiment and, for the most part, I think it works. Paul Giamatti is the stuttering caretaker who runs a pool-side apartment building and finds a young woman who seemingly just came out of the water in the pool