TheRetroCritic

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Tom Hanks stars in this 1985 comedy about a random guy who is used as a pawn by the CIA in the middle of some tit-for-that infighting. A remake of French spy farce  The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe starring Pierre Richard, this was yet another Hollywood attempt at adapting one of Francis Veber's most popular films. The general plot is the same as in the original except Tom Hanks' character isn't quite as clumsy or as much fun as Pierre Richard's François Perrin. There's no consistency in terms of the slapstick because Richard (Hanks) is portrayed as being just a normal guy whereas in the original, that character was very much an Inspector Clouseau-esque idiot. We know Tom Hanks can do slapstick really well from the likes of The Burbs or The Money Pit so it must have been a conscious decision to dumb down that character, which simply doesn't work since that's replaced with no real personality traits. The plot is also told with little style or en

Picking out the worst moments from the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special would have been too easy so finding 10 things to like about the old TV special seemed like the way to go. Some of these are moments I actually like about the special, though some admittedly for all the wrong reasons. 10 THE COOKING SHOW Ok, so I don't exactly "like" this scene seeing as it's very annoying and completely pointless. Plus I keep wondering whether Harvey Korman is actually in blackface or not whenever I watch it, which is unsettling. No, this bit makes the list because of how entertainingly mad (and bad) it is. What is this Chef Gormaanda even cooking? Why do we care? Why does she have four arms? What on Earth is going on with that hair? Just shut up with those questions and WHIP, WHIP, STIR! 9 LIFE DAY CELEBRATION To the risk of spoiling the TV special for all of you, the Wookies do finally get to celebrate Life Day and Princess Leia gets to sing a litt

The Star Wars mania which had rocked the late 70's and become a huge phenomenon real quick finally came to an end in 1983 with  Return Of The Jedi ,   the third instalment of the space opera which saw our heroes fight back after losing some steam against the Empire in the last movie. Still frozen in carbonite, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), is hanging as a wall decoration in an alien blob's humble abode. Said blob is Solo's last employer Jabba The Hutt, a cold, vile and greedy creature who not only lets the guy gather up dust but soon reduces Leia (Carrie Fisher) to a scantily-clad slave woman and sets a trap (it's a trap!) for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), before almost having him thrown in the Sarlacc (don't ask) pit for lols. Luckily, Luke has now pretty much mastered the powers of the Force and is a bonafide Jedi master so the gang are promptly reunited and escape, droids and all. The tone for this one is a little different than in the previous films. A New

Back in 1977, George Lucas released Star Wars , an epic sci-fi fantasy space opera with a save-the-princess plot and it soon became a phenomenon, to say the least. It would later be retitled Episode IV: A New Hope as Lucas decided to expand the storyline further. The film was such a commercial hit that two (soon to be three) more films would follow, then three prequels, countless tie-ins, endless novels, tons and tons of merchandising, several cartoon series, it made Harrison Ford's career and Jedi even became a legitimate (-ish) religion! And the crazy thing is the franchise is still as huge as it ever was, with many, many more films planned so let's take a look back at the movie that started it all. Star Wars opens with a captured Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) sending a couple of droids off to planet Tatooine to bring back help. She is being held by iconic baddie Darth Vader (played by David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones) who is running a gigantic space station f