TheRetroCritic

Steven Spielberg directs this new Cold War-set thriller which sees a lawyer (played by Tom Hanks) being tasked with defending a caught suspected Soviet spy. After War Horse and Lincoln , it feels like a long while since Spielberg had a little fun, the last time probably being The Adventures Of Tintin , a film which, at this rate, should be getting its planned sequel some time in the next two or three decades. That said, even in serious mode, Spielberg somehow manages to knock it out of the park and Bridge Of Spies is no exception. Painter and suspected spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is caught by the FBI and is soon put on trial but when an opportunity presents itself to possibly exchange the prisoner for one of America's own, lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks) has to make a decision whether to leave his family and oversee the whole process himself thereby hopefully redeeming himself popularity-wise or wash his hands of the whole business. Donovan is sent to East Germany where

The sequel to the original classic, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes had the impossible task to not only match the original quality-wise but to surprise the viewer somehow, even after the mother of all twists. Even though Beneath most certainly doesn't match its predecessor in terms of how impactful and iconic it is, it's hard to imagine that audiences back in the day weren't surprised by it in some way! Now this movie doesn't slowly build up to one final zinger, instead going for a more constant flow of what-the-hell moments culminating to one surprisingly and, at the same time I guess, appropriately pessimistic climax. Charlton Heston is back as Taylor but in a less prominent role this time around, instead showing up as a supporting character to James Franciscus' Brent, an astronaut whose ship happened to be following Taylor's and which happened to crash on the planet also. This sadly sets up Beneath as a kind of retread with a tacked-on where's-Charlto

Spies Like Us looked set to become one of the biggest comedy hits out there back in the day: you had Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in the leads, John Landis directing and a promising plot about two idiots promoted to go out on the field as spies in order to serve as a distraction for a real mission. Despite mostly cold reviews from critics at the time, the film eventually gained something of a cult following and, although I do personally like the movie, I could definitely see why people might not like it. First off, it's very hit-and-miss. It's the kind of comedy where you basically know what joke characters are building up to like 5 minutes before the actual joke happens and when it does, there's no real surprise. It doesn't help that some of the jokes in the movie last forever. A classic Marx Brothers-style one involving a bunch of people saying "doctor" to each other (a lot) takes a while to conclude, as does one in which Chevy Chase's character att