TheRetroCritic

  Steve Oedekerk stars in this glorious cinematic rant and complains about all the little things which make up his life's DNA. A young Jim Carrey cameos as a rubberfaced weirdo who pesters him about "8 o'clock". What does it mean? What does he want? Well it's well worth sitting through the rants to find out. Like a sort of more intense Seinfeld film, High Strung is as pure as a stand-up comedy movie could ever get so if you don't like stand-up or Oedekerk's wacky style, it's very simple, you'll hate this film. If, however, you were charmed by the likes of Kung Pow , Bat Thumb and Ace Ventura 2 , you'll be in heaven. Very funny, very random, clever and surprisingly entertaining (mostly due to Oedekerk and the cartoonish camera work), High Strung is an underrated little gem and a must-see for fans of the goofy duo.

Making a worse sequel than Highlander 2 was always going to be a challenge and although they do try very hard here to indeed achieve this nirvana of cinematic assness, it just falls short and ends up being mostly dull. The film starts off pretty much exactly like Conan The Barbarian : bad guys on horses with silly helmets burning down a village, Mako, montages...literally all that's missing is Basil Poledouris's score. Then the nonsense inevitably begins as a statue inexplicably turns its head and opens its eyes, we cut to the present then back to 18th century France for some reason, we're given an odd, super long gratuitous sex scene and the list goes on. That said, the film at the very least acknowledges the shortcomings of its predecessor as it doesn't even attempt to fix anything and just never mentions it. We are shown bits from the first film so we can only assume either the action is taking place in between 1 and 2 or they're just pretending like The Qu

Based on the 1932 film, Boudu is also not unlike 80's Bette Midler/Richard Dreyfuss effort Down and Out in Beverly Hills which was also about a charming homeless man who is recued from certain death and given a room in a well-off couple's home. Interestingly Nolte played the Depardieu role in Three Fugitives (a US remake of Les Fugitifs ) and here Depardieu plays the Nolte role. I'm not sure what this all means but it FEELS significant somehow... (It's not) Boudu is directed by and stars French comedy veteran Gerard Jugnot and the film does feel like the kind of farce he would have done in the 80's, unfortunately the film was made in 2005 after about a million comedies were made with pretty much exactly the same story/structure/jokes. Better late than never? Not in this case. This is really the film's main flaw: it's about 20 years too late. And to be honest, even back then it would have been a bit naff. Acting-wise, everyone does their best but D

Frank Henenlotter, the mad genius behind the Basket Case movies, directs yet another piece of nutty horror/comedy gold. This time, instead of a killer tumour...twin we're introduced to Aylmar: a brain devouring piece of crap with a beautiful singing voice.  As evil brain leech Aylmar slowly takes over Bryan's (anagram for Brayn, geddit?) dependence with his addictive juice, Bryan's world becomes a fertile source of hallucinations and bloody, unmotivated serial killings.  The killings include lots of brain sucking, a deadly blow-job and a kiss of death to name a few. The film is way more polished than, say, the first Basket Case and in terms of randomness this is actually closer to that film's sequel so expect a healthy dose of stop-motion and almost good practical effects. The obvious drug imagery is perhaps hammered in a little to much and some of the film is quite repetitive but on the whole this is an original, very funny and hugely enjoyable  mad ride

Have you ever wondered why Dana Carvey, that other guy from the Wayne's World movies, never made it big in the movies after that, like Mike Myers? Have you seen The Master of Disguise? No? Well, that figures then. So you've got a main character called Pistachio Disguisey...yup I think Carvey's pitch should have been over right there and then but somehow producers looked past that (Adam Sandler being one of them) and gave the go ahead. So here we have a spy movie spoof in which Carvey basically goes through his repertoire of bad impressions and improvises in every scene until even the other actors look at him with a wtf expression on their faces. Don't get me wrong, I like Carvey, and I actually enjoyed some of his idiotic jokes but on the whole this is pretty darn awful from start to finish. Directed as if it were a CBBC show for 5 year olds, written as if it hadn't actually been written, acted awkwardly by everyone, not even a ridiculous turtle

In many ways, Leprechaun 2 is a superior sequel. Then again, it is a sequel to  Leprechaun  so how good could it possibly be? Kinda like how  Evil Dead 2 is a sequel to Evil Dead , this Leprechaun is really more of a remake or a reimagining of the first film with only Warwick Davis' evil fantastical critter in common: the plot doesn't continue from the first instalment and it seems like this time there is some kind of budget involved despite the (unsurprising) absence of Jennifer Aniston. Whereas the first film took place in and around some old house, this time we actually have a story with characters you actually sort-of care about (not Shevonne Durkin, she's rubbish) and *gasp* numerous locations! Now the Leprechaun is looking for a bride to... cover in gold and impregnate (as you do) but he can only do that with a descendant of the daughter of a past slave of his and that'll only work if she sneezes three times and no-one says "God bless you".

Not many films can boast having Jennifer Aniston hitting a killer leprechaun repeatedly with a stick, but I'm just glad at least one does! Back in the days when Freddy, Jason, Gremlins, Trolls, Critters and about a million other serial killing monsters were freely roaming the Earth, turning every holiday into death-traps, the idea of an evil leprechaun haunting St Patrick's Day, fighting for gold felt pretty inevitable. Warwick Davis has a ball as the titular Irish legend, unfortunately his Joker-style hammy shenanigans which include pogo-sticking someone to death, driving tiny vehicles, laughing and "punning" the entire time make the film kinda hard to take seriously-ish as a horror film. Of course, it's all meant to be some good, clean, silly fun but the film isn't quite funny or scary enough to qualify as either a good comedy or a good horror. Aniston does her best to deliver such quality lines as "That was no f***ing bear!" and, for the mo

With a film called Invisible Dad, you know you're in for something special. Director Fred Olen Ray liked his "Invisible" formula so much he even made a carbon copy of this film called Invisible Mom . I sure hope he was paid for both, poor sod. Anyway, Invisible Dad sees some annoying kid finding a wishing machine and with it making idiotic wishes including making his dad disappear. HILARITY ensues as the Dad waits for his computer-savvy son to fix the machine which he destroyed SECONDS after his dad told him to do that. Ok, I think I need to address this specifically because it drove me mad. Mad I tells ya. So you've got a wishing machine. You can wish for ANYTHING. Your dad walks in, finds this out, doesn't bat an eye at your discovery (nothing wrong heeeere) and just tells you to destroy the machine before leaving to go take a shit. What do you do? Oh sure you could do what your dad says (fail), OR you could wish to go back in time to before