TheRetroCritic

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I talk about Season 3 of Fargo .

George Lucas' Star Wars "prequelogy" finally came to its epic conclusion back in 2005 which saw the long awaited birth of Darth Vader come to fruition. Was it all worth it? Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith definitely took a page out of Attack Of The Clones in that it prioritised big, visually impressive action sequences over anything else though an important concern, this time, was of course linking everything together in a way that makes sense. Good old Ian McDiarmid finally gets a chance to go full Palpatine in this one which leads to some enjoyably hammy, shamelessly over-the-top dialog and scenes. The dodgy Chancellor's slow yet meticulous way of getting into Anakin Skywalker's head is pretty masterful and you definitely buy that Anakin would turn to the Dark Side at the hands of this lightning-spraying ghoul. As for Hayden Christensen, he does a decent enough job this time and, at the very least, looks convincingly pissed off. The plot this time is

After the mostly negative feedback The Phantom Menace received, George Lucas nonetheless continued his prequel trilogy with Episode II: Attack Of The Clones , a vastly bigger, slicker and more action-packed effort.  Anakin Skywalker now all grown up, it was up to newcomer Hayden Christensen to take over the role from the wildly unpopular Jake Lloyd and the result was... another wildly unpopular performance fans are still talking about to this very day in hushed tones. Anakin's courtship of Padmé, which inexplicably included talk of sand ("it's coarse and rough and irritating"), did not help matters as the script's more romantic scenes definitely stood out as slightly clumsy. That said, the film around poor old Anakin looked so good and was so entertaining, even a wooden Christensen couldn't hurt it too much even if it did rub quite a few Star Warsians the wrong way. The film means business from the get-go as it learns from The Phantom Menace's mist

To say that there was a lot of anticipation for George Lucas' Star Wars prequels back before they were released would be sugar-coating what was probably one of geekdom's all-time biggest events. Seeing the rise of Darth Vader could only be awesome. ...right? Well let's just say that if ever there was a way not to start that trilogy, The Phantom Menace was it. Not that it didn't deliver anything of value but the backlash that followed the film was so huge that it made everyone very worried for the rest of the prequels. Jar Jar Binks became the single most hated Star Wars character of all time and The Phantom Menace, by extension, the most hated Star Wars movie of all time. But was that backlash an overreaction or was it somewhat deserved? While I'd love to say that The Phantom Menace was in fact a misunderstood gem, one can't deny just how inept parts of this movie are. Yes, Jar Jar Binks was a bad idea from the start: his bumbling antics unfunny f

I say, old bean, isn't it frightfully late in the day for a spot of Mortdecai ? After all, the novels this new film is based on were written back in the 70's, the whole character of Charlie Mortdecai feels like an Inspector Clouseau-esque creation from the mid-60's and, regretfully, the great Terry Thomas is no longer with us. Where was Mortdecai when he would have made sense? Oh well, at least we have Johnny Depp having tons of fun with yet another cartoonish British accent and we have some form of Mortdecai movie, even if the whole retro feel I was hoping for is lost due to a current setting and some cruder jokes. By ignoring the obvious visual style appropriate to this type of film, this means it moves at a faster, more modern audience-friendly pace but it also means that Mortdecai as a character makes no sense and that there's constantly something missing from the movie. Even Catch Me If You Can had a cool 60's-style opening titles sequence! Mortdecai

Tim Burton takes a stab at a more personal story with this adaptation of Daniel Wallace's novel. The film follows a son trying to make sense of all the tall tales his dying father spoke about since he was a kid in order to maybe find a connection with him before it's too late. The tall tales in question lend themselves to a lot of fantasy and Burton imagery from werewolves to giants and witches. The tone of the film, however, is very different than what you'd expect from that particular director. A lot of it is surprisingly earnest and you even get a good chunk of the film set in the unaltered real world, a rarity for Burton. Billy Crudup plays the disapproving son and Albert Finney the story-telling dad with a pre-Oscar Marion Cotillard popping up as Crudup's wife. The dynamic between these characters is a tense, interesting one as it's Burton trying his hand at straight-up drama (with a touch of humour, of course) and, although fans of his most stylised stuff