TheRetroCritic

Several years before Tim Burton rebooted Lewis Carroll's surreal masterpiece with all the 3D bells and whistles, we got this Alice In Wonderland TV movie in 1999 as an all-star cast took on the classic story. There was something irresistible about this interpretation of Alice In Wonderland as, not only would it be packed with great actors in familiar roles but it was the perfect opportunity to explore parts of the tale the older versions never explored and show off some creative new visuals. The film starts very differently from the book, which is a little off-putting at first, but soon enough Alice goes to Wonderland and the story finally begins in a faithful way with some added moments from "Through The Looking Glass" thrown in. The first thing you'll notice is Tina Majorina (known for  Napoleon Dynamite and Veronica Mars ) feels somewhat miscast as Alice: her performance is much too awkward, her English accent isn't convincing and that yellow dress she&#

One Disney film I always regretted not seeing at the cinema back when it was released in 2002 was Treasure Planet , a steampunk animated take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island story with added rocket-powered surf boards, robots and aliens. The whole thing sounded like a fun, creative take on a familiar pirate story but that was apparently not good enough to drag audiences, including me, into theatres: the film was a box-office bomb losing almost $40M altogether. Perhaps it simply came out at the wrong time, only months after Studio Ghibli delivered their latest masterpiece Spirited Away and so soon after Disney's recent hit Lilo & Stitch , released that same year. Looking back, the film certainly has a lot going for it so it's a shame that it did as poorly as it did, especially since the company would then steer clear of sci-fi for a while and focus on safer, lesser material while Pixar thrived with hit after hit. Animation-wise, Treasure Plane

French comedy maestro Francis Veber directs this Hollywood remake of his own film The Fugitives (Les Fugitifs) casting Martin Short and Nick Nolte in the roles formerly played by Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu. The film sees Lucas (Nolte), an ex-bank robber, finally come out of prison after five years only to find himself being taken hostage by a bumbling thief who happened to be robbing the bank he was depositing money in minutes after his release. Ned (Short),  the thief in question, was attempting to steal enough money to pay for a special school his daughter, who was left mute after the death of her mother, was attending. Unfortunately, the robbery goes awry as he shoots Lucas in the leg accidentally, crashes the getaway car and gets kidnapped by some crooks. Lucas finds himself in the awkward position of having to prove his own innocence while helping Ned and his daughter escape from both criminals and the law. Casting Nick Nolte and Martin Short in those roles was in