TheRetroCritic

The Farrelly Brothers and Ben Stiller reunited in 2007 for The Heartbreak Kid , a loose remake of the screwball 70's comedy starring Charles Grodin and Cybill Shepherd in which a man finally gets married only to find that his new wife is not quite the dream woman he initially thought she was. Eddie (Stiller) is a single guy who runs a sports shop in San Francisco, one day he meets Lila (Malin Akerman) and they start dating. Soon enough, after Lila tells him that she might have to move to the Netherlands because of work, they get married and are promptly off to Cabo for their honeymoon. On the way there, Lila starts to act strangely and reveals all sorts of off-putting details about herself. Unfortunately for Eddie, this keeps getting worse and worse so when he falls in love with another woman he meets while on vacation, asking Lila for a divorce becomes a priority even if it proves harder to do than he thought. Setting a comedy after the usual "Happily Ever After" ro

Because found-footage surprise hit The Blair Witch Project was made for peanuts back in 1999 and made a ridiculous amount of money at the box-office, it was inevitable that a remake would happen at some point. Finally, in 2016 we got Blair Witch , a sequel/reboot looking to revamp the franchise. Like with most modern horror remakes, this is a thinly veiled reboot dressed up like a sequel but there's really nothing about it that directly connects Blair Witch from the original except for the fact that one of the characters is the brother of the girl from the first movie but it's not like we ever see her so it might as well have been a completely unrelated bunch entering the creepy woods many years later. Amusingly, none of the people involved in this new expedition appear to have learned anything from previous events making these guys far dumber than the last ones. James (James Allen McCune) is the brother looking for his sister even though he doesn't seem too concerned

Tom Hanks stars in this 1985 comedy about a random guy who is used as a pawn by the CIA in the middle of some tit-for-that infighting. A remake of French spy farce  The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe starring Pierre Richard, this was yet another Hollywood attempt at adapting one of Francis Veber's most popular films. The general plot is the same as in the original except Tom Hanks' character isn't quite as clumsy or as much fun as Pierre Richard's François Perrin. There's no consistency in terms of the slapstick because Richard (Hanks) is portrayed as being just a normal guy whereas in the original, that character was very much an Inspector Clouseau-esque idiot. We know Tom Hanks can do slapstick really well from the likes of The Burbs or The Money Pit so it must have been a conscious decision to dumb down that character, which simply doesn't work since that's replaced with no real personality traits. The plot is also told with little style or en

It was never going to be easy for this 1994 remake of the Christmas classic Miracle On 34th Street to capture the charm of the beloved original. Writer and producer John Hughes was no stranger to holiday-themed movies after the success of the Home Alone franchise so if anyone was going to make it work, it would have been him. The inspired casting of Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle right away should have been a clue that we were in safe hands. Indeed, there aren't many on-screen Santas who are more charming than Attenborough's in this film and that's with no confirmation at any point that this Kris Kringle is the real thing. Real or not, this Santa certainly feels like the real deal. Elizabeth Perkins plays Dorey, a mother who fears any kind of disappointment, going as far as to teach her daughter Susan (Mara Wilson) about how Santa doesn't exist, and who is reluctant to give a relationship with Dylan McDermott's friendly lawyer (paradox?) a chance. Whe

Shortly before Gene Wilder turned a French film into The Woman In Red , we got The Toy , a remake of Francis Veber's Le Jouet starring Richard Pryor in the role originally played by Pierre Richard. It did well at the box-office despite critics not exactly praising it. One of the many Francis Veber comedies to be adapted into Hollywood films, The Toy should have been a breeze with its simple concept leaving little room for messing up and the reliable Pryor doing his thing. For the most part, this remake is pretty faithful to the original film as a rich, spoiled kid (played by Scott Schwartz) basically buys a grown man as a toy just to annoy his distant father only to find that a friendship develops between he and his purchase. The key scenes from the French film are recreated here from Pierre Richard's slapstick shenanigans to the kid's creation of a newspaper exposing his father's cold approach to everyone. As hard as he tries to make the film fun, Richard Pryor f

