TheRetroCritic

Critics may not have quite embraced the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie reboot but it nevertheless had enough Turtle Power to guarantee this sequel which sees our heroes in a half shell take on more larger-than-life baddies. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows makes a genuine attempt to bring to life familiar characters from the comics and cartoons, which is very refreshing. By playing the classic theme song during the end credits and introducing the likes of Bebop & Rocksteady, Krang, Casey Jones and Baxter Stockman, this movie certainly earns some big fan points. Some of these characters had never made it to the big screen so there's definitely something to be said about finally doing that for those nostalgic about the source material. If only the Transformers movies cared this much. The plot of this film sees Krang (voiced by Brad Garrett) influence Shredder, who has escaped from prison, to open a portal through which the Technodrome could come

Good Christmas specials are so hard to find these days. Most of my and your favourites are probably extremely dated by now. Luckily, here comes Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight! to save the day. The animated feature takes The Avengers and sends them on a quest to find Jolnir, the legendary Santa Claus, before Loki does since his plan is to steal his powers of bending space and time. They travel to space using a portal built by Tony Stark and end up on a Christmas planet, because why not. Meanwhile, Thor and The Hulk stay behind on Earth to help fill in for Claus should he not be found. Rocket Raccoon and Groot, from the Guardians Of The Galaxy , are also involved as they land on the same planet and meet with Mrs Claus. The entire thing is, as you can tell, completely ludicrous but it doesn't take itself seriously at all, remaining tongue-in-cheek throughout. In fact, Frost Fight! is surprisingly very funny: you've got Rocket Raccoon fighting Gingerbread Men, Gr

Released in 2014, Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher was an anime-style animated feature produced in Japan taking The Punisher and throwing him in an Avengers storyline led by Black Widow, of all people. How does that work? As it turns out, surprisingly well. Taking a page out of DC's book, Marvel lends its characters to a group of competent animators who, much like most of the Batman animated features, not only deliver a visually appealing film but respect the source material. The film doesn't take the easy route either: it would have been a breeze to just make an Avengers movie like the poster suggests, packed with familiar characters throughout, but the fact that this focuses on The Punisher and his unlikely collaboration with Black Widow is refreshingly daring and original. The plot sees S.H.I.E.L.D. clash with The Punisher (voiced by Brian Bloom) over a specific case which Nick Fury explains goes deeper than Frank Castle knows. The latter therefore

I review Popeye 2 for the original Game Boy.

In 1991, everyone's favourite ninja turtles came back for a live-action sequel with a rather long title. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze wasn't as violent or as dark as its predecessor, much lighter in tone, but it still did well at the box-office. Critics weren't quite as enthusiastic about this one since it clearly wanted to stay closer to the cartoons rather than introduce a moody element the way the first movie did but audiences still enjoyed the turtles' ninja antics. The plot, this time, involves the "ooze", the toxic green goop which once turned the titular teens into mutants as the scientist who created it (played by David Warner) is kidnapped by The Shredder with the goal of creating two monsters powerful enough to get rid of the turtles for him. A pizza delivery boy who practices martial arts (Ernie Reyes Jr's Keno) helps the turtles on their quest to find out the truth about their origins and defeat the bad guys.

With the popularity of the cartoon series reaching its peak, it was inevitable that Hollywood would attempt to make a live-action movie based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and so, in 1990, we got to see Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelangelo in their first film. As excited as we were about that prospect as kids, the odds that the film itself would be any good were pretty low. It would later spawn two sequels and countless tie-ins, so it certainly did its job at the box-office and came out at the right time. But this wasn't just a lucky shot in the dark, this was a decent TMNT movie, believe it or not. The tone of the film was slightly darker than the popular cartoon, and therefore a touch more in line with the comics, but it still captured the fun, cheesy aspects we all enjoyed about the animated series. The turtle costumes looked great for the time and were more consistent/convincing than in later films, especially in terms of puppeteering, and the voice ca

In 1994, for some reason the world decided it was a good idea to make a live-action movie adaptation of The Flintstones , a cartoon as old as time itself about a goofy caveman suburbia with dinosaurs and modern-day appliances thrown in. John Goodman takes on the Fred role with Rick Moranis playing his best friend and neighbour Barney Rubble. Their respective wives being Elizabeth Perkins (as Wilma) and Rosie O'Donnell (as Betty). Speaking of the actors, the cast in this movie is pretty darn spot-on and you can tell a real effort was made to make the film look like the classic show. The sets are surprisingly detailed, elaborate and impressive and, while some of the dinosaurs/animals are CGI, a majority of them are literally made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop and they look fantastic. The plot involves Barney and Betty adopting a wild child called Bam Bam after borrowing money from Fred. To make it up to him, Barney switches aptitude tests with Fred and the latter is selected

As Disney once again attempts a live-action version of its own 1967 masterpiece based on Rudyard Kipling's classic story, I take a look back at the original The Jungle Book . Growing up, this was one of my favourite old Disney films along with Alice In Wonderland and Robin Hood and, to this day, it remains one of the best. Right off the bat, the opening titles show off beautiful drawn depictions of the titular jungle and an excellent, timeless score. What follows is the tale of Mowgli, a human child raised by wolves who is led by panther Bagheera (voiced by Sebastian Cabot) towards the human village so he can be protected from the evil tiger Shere Khan, who has returned to the jungle and who famously hates Man. Along the way, a reluctant Mowgli shows he can't really look after himself as a run-in with hypnotist snake Kaa (Sterling Holloway) almost ends very badly for the "man-cub" and he is later kidnapped by monkeys. He meets friendly, lazy bear Baloo who tak

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 one part people remember fondly from that Star Wars Holiday Special . Watch out for the penis dinosaur.

