TheRetroCritic

As DC prepares his new live-action blockbusters, Batman returned in The LEGO Batman Movie , a spin-off from The LEGO Movie in which the Dark Knight (voiced by Will Arnett) takes centre stage in his very own adventure. Very much in the spirit of the first LEGO Movie, this spin-off is a fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek romp packed with silly jokes, familiar characters and colourful LEGO action. The genuinely cool, relentless opening sequence sees The Joker (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) join forces with other Batman villains, even the wacky ones, to execute his latest evil plan. Batman, of course, shows up to save the day and we get a more honest look at what happens with Bruce Wayne after a wild night taking care of the bad guys. Lonely, bored, microwaving lobster thermidors, watching Jerry Maguire on his own: it turns out that working solo has its disadvantages. The film captures the strengths and weaknesses of the Batman character brilliantly and although it's technically a spoof,

I compile 20 of the worst lines from Shaq's infamous superhero outing Steel . It's on now!

Seth Rogen's first jump into animated waters last year was met with mixed reactions, to say the least. Sausage Party 's early trailers looked like a fun and clever R-rated romp but the more critics and audiences learned about the film, the more their excitement for it decreased. Close to the film's release, some controversy surrounding the animators being overworked and underpaid surfaced. The bad press continued but even if some critics were lukewarm towards to the film, it was still a significant box-office hit with audiences flocking to see it. The good thing about Sausage Party's success is it presented studios with another convincing pro R-rated blockbusters argument soon after Deadpool which should guarantee that we'll see less and less neutered content in theatres. The film is proudly raunchy with the whole plot being centered around a hot dog wanting to slip inside a bun, every single character swearing non-stop and an end orgy that makes the puppet se

Stephen Chow stars in Out Of The Dark , a black comedy from 1995 directed by Jeffrey Lau. He plays a mental patient claiming to be a ghostbuster who decides to train a group of useless security guards to handle some crafty poltergeists. Although he didn't direct this one himself, Out Of The Dark has all the trademarks of a Stephen Chow film from the gross-out humour to the cartoonish slapstick. The film pokes fun at thrillers and horror movies by following a selection of ridiculously clueless characters in a madcap plot that, unapologetically, makes little sense. This is a surprisingly brutal and gory comedy as people stab or shoot each other left and right prompting gallons of blood to gush in every scene. The humour throughout is dark, borderline sadistic at times but also completely juvenile so it's hard to take any of it seriously even when it's at its most violent. The plot, which is slight to say the least, is fully overshadowed by all the over-the-top gags that

Yes, Miss Peregrine has a song now. Enjoy. Song For Miss Peregrine by TheRetroCritic

Because it had to be done. He's The Hobbit (Smaller Than A Rabbit) by TheRetroCritic

Here's the video version of my Blazing Saddles review.

As far as Western spoofs go, it doesn't get any more classic than Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles . The film, which follows Cleavon Little's black sheriff as he is sent into a small racist town to defend it from bandits, was a big hit back in the day and it's still seen as one of the greatest comedies of all time. As with many other Mel Brooks comedies, Blazing Saddles could have easily backfired and been dismissed as being in poor taste but the writing (Richard Pryor helped with the script) is so clever and so funny that it somehow completely works as a biting parody of Western clichés and the genre's reluctance to acknowledge the unapologetic racism of the times. The plot is set into motion when Harvey Korman's corrupt State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr decides to drive the people of Rock Ridge out of town in order to lower land prices. He appoints an African American sheriff to shock the inhabitants away but when that doesn't work he tries various oth

Gene Wilder writes and directs The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother , a spoof comedy from 1975 starring Wilder himself as Sigerson Holmes, the iconic sleuth's lesser known younger brother, who is assigned to a case linked to Sherlock's arch-enemy Moriarty. Very much in the vein of Young Frankenstein , the film follows the goofier relative of a well known literary figure and a good old-fashioned farce ensues. Wilder reunites with slapstick legend Marty Feldman, a detective with a photographic memory who assists him, and their main lead is beautiful actress and compulsive liar Jenny Hill (a hilarious Madeline Kahn). The reliably great Dom DeLuise also appears near the end of the film as a shady opera singer with a cartoonish accent. The plot of the film pokes fun at the convoluted nature of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels and the clichés found in most Sherlock Holmes films but it's more of a loving homage than anything else. All the characters here are

Here's the video version of my Manborg review.

The video version of my Haunted Honeymoon review.