A 1984 remake of French comedy Pardon Mon Affaire , The Woman In Red was directed by and starred Gene Wilder as a man struggling with a mid-life crisis who is tempted to have an affair with Kelly LeBrock's young model despite being happily married. The Woman In Red is a comedic look at the difference between love and lust as everyman Teddy Pierce (Wilder) first encounters the woman of his dreams as she spontaneously re-enacts that iconic Marilyn Monroe flowing dress moment and, from then on, he finds himself spiralling down into a succession of clumsy, embarrassing and very funny misjudged attempts at wooing Charlotte (LeBrock). In the vein of some earlier Woody Allen comedies or Steve Martin's The Lonely Guy , the main character's story is told to us through his eyes but we also get to step back and witness the absurdity of his actions through some enjoyably silly sequences. Gilda Radner also appears in the film as Teddy's colleague who mistakenly believes he is

I talk about Disney's latest remake Pete's Dragon .

Another month, another Disney remake... An update on the 1977 musical, Pete's Dragon sees a young child named Pete wander into the woods after his parents perish in a car crash and a friendly green dragon he calls Elliot takes him under its wing: years later, the inhabitants of a nearby town finally find Pete. Not that they were looking... The original Pete's Dragon may not have enjoyed quite as much praise as, say, Mary Poppins over the years but it remains one of Disney's most charming live-action films to date so a remake would certainly need to get Pete and his dragon right. Fortunately, the film achieves just that as young Oakes Fegley gives an appropriately wild performance as Pete and Elliot, while looking hairier and more dog-like, is still pretty adorable. Their friendship is once again the heart of the story and it still works. The big difference with this remake, however, is that Elliot isn't so much Pete's dragon as he is just a random

Here's the video review version of my Fist Of Legend review.

Directed by Gordon Chan, Fist Of Legend is a loose remake of Fist Of Fury in which Jet Li takes on the role of Chen Zhen, made popular in the 70's by Bruce Lee. Set during the Japanese occupation, we first meet Chen Zhen as a student who learns of his master's death and returns to his old kung-fu school to pay his respects. Soon enough, he starts to suspect foul play and a rival martial arts school causes trouble over and over. Add to that the fact that Zhen's love interest is Japanese so not exactly popular with his peers and you've got yourself a busy little movie with plenty of tension but also plenty of fighting. Li may not be as expressive or charismatic of an actor as Bruce Lee but he knows his kung-fu and the fight scenes are impressive throughout the film. Gordon Chan not only makes them look fantastic but he successfully makes them feel like timeless, iconic set-pieces. The best may very well be the fight between Zhen and Fumio Funakochi (Yasuaki Kurata)

I talk about the much talked-about new Ghostbusters movie.

As the internet finally recovers from all the silliness that surrounded the release of this Ghostbusters remake, we can now actually watch the film and talk about it like sober adults. I should point out that the real problems skeptics had with this movie was not the cast but the idea of another by-numbers remake nowhere near as good as the original films in the vein of Total Recall or RoboCop . And with the mostly unappealing trailers we got prior to the new movie's release, this was frankly a fair concern. Luckily, the film itself is far better than the awful marketing for it suggested but, on the other hand, it's still an inferior by-numbers remake that's not as good as the originals, which is why most reviews for it are so up and down. The cast, I can confirm, is likeable and does a decent job throughout. Melissa McCarthy is not the one-joke Chris Farley wannabe she tends to be in a lot of other movies instead taking on the Ray role with a slightly squeakier voi

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!

I talk at length about Disney's new version of The Jungle Book .

