TheRetroCritic

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Shot entirely in front of a bluescreen, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow was one of the few movies in the early 2000's to be ahead of its time in attempting something visually very different. Produced and starring Jude Law, the film was a throwback to the old adventure and sci-fi serials. Sky Captain may have been a flop at the box-office when it was released in 2004 but it received predominantly positive reviews and, looking back, it's not only a hundred times better than Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull , which came out a full four years later, it's a surprisingly good film in its own right. Paying homage to the likes of War Of The Worlds , Buck Rogers and many others, this was clearly made by a fan of old movies for fans of old movies as it's not only packed with clever in-jokes and references but it has that old-fashioned yet timeless quality to it. The reason this movie works and something like The Phantom doesn't is the focus

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

(SPOILER-FREE REVIEW) Hey, remember when movies didn't flat-out lie to your face? I mean, I know all trailers are lies to a certain extent but... I gotta say: this one takes the cake. What Iron Man 3 promised during its kickass marketing campaign seemed so right, so perfect, and yet somehow the movie I was faced with while sitting comfortably in the cinema sipping on a large, watered-down Diet Coke, was not what I expected and, by extension, not what I wanted. Or, I feel, what the franchise itself deserved. Surprises can be a great thing in movies: Psycho killing off its main actress early on, for example, worked as a surprise because it made sense with what happened next, it was masterfully executed and left the audience feeling lost but curious and ultimately hooked. Iron Man 3 is no Psycho. The film boasts a couple of shock reveals which you wouldn't even think about from watching the trailers but instead of adding an extra layer of awesomeness to the film,

The first Iron Man took people by surprise in that it was actually pretty darn good. After the catastrophe that was the Fantastic Four franchise, this was nothing short of a miracle. Was Marvel finally ready to take on more challenges? Make more decent superhero films? Hell yeah! With Robert Downey Jr. officially back in everyone's good books after his career tumbled despite taking on the Charlie Chaplin role in Richard Attenborough's critically acclaimed biopic, a decent run in Ally MacBeal and the fact he's one of the most talented actors around,  this sequel was able to give the actor a little more creative freedom and allowed the franchise to go wild and have some fun. Tony Stark goes through quite a few ups and downs in this movie as he starts to enjoy his fame as the self-proclaimed Iron Man a bit too much, even defying U.S. officials in typical cocky, flashy fashion before losing control completely and finding refuge in alcoholism following a bad run-in w