TheRetroCritic

Pee-wee Herman returned only a few years following his big screen debut Pee-wee's Big Adventure in this sequel which saw the off-beat man-child living on a farm and encounter a circus following an impromptu storm. Tim Burton sadly did not come back to direct this one though Danny Elfman stayed on as composer delivering a very circusy score. The first thing you'll notice watching Big Top Pee-wee is that gone are the toys and gadgets, Speck and the iconic bike Pee-wee worked so hard to recover the last time. There's something a little off-putting about seeing Pee-wee live on a farm in a completely normal and unexciting room after the colourful treat that was the last film. Add to that the fact he lives in a small town where everyone inexplicably hates his guts and this looks set to be a depressing watch. Luckily, Pee-wee soon reveals a secret room where he's working on silly secret experiments (hot dog trees etc.) and the circus soon appears thereby giving the film

Remember back when it was totally ok to call your Bond film Octopussy for absolutely no reason? This was the early 80's, when Roger Moore was still James Bond despite being a little too old for the role and 007 movies each doing pretty much exactly the same thing without any real surprises. Oh sure Bond went to space and got an extra nipple at some point, but essentially the formula stagnated and/or went downhill after that. Octopussy preceded A View To A Kill , Moore's last Bond flick, and it tends to be remembered more for its racy title than for its content. In a nutshell: the film's plot is irrelevant. Something about the Soviet Union trying to setup a war through a women-led circus somehow, and jewellery... This'll hurt less if you don't think about it. A lot happens in this movie but so much of it is either random or completely irrelevant, you could be forgiven for thinking this is more of a clip show from other Roger Moore Bond movies rather than its

How do you make a good zombie movie? For one thing, not having a circus dwarf take a shit in the woods for 10 minutes half-way through your film is a good bloody start! Also, repeating awful jokes again and again doesn't help, as does making your film for £6.95. To be fair, for such a low budget this is pretty ambitious stuff and some of it works albeit on a very (VERY) trashy level. Made in the UK, Zombie Women of Satan aspires to be a Troma-style Grindhouse gore-fest but falls way short in that it has no real style or at least some good jokes. Instead we've got a lot of terrible actors trying to be funny and 90% of the time failing to do so. Thankfully though, this is quickly followed by ridiculous gore: the film's one saving grace. The practical gore effects are actually not too bad considering the no budget nature of the film. Also, the idea of burlesque performers fighting zombies is not too bad and there are quite a few genuinely unpleasant, disturbing moments.