TheRetroCritic

For a film about a magical brain pill, Limitless really isn't that clever at all. That said, if you allow yourself to stay brainless throughout this is one enjoyable, silly ride. Bradley Cooper's first film as the main lead fits in very well in between this month's other two dumb sci-fi action thrillers Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau . Limitless could have easily been set in a Minority Report -style near future and it would have made just as much sense. More sense even because as it stands I could spend all day outlining the film's gaping plot holes. The film starts off strangely rather well with some cool, hypnotic effects, a cliffhanger and some almost Spike Jonze-esque storytelling. Then we're shown the pill... *flashback to the trailer* Oh man this is gonna suck. "I finished my book in 4 days!" From the moment Cooper ingests that first pill you know what's next, you know Limitless is about the jump the shark. Cue Brad jumping i

One of the best bits of Grindhouse was definitely the fake trailers. And one of the best bits of the fake trailers was Machete , which promised flying motorbikes, killer priests, threesomes and Danny Trejo kicking a whole lotta ass. Three years later, we finally got the promised feature. Better late than never, I say. Shame  Sin City 2 took decades... Robert Rodriguez excels at mimicking 70's exploitation films, whether it be horror movies ( F rom Dusk Till Dawn , Planet Terror ) or Mexploitation action flicks ( Once Upon a Time in Mexico , Desperado ) so Machete was always going to be a shoe-in. That it took so long to make is therefore surprising but as long as it exists, I'm not about to complain. So does Machete get the job done? Perfectly capturing the sleaze and silliness of Grindhouse action B-movies, Machete is about as badass, random and fun as it gets. Rodriguez's film certainly shows weak efforts like A-Team and The Expendables (out the same year)

Olivia de Havilland loses it and we sit and watch as she attempts to regain some shred of her sanity and hopefully leave her confinement to be reunited with her husband. The reasons behind her nervous breakdown are revealed little by little and although the feel of the film is, at times, very Hitchcockian, the way the subject-matter is handled makes Spellbound look like a 5 year-old child's perception of psychoanalysis rather than a legitimate take on it. De Havilland's performance in this is one of the most complex, unpredictable and powerful I've seen in a long time and, again, makes Gregory Peck's performance in Spellbound look even poorer than it already is in comparison. She earned a well deserved Oscar nomination and so did the film. The Snake Pit is very dark and doesn't sugar-coat much, with some scenes actually quite hard to watch and pretty daring for 1948. As larger than life as some of the characters may be, this is far more subtle and honest than,