TheRetroCritic

Roger Moore's second outing as 007 is a weird one... For one thing the film opens by zooming into Christopher Lee's nipples. Of which he has three. Lee plays Scaramanga, a wealthy entrepreneur with a secret desert island where he's not only building some kind of sun-powered death ray but also toying with a psychedelic fun-house-style room designed to discombobulate whoever enters it and get them killed. He's also extremely proud of his one-bullet golden gun made out of a cigarette case, a pen, a lighter and whatever else. He's one of the great Bond villains mostly because he is so darn happy with his absurd achievements and isn't afraid to show off a little. His henchman, Nick Nack, isn't quite as intimidating as the likes of Goldfinger 's OddJob (his one weakness is luggage ) but he is nevertheless just as memorable. The plot involves 007 being sent some golden bullet which MI6 believes to have come from Scaramanga and Bond is sent on a new s

Once Joel Schumacher took over the Batman franchise, it became instantly apparent that Warner Bros. were looking to attract a wider, younger audience. Part of that was achieved through making the films themselves more light-hearted and more cartoonish (and more ASS) but also through releasing teen-friendly soundtracks. So here we go… The Batman Forever soundtrack starts off with U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” , a song I actually quite like. Used to like it even more as a kid but over the years it has kind of dissolved into a near non-event. If an enjoyable one. It’s not bad at all, especially for a U2 song. It goes for a dark, moody tone but unfortunately only half-achieves it because, lets be honest here, how dark and moody can U2 realistically get? There are songs I genuinely like in this album. For one, Michael Hutchence’s take on the classic Iggy Pop tune “The Passenger” is really unique. I mean, the original is hard to beat and I still vastly prefer

Just like probably 99% of French and Belgian people out there, I'm looking forward to Steven Spielberg's take on the classic Tintin franchise. Yes a live action film would have been amazing since the only genuinely good live action Tintin film to date remains Tintin and The Mystery of the Golden Fleece which, as adorable and charming as it is, was made back in 1961. And in terms of animation we have the Tintin animated series (made in the early 90's) which, although they tended to rush through a lot of the books, were near perfect. Growing up with these cartoons, they always felt exciting, smart and grown-up (lets assume Tintin in Congo was a bad dream, yikes). Both the books and the animated series never talked down to its audience, which made it that much better to follow. Now after several unpleasant attempts at "realistic" looking CGI animations ( Polar Express anyone?) and some underrated efforts ( A Christmas Carol ) we're getting a Tintin anima