TheRetroCritic

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

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

Concept movies never really live up to their clever premises. And neither did the "classic" of the reality-horror subgenre The Blair Witch Project . A good start and a good end did not make a great film and the dire sequel failed on all accounts. Since then, countless films have attempted to do it right ( My Little Eye , The Fourth Kind ) but only the first Paranormal Activity managed to be consistent and sneaky enough to pull it off. A sequel with a different director was always going to be a gamble and Paranormal Activity 2 thankfully doesn't tank completely. More is at stake here: a baby, a girl, a couple, a maid, a dog... But somehow you never feel the danger you felt in the original film. Perhaps too many cooks spoil the broth and it feels a bit too crowded to truly isolate the audience accordingly. An attempt is made at linking the story of this instalment with the first film but that also doesn't really work as the back-and-forth through the timeline tend