TheRetroCritic

Another Jesse Eisenberg film from the director of Zombieland ?! Yes please! With Danny McBride thrown in? Oh you are too kind. 30 Minutes Or Less is one of those very decent comedies no-one sees when it comes out for some reason. I'm reminded of The Cable Guy or Observe And Report . 30 Minutes isn't quite as good or as dark as either but its clever premise alone makes it well worth seeing. Danny McBride plays the laziest of criminals in that all he needs to do is get rid of his father in order to get some kind of inheritance or whatever so he can be rich and get together with a lapdancer AND YET he chooses instead to hire a very expensive professional killer to do the job for him. But in order to do that, he needs rob a bank... but again he delegates that to Jesse Eisenberg's pizza boy by kidnapping him and strapping a bomb to his chest which he threatens to activate if he doesn't get the money in time. Like I said: laziest criminal EVER. Pretty lol I mus

My favourite Siouxsie and the Banshees song, written by Danny Elfman for Batman Returns . Love it.

Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths head this new adaptation of a Neil Simon gem in London's Savoy Theatre and breathe new life into this comedy classic. I remember watching the 1975 film starring Walter Matthau and George Burns as a kid and thinking it was pretty darn hilarious for a movie about two grumpy old dudes. It's a great story: two Vaudeville legends who parted ways long ago on not so cordial terms are made to meet-up again and rehearse for one last show. One is bitter, moody and delusional, the other stubborn, passive and near senile. Their whole relationship is a Vaudeville routine, even subconsciously: they can't interact without their arguments turning into comedic gold. It's unlikely anyone will surpass Matthau's take on Willy Clark, even Peter Falk, as great as he was, could not dethrone the man. Danny DeVito makes the role his own and his take on the character is loads of fun. Willy is portrayed a bit more like a spoiled brat, taking his nephe

"The Bat, The Cat, The Penguin." Best. Tagline. Ever. For a long time, Batman Returns was not only hands down my favourite Batman film but one of my all-time favourites. To a certain extent, this is still true but time has made me a harsher critic so here's me trying to objectively review a film which has been firmly embedded in my DNA for decades. Hell, I could even hum the entire score from start to finish if I was drunk enough! Where Batman took the film noir route and was firmly inspired by detective flicks of the 40's, Batman Returns is pure Tim Burton. The snow, the quirky fairytale feel, the gothic look, the twisted sense of humour... it's a very different Gotham City to the one we were first introduced to. The film almost feels like an opera with the town hall, where most of the action takes place, acting as a kind of grand stage where all the drama and madness can take place. The film's opening is one of my personal favourite sequences of

Stoner comedy Pineapple Express being one of the best, most underrated comedies of the past few years, the prospect of a new James Franco-starring, medieval times-set randomfest was certainly very promising. And yet alas the version of Your Highness I had in my head beats this one hands down. Yes, unfortunately Your Highness doesn't quite deliver, it's definitely fun, but something got lost along the way. First, you've got Danny McBride whom, although he's usually a good guy to have around, is just not likeable enough to sustain our interest throughout. Even if he does proudly wear a Minotaur cock necklace... Everyone's on the ball though and at the very least look like they're having loads of fun: Franco, Portman, Deschanel, all great. It is Justin Theroux though who steals the show as the film's slimy villain. So what's wrong with it? Well unfortunately it's the jokes. It's like the film forces itself to include stoner humour when re