Not content with painting his face green in The Mask and wearing nothing but green as The Riddler in Batman Forever , Jim Carrey decided to cover himself in green fur for Ron Howard's live-action version of Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas . This decision did pay off in that Carrey turned out to be the perfect choice to play the moody Grinch and, whether you like the movie or not, it's hard to deny the rubber-faced actor's energy makes his portrayal of the classic character a lot of fun from start to finish. Who else could have pulled off such a cartoonish role so convincingly? He even aces the old "You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch" tune in one of the movie's best and most memorable sequences. The make-up effects on Carrey as well as on all the actors playing the Whos of Who-ville are impressive and spot-on, bringing Dr Seuss' unique visual style to a live-action setting beautifully. Unfortunately, while the film boasts tons of Christma

Along with Shaolin Soccer , cartoonish martial arts movie homage Kung Fu Hustle introduced western audiences to Stephen Chow's films and his uniquely wacky style of humour, leaving people in Europe and the US wondering if all Chinese comedies were THIS insane when, really, this movie was pretty out there even by Chow's standards. Man was it fun, though. The film sees the shady and very dangerous Axe Gang threaten a small village. As it turns out, kung-fu masters secretly live in the village so, when this is revealed, the gang is forced to find new ways to take the place and its inhabitants down. The whole thing escalates and the fate of the village soon rests on whoever "the chosen one" is. As ever, Chow mixes silly, often pretty gross characters with cartoony action sequences and brutal moments. To give you an idea, the film opens with the Axe Gang slicing off someone's leg and shooting some woman in the back with a shotgun. Much like in Chow's Journe

Jim Carrey burst onto the Hollywood scene in a big way in 1994 with the likes of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , Dumb & Dumber and The Mask . The latter stood out for many thanks to its mischievous cartoon vibe and its impressive special effects. Based on the Dark Horse comic books, The Mask saw Jim Carrey play mild-mannered banker Stanley Ipkiss, an overly nice, unlucky loser who gets stepped on by everyone around him and just kinda lets it happen. Until one day he finds some strange wooden mask which basically turns him into a superhero. Or, rather, a green-headed Tex Avery-infused freak who travels by tornado, spouts out catchphrases and wears bright and colourful suits. He becomes everything he's not and has a ball being The Mask until this seemingly unlimited power backfires and Ipkiss' life gets out of control. Before all this, he meets Cameron Diaz's femme fatale, a dancer at the "Coco Bongo Club" and the villain Dorian's (an intimidating Peter G

Check out my review of NES game   Bucky O'Hare   over at retro gaming super-site  1MoreCastle !

Growing up in France, where I discovered anime, I was introduced to Grendizer under the name Goldorak and it was all kinds of badass. The show boasted not one, not two but FOUR different intros. The first one, sung by Enrique, was a direct adaptation of the original Japanese intro and, apparently, it ended up being censored because the word "race" was used in the lyrics even if it was referring to big-ass robots: The second intro, by Noam, was much more light-hearted and kid-friendly. Also much more boring: The third intro was another version of Enrique's first intro, this time sung by The Goldies and improved slightly: French anime theme go-to guy back in the day, Bernard Minet, then gave us this intro which, weirdly, ended up being my favourite of the bunch: Hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, here's the original Grendizer theme which is, of course, just as epic as it always was:

It's about time that plane-flying Italian pilot pigs got their own movie! Set between WWI and II, Porco Rosso follows an ex-fighter pilot-turned-freelance bounty hunter, who was cursed some time ago to physically look exactly like a pig, as he befriends a young mechanic called Fio and faces off against a bunch of moronic air pirates. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, this one's not too dense in terms of story but it does have a lot of subtleties about it which help make the film's straight-forward plot a little fuller and more interesting. This is more of a character piece, the film slowly but surely letting us discover the real man behind the pig (yes, I realise how silly this sounds) and, like Fio, we get to eventually filter out the introverted character's true humanity. It's a sweet, mature movie with some top notch animation which really starts showing off during the exciting and beautiful-looking action sequences. Porco Rosso thankfully

Based on the 70's anime series, Casshern was a 2004 live-action film which looked very promising yet it left me feeling somewhat conflicted leaving the cinema after watching it: parts of it pissed me right off but other parts were all kinds of awesome. So how does Casshern fare now, after a re-watch? Much better, actually. The flaws I'd picked up on the first time watching it are still there and they are still distracting but the stuff that works in the film does very much outweigh them. If you're not familiar with the film's plot, it involves a Dr Frankenstein-style scientist (Akira Terao) who finds a way to regenerate dead tissue through what he calls Neo-Cells. During a war, a lightning bolt mysteriously hits his lab and, as a result, a new race of people is born. At the same time, his son Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya) is killed in the war and he brings him back as some kind of superhero who ends up calling himself Casshern. The new "monsters", Neo-Sap

Here's what is quite probably the most expensive live-action anime film adaptation ever made making it basically Hollywood's biggest risk financially dipping its toe in that genre. Similarly to how the Astro Boy CGI feature lost about 20 million at the box-office, Speed Racer did make money but was ultimately a flop, losing over 25 million. But that doesn't mean anything quality-wise, after all, Blade Runner , The Thing and The Night Of The Hunter were all flops in their day. Speed Racer, however, is no Blade Runner. Right off the bat, you are thrown into a multicoloured CGI world so visually rainbowed that you'd think it was yet another Dr Seuss fairy tale come to life in movie form. The thing basically looks like an even more stylised The Cat In The Hat , with less talking cats and more bouncing cars. Directed by the Wachowski broth-... siblings, of The Matrix trilogy fame, Speed Racer takes a very old anime series and makes it into a full-blown candy-colou

Classic.