TheRetroCritic

Another year, another Nicolas Cage film you never knew existed but which somehow got made and was released when you weren't looking. Dog Eat Dog can now be found on Netflix, it co-stars Willem Dafoe and it is, believe it not, pretty good. The opening sequence of the film is arguably one of last year's most brutal scenes, which sets the tone for Dafoe's character, a pathetic yet psychopathic ex-con nicknamed "Mad Dog" who joins his partners in crime Troy (Nicolas Cage) and Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook) for one last job. Directed by veteran filmmaker Paul Schrader, known for co-writing some of Martin Scorsese's very best films and for making off-beat thrillers himself, Dog Eat Dog definitely has a quirky plot that feels like something the Coen Brothers would tackle or have tackled since one of the scenes even involves Cage stealing a baby à la Raising Arizona . There is humour in the film but the several funny lines or moments you'll find are super

Clint Eastwood directs this grim, Oscar-winning thriller from 2003 about an investigation following the death of a young girl in a Boston neighbourhood. It stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon as three friends who each have a connection to the case in some way. The film is essentially a murder mystery with Bacon and Laurence Fishburne as the detectives and everyone else as the suspects. We're first introduced to the main characters as children and learn that one of them was abducted and abused by two strangers for four days in a dark basement once, which makes for not exactly the most uplifting start to the proceedings but which becomes an important plot point later. We then catch up with the grown up kids years later: Dave (Robbins), who was abused, is now married and has a child, Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-thief with a family and dodgy connections and Sean (Bacon) is a cop. When Jimmy's daughter is found killed one morning, everyone's world is turned upside down a

Released back in 1947, The Lady From Shanghai was a moody film noir directed by and starring Orson Welles about how a femme fatale (played by a blonde Rita Hayworth) lures an Irish seaman into sailing with her and her wealthy husband on a yacht. Eventually, a murder is committed and Welles' protagonist is framed for it and is even made to confess to it on paper. Based on Sherwood King's novel "If I Die Before I Wake", The Lady From Shanghai was not a huge hit upon its release and pretty much mystified its producers. Since then, it has received more critical acclaim, mostly due to Orson Welles' technical creativity in full force during the film's admittedly impressive and memorable funhouse climax. The use of mirrors, elaborate sets and projection making for a brilliant, much ripped-off stand-out sequence. This is what most remember from this movie, that and Rita Hayworth, whose one song in the middle of the movie may not have been Welles' own idea but

Some movies are basically pointless but they're so much fun it hardly matters. Pure popcorn entertainment all the way. Gangster Squad is one of those movies. Which is not to say it's not well made or interesting, it is, but it's not the kind of film that really will have an emotional impact on you or leave you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. No, Gangster Squad is a playful homage to film noir and is all about being as cool, silly and entertaining as possible. It would make a good double-feature with Dick Tracy , to give you an idea. Hell, Sean Penn's Mickey Cohen is basically a Dick Tracy villain! His cartoonish performance is completely over the top but completely enjoyable. It just makes sense in Gangster Squad, it fits. You've got Josh Brolin playing it straight as the detective/family man who takes on the mob and is asked to gather a "squad" of misfit cops, Ryan Gosling is the mouthy, chain-smoking kid who has an affair with

Killing Them Softly has been sold thusfar as a cool, action packed Brad Pitt-starring gangster flick but I find that it's more of a serious version of Burn After Reading ! Think about it: here's a film that's more about the politics behind criminal goings-on than it is about the events themselves with a hardly seamless plan gone wrong, Pitt himself, some surprise casualties and a clueless puppetmaster keeping it all in check, kind of. If Joel and Ethan Coen had been in a worse mood when penning the infinitely more cartoonish Burn After Reading, this is probably what we would have ended up with. As it stands, I'm quite happy we got both. Killing Them Softly will disappoint those expecting the next gangster epic, there is some action there but it comes in short, out-of-nowhere, effective bursts. Most of the time we follow Brad Pitt's hitman as he goes around trying to organize the appropriate retaliation for a poker game heist set up by one of their own. Bas