TheRetroCritic

Following the runaway success of both Jaws and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind , Steven Spielberg directed war-themed comedy 1941 back in 1979 and, although it wasn't technically a box-office bomb, it wasn't exactly a hit and it's only years later that it gained a cult following. The film is very loosely based on a mix of real yet mostly disconnected events as it explores the growing paranoia post-Pearl Harbor with US citizens fearing that Japan would attempt another attack and dealing with it in various ways. As an enemy submarine slowly tries to make its way to Los Angeles with the unlikely goal of destroying Hollywood, chaos builds in the city and we follow a variety of characters, each of them doing their own thing, with everything culminating in a cartoonish battle around Santa Monica pier. This is very much an ensemble piece in the vein of Dr Strangelove or American Graffiti with some characters having a very clear goal and others just kind of wandering i

The only film directed by Dan Aykroyd to date, Nothing But Trouble was a dark comedy from 1991 which starred Chevy Chase as a businessman who is arrested for speeding then put on trial in the trash and weirdo-filled little town of Valkenvania, just off the New Jersey Turnpike. With a cast that includes John Candy, Demi Moore, Taylor Negron and Dan Aykroyd himself, Nothing But Trouble looked like a safe bet and its goofy plot had lots of potential. Unfortunately, the film was a massive flop, gathering only about $8M against a healthy budget of $40M, and the critics did not go easy on it. Nothing But Trouble was panned by everyone back in the day, including Chevy Chase himself, it was nominated for several Razzie awards and Dan Aykroyd would never dare direct a film again afterwards. Looking back, the movie's failure at the box-office is hardly surprising: sinking this much money into a story this bizarre was never going to deliver. The film itself, on the other hand, isn't

I n this 73rd episode of  The Big Rewind , we review   Alien: Covenant ,   talk about  Ghost In The Shell and play Ridley's Believe It Or Not . 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 retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

Based on a novel by, believe it or not, John Grisham, Christmas With The Kranks is a comedy from 2004 starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a couple who decide to skip Christmas altogether when their daughter tells them she has to go to Peru for a Peace Corps assignment, much to the anger and disbelief of their neighbours. While the film did well at the box-office, critics were much less enthusiastic and it still holds a surprisingly low rating on Rotten Tomatoes and other sites. Maybe the corny poster and the fact it's yet another holiday-themed Tim Allen-starring family-friendly flick made it easy to dismiss as a trashy cash-in or maybe there's just something about Christmas With The Kranks that didn't sit well with people. On the surface, this is a pretty harmless film about a couple engaged in a goofy tit-for-tat battle with the neighbourhood, sort of like in the equally despised  Deck The Halls . There's nothing harsh or particularly unpredictable about

Written and directed by Woody Allen, The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion is an old-fashioned comedy thriller about an insurance investigator who is hypnotized into stealing priceless jewels and then unknowingly investigates his own thefts. Released in 2001, the crime comedy was originally a flop with the 1940's setting making it the most expensive of Allen's films at that point. Since then, however, the film has gained some cult recognition from fans of the director's work. This really feels like a project which would have made more sense had it been released around the same time as Broadway Danny Rose and Shadows And Fog with its dated look and sense of humour because it's not exactly the kind of genre that was in vogue back in 2001. The plot is based on a clever premise with a lot of potential: two people who hate each other are revealed to, in fact, be in love deep down but are then manipulated into committing crimes by a creepy hypnotist. Reminiscent of The Purpl

In this review, I debate whether Ghostbusters II is as good as the original classic. Doesn't that sound nice?

Review of the original Ghostbusters .

I talk about the original Ghostbusters after checking out the re-release. Boo!

Here's a weird one. After the resounding success of The Blues Brothers , Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi reunited in Neighbors , an odd dark comedy sold as "a comic-nightmare" (and released at Christmas, of all times) which saw the actors kinda switch roles, in a way, with Aykroyd being the loud, ebullient one and Belushi being the restrained, quiet one. The film sees Earl (Belushi) and his wife move into a new house in an abandoned, kinda depressing corner of suburbia while these goofy new neighbours show up to drive Earl completely nuts. The neighbours in question, Vic (Aykroyd) and Ramona (a brilliant Cathy Moriarty) just show up uninvited, the latter coming onto Earl over and over with a Jessica Rabbit-style charm and the former constantly playing tricks on him and pushing his buttons. This is really more of a Tex Avery cartoon than it is a movie and, had they not made it as dark as it is, I'm sure more people would have had fun with it. The rather sombre mood

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

It's no secret that sequels never quite reach the highs of the original films they're based on. That said, some of them do have their merits. If they manage to recapture the spirit of their predecessors while introducing audiences to fresh new ideas then they have a reason to be and their existence is justified. Which brings me to Ghostbusters II , a sequel widely recognised as inferior to the first Ghostbusters . Taking place 5 years later, the Ghostbusters, it turns out, have been screwed over by the city they once saved and are now appearing at kids' birthday parties etc. I guess it didn't take too long to re-trap all those loose ghosts from the first movie... The film basically sees everyone get back together Blues Brothers -style to battle a brand new villain and re-earn the city's approval. It's a lot of fun to see these guys again and the team's chemistry is still as strong as ever. Peter MacNichol pops up as ghost painting demon Vigo's kin

If there is a prime example of how good the 80's were at making the most out of the coolest concepts then Ghostbusters is it. What if there were New York firemen but instead of stopping fires they caught... ghosts? It's a neat idea and from the offset you know you're in for a treat. A clever mix of cheesy horror movies, buddy comedy and creative 80's special effects, Ghostbusters not only introduces us to a new concept but it defines it so well, so completely that by the end you totally accept that ghost-busting could (and should) actually be a real thing. The way that concept is made three-dimensional is masterful: you've got the iconic hearse with the instantly recognisable siren, the proton packs with their unique rules (ghost traps, not crossing streams) not to mention Ray Parker Jr's immortal, catchy-as-hell theme song. Whenever those guys are driving around taking out ghosts and that music is playing, you reach a nostalgic nirvana few films manage