TheRetroCritic

Back in the day, The Matrix was the shit. Just when you thought sci-fi movies couldn't possibly blow your mind ever again, Matrix came along and changed everything. Here we had a mix of big ideas, comic-book visuals, anime-style philosophy, martial arts, ground-breaking special effects... it was cyberpunk at its coolest, smartest and most fun. It made Keanu Reeves, dark sunglasses, black trenchcoats/catsuits, mobile phones and computers badass. The Matrix was the very definition of "geek-gasm". Then it was announced that a trilogy would hit our screens and we all simultaneously emptied our bowels into our own shoes: we were THAT excited. The possibilities! Can you imagine The Matrix with an even higher budget? An expansion of that world with Neo flying and everything? Well, we got what we wanted I guess. Except... We wanted something good lol Watching it when it came out was certainly an experience. We were like 6 or 7 friends when I went to see it, completel

So I'm watching Rainer Werner Fassbinder's World On A Wire , a German TV movie from the 70's fleshing the idea of a simulated reality and it's all well and good (and long) but in the back of my mind I'm thinkin' there surely  must be an easier way to tell that story. And that way, it turns out, is The Thirteenth Floor . Ok, the latter film may not exactly be quite as interesting as World On A Wire in terms of the subtle, surrealist way in which it depicts simulation and the fact the film came out about the same time as The Matrix makes it much less visionary than Fassbinder's ahead-of-its-time effort. That said, The Thirteenth Floor handles its big ideas very well fitting in nicely as a good companion piece to the likes of Blade Runner or Dark City with its "film noir-meets-the near future" vibe and as a good companion piece to the likes of The Matrix or even  eXistenZ . Basically, the film looks at familiar sci-fi ideas of simulation and hu

And I thought I'd seen every messed-up David Cronenberg film around... Settling down to newer, tamer efforts like A Dangerous Method with the misguided belief that "It's better than no David Cronenberg film, right?..." while in fact secretly pining for another Scanners , Videodrome or even Dead Ringers . Then eXistenZ is lent to me and I'm sitting there, expecting a kind of fast-paced Gatacca meets The Matrix type sci-fi thriller. That would have been fun enough but... Oh man... This is true, CLASSIC Cronenberg. Complete with gore, f***ed-up genius imagery, super creative concepts and disturbed individuals by the thousands. Where do I even start with this?! You've got this new game being tested called "eXistenZ" which is meant to be extremely realistic. Its controllers are basically living slabs of flesh with ombilical cords which plug into an anus in your back. Are you following? Good. Along the way, Jude Law tries his hand at an Ame

Why is Crossworlds often compared to The Matrix ? I don't get it. I mean, sure it's the story of a nerdy young dude with a small link to another reality who is hired by some attractive/tough young woman and introduced to an all-knowing pro who teaches him the ways of  crossing over from one reality to the other and gets his help to defeat some suit-wearing douchebags hell-bent on messing with our world... ... Ok it's The Matrix. Made a year prior to the Wachowski Brothers' opus, Crossworlds is a small B movie with big ideas. Unfortunately, due to this being the first and only movie directed by Krishna Rao (now more into television series), a relative unknown, the film is restrained by a small budget and the occasional questionable performance. That said, Crossworlds is an underrated and surprisingly fun experiment which sadly doesn't go too far into its own mythology but which introduces a cool concept, some creative effects and a genuinely involving (if pre

It has been a while since a film has sparked so many discussions. Inception, whether you liked it or not, most probably already got you to debate about a million ridiculous dream-within-a-dream scenarios. With a film this rich, this dense, there's certainly a lot to ponder. Philip K Dick meets  The Matrix  in one of the biggest concept movies ever in which a team of dream...thieves pull their resources to try something different for one last big job and attempt to implant an idea into some guy's head. We are then thrown into multiple layers of dreaming as Tommy from  3rd Rock From the Sun  flies around a hotel room, Di Caprio gets hit by a train in a city street and Marion Cotillard goes psycho. This is all great stuff! Great action, impressive special effects, very good cast, a complex and gripping sci-fi story...what more could a sci-fi nerd such as myself ask for? And yet there is something a tad underwhelming about Inception, a film which, in its trailers, promised the

It has been a while since a film has sparked so many discussions. Inception, whether you liked it or not, most probably already got you to debate about a million ridiculous dream-within-a-dream scenarios. With a film this rich, this dense, there's certainly a lot to ponder. Philip K Dick meets The Matrix in one of the biggest concept movies ever in which a team of dream...thieves pull their resources to try something different for one last big job and attempt to implant an idea into some guy's head. We are then thrown into multiple layers of dreaming as Tommy from 3rd Rock From the Sun flies around a hotel room, Di Caprio gets hit by a train in a city street and Marion Cotillard goes psycho. This is all great stuff! Great action, impressive special effects, very good cast, a complex and gripping sci-fi story...what more could a sci-fi nerd such as myself ask for? And yet there is something a tad underwhelming about Inception, a film which, in its trailers, promised the a