TheRetroCritic

I review Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow for Horror Month.

Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken star in Nick Of Time , a thriller from 1995 in which a man's daughter is kidnapped and he is then forced to assassinate a politician. The film was a flop upon its release despite the lead's star power and it remains one of Depp's most forgotten efforts. The central premise is an intriguing one as we follow everyman accountant Gene (Depp) in real time as he attempts to get out of his predicament within the hour and a half time limit he's been assigned to do the job. Throughout the film, Christopher Walken's mysterious villain taunts him and watches his every move and he is genuinely intimidating. Unfortunately, this whole real time concept has been done before and since much better going as far back as Alfred Hitchcock's Rope to more recent examples including the 24 series and Phone Booth . This might explain why Nick Of Time evaporated pretty quickly as it comes off less like a theatrical blockbuster and more like a TV m

Disney continues its merciless rampage of adapting every single one of its classic animated films into live-action remakes and, this time, it's The Jungle Book 's turn. Jon Favreau directs an all-star cast of voice actors and a young newcomer in what promises to be a CGI visual treat. Indeed, pretty much everything in this movie is CGI from the talking animals to the jungle itself so if it's "realism" you're looking for, you might want to go for the 1994 live-action retelling instead. The film follows certain key plot points from the original 1967 animation but it definitely takes a lot of liberties with both the story and its characters. Mowgli (Neel Sethi) willingly walks away from his wolf pack before wondering why he has to leave and later comes back to fight Shere Khan which leads to a very different ending. Speaking of which, the unnerving build-up to Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) is now gone and we see the villainous tiger pretty much straight-

Based on true events, Catch Me If You Can would have made a compelling film regardless of who directed it. A compelling documentary, even. But with Steven Spielberg behind the camera, the film was a sure-fire hit and was a thrilling, fast-paced rollercoaster ride of creative conmanism. Set in the 1960's, the film follows teenager Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo Di Caprio) who learns that not only is his father (Christopher Walken) ruined but his parents are getting a divorce. Looking to find a way to fix that somehow, financially at least, Frank sets out to assume various identities and con banks with the help of fake cheques. He becomes co-pilot for an airline, a doctor and a lawyer among other things. Along the way, he is pursued by Tom Hanks' FBI agent Carl Hanratty whom he manages to trick over and over, always leaving him one step behind. It's a relentless cat and mouse game right up until the movie's final shot and although the film takes time-outs here and the

Whoever said that vampire movies needed to be fun? Not Abel Ferrara, that's for sure. The Addiction is many things but fun isn't one of them. This is a vampire film that's as dark as night and miserable as hell, it's not there to entertain or sugar-coat anything: it's there to be mostly unsettling. The whole vampires-as-junkies metaphor lacks some subtlety throughout the whole film, to be honest, but it's an interesting approach and you do want to stick around and see in which direction they take it. Personally, I much prefer Near Dark 's more subtle take on that but The Addiction's monochrome, bleak-as-can-be attitude provides a slightly more brutal and raw outlook which you don't see very often in that type of film. The plot follows a philosophy student, played by Lili Taylor who, long before she lost her shit in The Conjuring , was already a pro at looking wounded and just plain depressed. She gets bitten by vampire and slowly starts to t