TheRetroCritic

At this point The Coen Brothers could pretty much do anything and I'd zombie my way to the cinema without thinking twice about it. With Gambit , a remake of sorts, it looked like they might have written another farce in the vein of The Ladykillers , a film which I've always felt was wrongly underrated. Alas, they aren't on directing duty this time... We follow Colin Firth's art curator as he hires Cameron Diaz's rodeo queen to help him pull off an elaborate heist involving a rare Monet painting. The goal being to piss off Alan Rickman's odious art collector and make quite a few bucks in the process. The film is going for a 60's-style screwball comedy vibe and with a strong cast like this one and a script by the Coens, you'd expect nothing less than a sharp, fun, clever little flick. Sadly, whatever wit we found in the likes of Fargo and whatever cartoonish shenanigans we found in The Ladykillers are nowhere to be seen in Gambit. Sure the film o

It really takes a genius to undo all the work that went into making Batman more than just a hilarious joke. But it takes A GOD to bring an evolved franchise back 30 years in the space of one movie. Now I have nothing against the old campy Adam West TV series but they really were the last word on that type of spoof/comedy take on the character. With Tim Burton's darker, edgier efforts it looked like we were finally getting to know the comic-book hero... That is, until we realised that this was the type of guy who carried around Bat credit cards and had ice-skates built into his shoes in the event that an impromptu ice ballet might break out. Yes, Joel Schumacher, who had done rather well with the admittedly silly but completely entertaining Batman Forever , just couldn't resist the urge to Adam West the franchise to the max. The result was, fair enough, pretty darn funny but at what cost? Joke or not, Batman & Robin is one astonishingly dire effort on every conc

When Tim Burton re-invented the Dark Knight back in the 80's he took some aspects which made the original Adam West TV series fun but added a moody-looking Gotham City and treated the DC hero seriously, almost like a detective from an old film noir thriller. The goofy kid-friendly humour was replaced by Burton's trademark darkly comic tone and what we got was one action-packed, stylish, unique, funny, clever blockbuster and one of the best comic book movie adaptations ever. The sequel, Batman Returns , "Burtonised" the concept to the max giving Batman a more gothic setting, a disgusting villain, a sexier, troubled love interest, Pee-Wee Herman, a circus gang, Christopher Walken and a penguin army. It was great: darker, snowier, Christmassier, Burtonier. It remains my favourite to this day. Then came Joel Schumacher's turn in the director's chair... We all know how that turned out in the end but looking at Batman Forever today: it's honestly not bad.

Can The Coens do no wrong? Is that possible? It certainly appears that way. A Serious Man is indeed yet another mini-masterpiece from the men behind The Big Lebowski , Fargo and countless other triumphs. After a truly perplexing opening 5 minutes, it looked like The Coens were going to really lose us on this one. But of course they were only teasing. A Serious Man is probably their most personal film and feels closer to the likes of Barton Fink than anything else they've done in the past: small, focused, stylish, incredibly clever, truly unique and of course very funny. For anyone with Jewish heritage, the film will probably feel extra-perceptive but at its core the film's ideas and messages are universal. Larry Gopnik's struggle to make sense of the unjust treatment he suddenly receives from the world around him is one which anyone can empathise with and understand. A Serious Man, like a lot of Coen Brothers films, is a bit like watching an ant struggle under a mag