TheRetroCritic

Outcast is one of those Nicolas Cage movies which looks like such a half-assed effort it could only be entertaining. The casting of Hayden Christensen as his co-star and yet another ghastly-looking, misleading poster covered in fire being further proof of this. It also seems odd that Cage would take on yet another Crusader flick so soon after Season Of The Witch but heck, why not? It's not like it's an overdone subgenre. Besides, Season Of The Witch was more of a fantasy film and Outcast is like a Zhang Yimou epic minus the budget, the battle scenes or the talent. The plot follows a Chinese prince and his sister, who escape when the prince's warrior brother kills the King. They meet a Crusader-turned-drunk (Christensen) and he helps them take back the throne. On the way (read: an hour into the movie), they meet an old pal of Christensen's (Cage) who also deserted the Crusades. Of course, everyone in China speaks perfect English all the time, even to each other,

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