TheRetroCritic

Following the runaway success of both Jaws and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind , Steven Spielberg directed war-themed comedy 1941 back in 1979 and, although it wasn't technically a box-office bomb, it wasn't exactly a hit and it's only years later that it gained a cult following. The film is very loosely based on a mix of real yet mostly disconnected events as it explores the growing paranoia post-Pearl Harbor with US citizens fearing that Japan would attempt another attack and dealing with it in various ways. As an enemy submarine slowly tries to make its way to Los Angeles with the unlikely goal of destroying Hollywood, chaos builds in the city and we follow a variety of characters, each of them doing their own thing, with everything culminating in a cartoonish battle around Santa Monica pier. This is very much an ensemble piece in the vein of Dr Strangelove or American Graffiti with some characters having a very clear goal and others just kind of wandering i

Robert Downey Jr. stars in Less Than Zero , a 1987 film based on Bret Easton Ellis' novel. It also stars Jami Gertz, Andrew McCarthy and James Spader. The film follows three friends as their lives evolve (or devolve) after college: Clay (McCarthy) and Blair's (Gertz) relationship ends when the latter has an affair with Julian (Downey Jr.) and, some time later, a now successful Clay returns to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his family and reconnect with old friends, including old flame Blair. Unfortunately, Julian's drug problem quickly becomes a liability for everyone. Robert Downey Jr. gives a reliably strong performance as the ebullient yet wounded Julian and James Spader is, of course, entirely convincing as the main antagonist. The film itself works best when it focuses on the sleazier side of L.A. and how the pressures of fitting in and making it big in the city can turn people into mindless cocaine-fuelled zombies, probably on a downward spiral to self-destr

Yes, "Snake Is Back". But this time: it ain't New York. That Escape From New York is, to this day, still seen as a sci-fi cult classic and Escape From L.A. remains something of a joke is hardly shocking. After all, this is mostly what this sequel/remake is, right?  A joke? I mean, luckily everyone involved seems to be in on it but it's the kind of thing that audiences just wouldn't necessarily get. Evil Dead II , for example, was essentially a remake of the first film, and a parody of it to a certain extent, but right off the bat, the sequel obviously had a very different, jokey vibe, plus it was a good, really entertaining movie so it worked. Here, it feels like the movie is taking the piss of itself but it's not really clear why so it just ends up being an altogether random experience. Especially since Escape From L.A. is basically a messier retread of the original plot-wise. And I think that's what kills the flick. Don'