TheRetroCritic

Back in 1986, Executive Producer George Lucas brought us a Marvel character in all his live-action glory. That character was Howard The Duck , a talking duck from another planet who somehow gets propelled through space all the way to Earth where his adventure truly begins. The film was critically panned and a box-office failure but it remains one of those cinematic question marks like Super Mario Bros. or Street Fighter  you just can't avoid. For one thing, if you grew up in the 80's, it's unlikely you missed this odd little movie: whether you know the comics or not, the title alone just screams "watch me!". The titular duck was portrayed by Ed Gale with Chip Zien providing the voice and the cast included Lea Thompson as Howard's friend and love interest Beverly, Tim Robbins as their annoying sidekick and Jeffrey Jones as a scientist who slowly turns into main villain Dark Overlord, some kind of space demon. The first half of the film is focused on Ho

Review now available on the new website .

I talk briefly about Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 .

New trailer for The Defenders is finally up! What do you guys think?

The first proper Justice League trailer finally exists! What do you guys think?

After stealing the Summer earlier this year with Captain America: Civil War, Marvel are back with a somewhat more experimental project as another classic character's origin story is crossed off the list. Benedict Cumberbatch takes on the role of Doctor Strange , the Master of the Mystic Arts. This was always going to be a challenge for Marvel as adding what is essentially a wizard to a vast superhero universe could go either way. Fans might call it jumping the shark, liken it to Harry Potter and dismiss it entirely. But for comic-book readers, Doctor Strange is a pretty important character who has always been closely linked to most of the heroes we've come to know and love in the movies so introducing him to the Avengers ' universe was a no-brainer and an exciting prospect. Dr. Stephen Strange is portrayed as a charming, very talented and extremely intelligent neurosurgeon whose vanity and arrogance almost kills him. After a devastating car crash, Strange's hands

What if Dr. Strange had a song? Which movie should I write a song about next? Dr. Strange (The Looking Glass) by TheRetroCritic

I n this 68th episode of  The Big Rewind , we review  X-Men Apocalypse ,  talk about  Doc Savage ,  X-Men  and  Nick Fury: Agent Of SHIELD . CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE Email us here if you have any questions, requests or contributions:  bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com Or simply comment below :) Oh and you can also find us on  iTunes ,  Stitcher ,  Soundcloud  and  Player FM  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #TheBigRewind #SuperheroMonth retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

After looking at the worst Marvel villains , I thought it might be interesting (and fair) to list some of DC's worst movie baddies. 10 TWO-FACE Batman Forever If you've ever wondered what Two-Face would have looked like in the old Adam West Batman TV series, then you might want to check out Batman Forever . To this day, it's a mystery how Joel Schumacher managed to get such a manic, over-the-top performance out of the typically deadpan Tommy Lee Jones who has never been this nutty. This Two-Face is not only far from sinister, he's basically a more purple version of The Joker and it's pretty clear that Tommy Lee Jones is trying too hard to pull off a Jack Nicholson and compete with Jim Carrey's even more OTT Riddler. A silly interpretation of one of the most tragic, creepy and interesting Batman villains. 9 SELENA Supergirl If you haven't seen Supergirl , Selena is a wannabe witch who, through sheer coincidence, gets her hands on

We review X-Men: Days Of Future Past on episode 36 of podcast The Big Rewind. Is the future truly set?

Back when Shaquille O'Neal was in movies because... basketball (?) we got Steel , a superhero movie based on the DC comics character with good old Shaq in the lead. Willingly ignoring the whole Superman connection to the character save for a shot of Shaq's "Man Of Steel" tattoo, the film instead decides to do its own thing with Steel by packing the story with new supporting characters and giving him another, simpler origin story. Released the same year as Spawn , Steel unfortunately failed to wow critics and audiences alike and it's still seen as one of the most misguided comic-book films out there. Despite a healthy budget, Steel still managed to look cheap somehow with the hero's costume not looking metallic so much as it looked rubbery and thrown together. Shaq's performance also left a lot to be desired as his constant toothy grins and stiff demeanour didn't exactly sell Steel as a moody tough guy going around the streets of Los Angeles making

Shot entirely in front of a bluescreen, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow was one of the few movies in the early 2000's to be ahead of its time in attempting something visually very different. Produced and starring Jude Law, the film was a throwback to the old adventure and sci-fi serials. Sky Captain may have been a flop at the box-office when it was released in 2004 but it received predominantly positive reviews and, looking back, it's not only a hundred times better than Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull , which came out a full four years later, it's a surprisingly good film in its own right. Paying homage to the likes of War Of The Worlds , Buck Rogers and many others, this was clearly made by a fan of old movies for fans of old movies as it's not only packed with clever in-jokes and references but it has that old-fashioned yet timeless quality to it. The reason this movie works and something like The Phantom doesn't is the focus

I compile 10 cool things about the 1997 movie adaptation of Spawn starring Michael Jai White and John Leguizamo. Superhero Month goes to Hell and back!

Only a month after Batman faced Superman in DC's pre- Justice League crossover movie, Marvel graces us with Captain America: Civil War , bringing to the screen a sort of mini-Avengers movie steeped in Cap lore based on a classic comic-book storyline. The film sees Captain America (Chris Evans) having to protect his friend-turned-Hydra pawn Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who may or may not have attacked the UN. Steve Rogers believes he may have been framed but, when half of The Avengers agree to the Sokovia Accords, a list of laws which would restrict their freedom to jump into action, things get somewhat more complicated and an elaborate manhunt is soon underway. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), after a blunder involving The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) taking out villain Crossbones with a lot of collateral damage, decides that the superteam should probably be held accountable for their destructive efforts but he quickly finds that convincing Captain America of that is not s

After listing some of my worst , here is my Top 10 Best Modern Marvel Movie Villains . Again, by "modern" I mean post-2000. Here we go: 10 BARON ZEMO Captain America: Civil War Although he may not look much like he does in the comics, the Baron Zemo we got in Captain America: Civil War somehow still works really well. We're first introduced to Crossbones early on in the film and he's your typical supervillain with the badass costume and everything but Zemo is then revealed to be the film's true main baddie and the fact he's a meek everyman you couldn't pick out in a line-up makes him all the more effective. To think that one guy with nothing to lose can single-handedly tear apart The Avengers from within, manipulating everyone from afar, says a lot about what Zemo is capable of. I shudder to think what he has in store next for the superteam...  9 YELLOWJACKET Ant-Man While Yellowjacket may not be the most memorable of all

Modern Marvel movies have gotten a lot of things right over the years including telling more out-there superhero stories in an approachable way, pulling off the craziest crossovers and bringing to the screen some iconic characters in style, heroes and villains alike. But there were also missteps and we also got some less-than-stellar efforts with less-than-stellar villains facing some of our favourite heroes. So, before I list my favourites, here are 10 of my worst modern (post 2000) Marvel movie villains: 10 THE LIZARD The Amazing Spider-Man The Andrew Garfield-starring Spider-Man reboot may not have been the most original piece of storytelling out there, once again laying out the whole Spidey origin story so soon after Sam Raimi's trilogy. Having said that, it had its moments. One of the most disappointing things about it, however, was The Lizard. Not only did the filmmakers seemingly go out of their way to make the character look nothing like he does in the comics

With the help of @Silent_Consumer, Jamie and I review the Fantastic Four reboot on episode 61 of podcast The Big Rewind .

I talk about the latest R-rated comic-book blockbuster Deadpool .

I try to find 10 cool things about Ang Lee's Hulk movie.

I finally talk about this year's super-flop Fantastic Four .  (aka Fant4stic)