A year after the release of Monty Python's groundbreaking religious spoof Life Of Brian , we got Marty Feldman comedy In God We Tru$t , another satire this time focusing on the money-grubbing aspects of those pretending to speak on the Church's behalf. The film's plot is very Blues Brothers in spirit as innocent monk Ambrose (Feldman) is sent out of the monastery for the very first time with the respectable mission of bringing back $5000 to save the place. At the same time, Brother Ambrose encounters his share of charlatans working in the name of God including a church truck-driving drunk (Peter Boyle) and a diabolical televangelist played by a show-stealing Andy Kaufman. Ambrose also meets his first love-interest, a friendly prostitute played by Louise Lasser. There's a lot going on in this movie and yet you never feel it knows where it's going. Unlike Life Of Brian which was so clever in its writing that taking away one scene from it would be, well, blasphem

In this first episode of Pitch , director Tim Burton meets with a studio executive to discuss his re-imagining of Planet Of The Apes back in 2000. Based on a... sort of true story.

Remaker Alan Aalda talks about his remake of the Ghostbusters remake, among other things, in this potential new series. Did you enjoy this video? Would you like this to be a continuing series? And if so, should Alan remake Jumanji or Star Wars: The Force Awakens next?  Please let me know in the comments!

A couple of years ago, man of a thousand voices Seth MacFarlane brought his brand of humour to Western comedy A Million Ways To Die In West , a feature he directs, co-writes and stars in (not as a bear, this time). The film didn't exactly wow critics and it basically flew by, somehow making a profit on the way despite less-than-flattering reviews. The film itself goes for an old-fashioned look but a defiantly anachronistic and modern take on the subgenre with characters speaking like people would today and the odd pop culture reference. It's not a completely new idea and it's something that works much better in a cartoon than it does in a live-action film but it can definitely work. Mel Brooks always could make that kind of thing funny. Unfortunately, here, it's like the film is trying much too hard to make that a hilarious aspect of the movie when it's, in fact, one of its weakest ideas. The concept that people in the Old West could die of pretty much anythi

It's A Trap! , the epic conclusion to Family Guy 's Star Wars spoof "Laugh It Up, Fuzzball" trilogy, takes on Return Of The Jedi and, if the opening text crawl is anything to go by, reluctantly so. Seth MacFarlane basically stating early on that Fox insisted this third part was made and asking us to lower our expectations. Luckily, Return Of The Jedi is arguably the easiest movie in the original trilogy to make fun of so the Family Guy team don't seem to struggle at all. American Dad!  characters are called upon to fill certain roles which may seem like a desperate move but, as someone who likes that other show, I appreciated seeing the likes of Roger and Klaus (geniusely cast as Admiral Ackbar) take part in that animated inter-galactic battle. As ever, expect some cool cameo voice work as the likes of Carrie Fisher, Patrick Stewart, Anne Hathaway and... Rush Limbaugh (as the Rancor) all pop up at various moments. In terms of characters, main new additions i

Was gonna review this little Star Wars spoof but hey, it's pretty self-explanatory. It's Hardware Wars time! May the farce be with you...

After the success of Blue Harvest , the Family Guy gang soon went to work on a second installment and the result was Something, Something, Something Dark Side , a spoof of the second Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back . Once again, the power goes out and the Griffins are denied television so Peter (Seth MacFarlane) starts telling the story of Episode V, although he starts off describing the movie Black Snake Moan . Early jokes include Sesame Street 's Cookie Monster as a wampa, an impromptu George Takei cameo, a tauntaun with the head of Don Knotts, a Rodney Dangerfield reference and a Juicy Fruit commercial in the middle of the action. The movie and TV references keep coming fast with everything from Iron Man to Flash Gordon , Back To The Future Part II and Rocky IV getting their dues. Expect cameo appearances by Tom Selleck, James Caan and James Woods. Characters-wise, the main additions here are Yoda (voiced by Jon Benjamin) and Lando Calrissian (Mort, bizarrely

"A long time ago, but somehow in the future..." Back in 2007, Family Guy opened its sixth season with Blue Harvest , the first in a trilogy of Star Wars spoofs/homages. The hour-long episode followed A New Hope pretty closely with the characters from Seth MacFarlane's show taking over all the roles. The framing device for the episode is the TV loses power so Peter Griffin tells his family the story of Star Wars starting, of course, with Part IV. The iconic text scroll soon trails off into random Angelina Jolie-themed gossip and we meet our droids, Quagmire as C-3PO and Cleveland as R2-D2. The scenes recreated from the film are surprisingly detailed at times with some shots or actions replicated exactly. While Robot Chicken went for a goofy best of, this goes all out with retelling the classic story and injecting some humour into every scene. Some of the jokes are obvious, a lot are much more obscure so hardcore fans should have a ball with this one. Obi-Wa

Well it's Star Wars Month (duh!) and since there's never a bad time to revisit this little gem, here we go!