TheRetroCritic

Believe it or not, this movie actually exists. Or at least it did... Back in 1975, we got a Superman musical TV special called It's A Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman . The BBC, wanting to cash-in on what they thought would be a big production unlike anything the world of television had ever seen, decided to produce their own superhero extravaganza. The film cost about £10M which, in dollars, adjusted for inflation, is... like a lot. It was titled Batman In Space and starred a young Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne/Batman with Jeremy Irons as Robin. The plot was confusing, to say the least, as no less than eight writers chipped-in ideas including an ageing Agatha Christie. The Joker (played by Michael Gough) having escaped Arkham Asylum, travels to the Moon in order to play the biggest, cruelest joke of all: destroy the world from a great distance. After finding out that a rocket has been stolen from NASA, Batman soon figures out The Joker's plan and Commi

Here's a blast from the past. If you've ever wondered what Michael Gough was up to before he was making soup for Batman as reliable butler Alfred in Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's movies, boy are you in for a treat. In Konga , Gough plays a megalomaniac botanist who devises a formula which would allow him to grow plants and animals to ridiculous sizes. We know his research is valid because some of the plants he's brought back from Africa and planted in his greenhouse are huge, penis-shaped and clearly made of papier maché. Think the original Little Shop Of Horrors but in colour and somehow even sillier. Our mad scientist sure gets up to some crazy sh** in this movie but unlike, say, Victor Frankenstein, who more or less seems like a normal enough dude before he loses it and starts digging up bodies for science, this guy is a bonafide creep from start to finish: he treats his assistant like garbage, keeping her quiet about what he's doing with the promise o