TheRetroCritic

Released in 1983, A Christmas Story follows young boy Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) as he deals with school and his family during the holiday season, secretly hoping he'll receive a specific air rifle gun for Christmas. Since the late 90's, this movie's popularity has increased quite a bit making it something of a cult classic. Through narration, an older Ralphie recounts the events of a particular Christmas during his childhood. This includes clashing with bullies, sucking up to teachers and playing with friends at school, trying to influence his family to buy him the controversial BB gun and meeting an intimidating mall Santa. In a memorable (if a tad bizarre) subplot, Ralphie's father, played with vaudevillian flair by Darren McGavin, wins an ugly leg-shaped lamp in a contest and insists on displaying it proudly in the house, much to his wife's (Melinda Dillon) chagrin. The film's title is a little misleading in that, while Christmas is an important part

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, RV was a family comedy released in 2006 about a father's Hawaii holiday plans falling through due to work being dumped on him at the last minute and his messy attempt at a backup holiday as he loads his family in a cheap RV and heads for the Rockies. Road trip movies about people being forced to jump in a clunky vehicle before facing various goofy adventures aren't exactly a rarity: from the National Lampoon's Vacation films to About Schmidt , Little Miss Sunshin e , an entire season of Weeds , Dumb & Dumber and many others, it's something of a comedy tradition so finding a new take on it isn't exactly easy. It's a weird challenge for a talented director like Sonnenfeld to take up but if someone could make it work, it would be him. Robin Williams is Bob Munro, the father who leads his family into a predictably disastrous holiday that's really just an excuse to secretly attend a work meeting, and he brings just the rig

Of all the bad movies I managed to acquire this year ( Catwoman , The Room , Troll 2 ) THIS is the one  I was waiting for. The Star Wars film that makes Episode I feel like Goodfellas and those Ewoks movies look like Avatar . A cinematic fail unlike any other, this is one experience you'll never forget. For one thing the first 20 minutes or so is almost silent except for the ear-raping wails and moans of Chewbacca's ugly-ass family. No subtitles, no words: just noises for 20 loooong minutes. It's unwatchable. Then, we're basically treated to the family's entertainment throughout the evening all displayed on various screens around the house. Harvey Korman pops up no less than 3 times, one of them in drag (and, um, questionable make-up) and if that's not exciting enough for ya, there's also Wookie porn, green-screened acrobats, Jefferson Starship's soporific music video and a truly ungodly "Life Day" celebration in which Carrie Fisher does