Posts

Showing posts with the label kunis

OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL - REVIEW

Image
After Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland received mostly unimpressed reviews from critics and audiences alike, that the studio jumped right into yet another fantasy classic reboot/sequel/prequel/whatever is surprising and somewhat risky. Then again Alice In Wonderland made a badgillion dollars at the box office... So yeah, never mind. It makes perfect sense lol This time around, we get Sam Raimi taking on the works of L. Frank Baum, and when I say that I mean it very loosely because we don't get a sequel involving Dorothy and co or even an amalgamation of Baum's third and fourth Oz books (tackled brilliantly in the 80's by Return To Oz ). No, we're following the wizard himself! Not quite what you'd expect but an interesting take on the whole thing, let's see if it works. After all, the first film was called The Wizard Of Oz not "Dorothy's Big Adventure". Mostly... yes. It does work. Ok, I'll get the bad stuff out of the way

TED - REVIEW

Image
The idea of a Seth MacFarlane film in which the guy plays a CGI bear alongside Mark Wahlberg sounded like the best film ever. Like everything I wanted The Beaver to be and more! Couldn't wait to see that but somewhere along the line I just assumed the project would end up getting shot down due to it being maybe a bit too out-there for studios to bet their money on. Then a trailer popped up and I was both over the moon and a tad suspicious. There seemed to be lols in there but it all felt much "safer" as a comedy than the Ted I'd subconsciously developed in that twisted-ass mind of mine. The whole foul-mouthed, alcoholic, stoner animated character thing seemed way too obvious of a gag and the novelty of  Ted and his wackily non-typically teddy bear ways wore off by the end of the trailers. But Mark Wahlberg usually being much better in comedies than in serious, dramatic roles (see I Heart Huckabees and The Happening lol) and MacFarlane always a good bet in te

TOP 10 BIGGEST BLACK SWAN LOLS

Top 10 Biggest Black Swan Lols from TheRetroCritic on Vimeo .

AMERICAN PSYCHO 2 - REVIEW

Image
  You know how some sequels really aren't sequels at all but in fact entirely different creations with a familiar title tacked on? Like Halloween III or Exorcist II ? Well, this is one of those movies. Oh sure Brett Easton Ellis' Patrick Bateman appears briefly as part of Mila Kunis' backstory but really, this "All American Girl" sequel to American Psycho is another monster altogether. Actually, this feels much more like another Cruel Intentions sequel or a really, really twisted version of Alexander Payne's Election . I guess there's a serial killer theme to the proceedings but were the killings themselves really the whole point of the American Psycho story? Whatever depth the original had to it is reduced to a very predictable and straight-forward teen movie/thriller/black comedy. So if you can ignore the film's unfortunate attachment to American Psycho, this isn't a bad film. It's not GOOD but as a dark teen movie, it's ok: styli

BLACK SWAN - REVIEW

Image
Darren Aronofsky's latest has done very well for itself. Then again, after The Wrestler , anything by the man behind Requiem For a Dream , Pi and The Fountain would have been highly anticipated. And rightly so. Marketed as a classy if dark mindf***, Black Swan promised an odd, stylish, original and potentially impressive ride. Surprisingly the result was about as classy as a Burger King karaoke party and far more twisted than expected. Unfortunately, it all feels far too derivative of many other ideas and far too forced to be a flawless treat. You've essentially got three films in one here: the modern version of Swan Lake (sophisticated, raw, powerful), The Fly (or, rather, The Swan) and The Piano Teacher (or, rather, The Dance Teacher) with bits of Lynch and Aronofsky's own Wrestler thrown in. And as much as I love all the influences involved here, Black Swan is an experiment which just didn't work for me. What killed The Fountain for me was n