Disney continues its merciless rampage of adapting every single one of its classic animated films into live-action remakes and, this time, it's The Jungle Book 's turn. Jon Favreau directs an all-star cast of voice actors and a young newcomer in what promises to be a CGI visual treat. Indeed, pretty much everything in this movie is CGI from the talking animals to the jungle itself so if it's "realism" you're looking for, you might want to go for the 1994 live-action retelling instead. The film follows certain key plot points from the original 1967 animation but it definitely takes a lot of liberties with both the story and its characters. Mowgli (Neel Sethi) willingly walks away from his wolf pack before wondering why he has to leave and later comes back to fight Shere Khan which leads to a very different ending. Speaking of which, the unnerving build-up to Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) is now gone and we see the villainous tiger pretty much straight-

French comedy maestro Francis Veber directs this Hollywood remake of his own film The Fugitives (Les Fugitifs) casting Martin Short and Nick Nolte in the roles formerly played by Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu. The film sees Lucas (Nolte), an ex-bank robber, finally come out of prison after five years only to find himself being taken hostage by a bumbling thief who happened to be robbing the bank he was depositing money in minutes after his release. Ned (Short),  the thief in question, was attempting to steal enough money to pay for a special school his daughter, who was left mute after the death of her mother, was attending. Unfortunately, the robbery goes awry as he shoots Lucas in the leg accidentally, crashes the getaway car and gets kidnapped by some crooks. Lucas finds himself in the awkward position of having to prove his own innocence while helping Ned and his daughter escape from both criminals and the law. Casting Nick Nolte and Martin Short in those roles was in

Before Christopher Nolan's name was synonymous with big, high-concept sci-fi blockbusters but after the director's breakout hit Memento , he made Insomnia , an Alaska-set remake of the 1997 cult Norwegian thriller. The film sees Al Pacino play an ageing detective who travels to Alaska to try and solve a murder case. After he mistakenly shoots his partner in the fog while following the killer, he attempts to cover up his blunder but he is soon blackmailed by the murderer. The lack of any sleep also starts to confuse the detective and his insomnia plays tricks with his memory. Insomnia was released the same year as One Hour Photo , a film which also starred Robin Williams in a creepy against-type role. The fact that the actor and comedian agreed to tackle two chilling characters in a row was a bold move which showed great versatility, especially since he did such a brilliant job in both movies. And Death To Smoochy , of course. Insomnia often gets forgotten as a Christop

Another Disney animated classic gets the live-action treatment as, surprisingly soon after Into The Woods , we get another interpretation of Cinderella . This time, the Mouse House is taking a more traditional approach by telling the story without updating it too much or adding too many surprises. Unlike last year's Maleficent which felt the need to turn one of the studio's most iconic and frightening villains into a misunderstood hero (urgh...), this Cinderella is basically a straight-up retelling. Minus the talking mice, though they do sort of talk throughout. While this means very little in the way of new elements to talk about, it's also somewhat refreshing to see a classic fairytale told without any forced irony or lame attempts at modernising a story as old as time itself. This is the Cinderella tale at its most earnest and, admittedly, this makes parts of it pretty darn corny and predictable. The opening 5 minutes where Ella's youth is so crazily happy all

Denzel Washington stars in this remake of The Manchurian Candidate which sees a group of soldiers come home after the war only to find that they all start having the same nightmare which makes them suspect that some kind of brainwashing happened along the way. After a bizarre encounter with Jeffrey Wright's soldier, who has pretty much lost it completely, Washington decides to try and make contact with Liev Schreiber's co-veteran, who has since moved on to working in politics. Under the supervision of his controlling mother, played by Meryl Streep, Shreiber is leading a campaign to become the new Vice President. But he slowly starts to remember the nightmares Washington mentions which paint him not as a war hero but as something else entirely. What follows is a thriller not so much focused on action as it is focused on the core mystery. The film is directed by Jonathan Demme ( Silence Of The Lambs ) and he handles the growing paranoia well despite the post-Gulf War settin

Long before Peter Jackson took on the iconic beast, John Guillermin tried his hand at a King Kong movie and, although it didn't exactly shake the world upon its release, how does it hold up looking back? Can man-in-King Kong-costume outdo CGI Kong? Actually... In terms of the King Kong character and how bad you feel for him come the inevitable downer ending, I'd probably give the point to this movie. Where Jackson's mega budget motion-captured Kong was given far too many moments to be cute and likeable, this admittedly faker-looking Kong is more akin to the 1933 classic's depiction: very much monstrous but also subtly innocent. Which means that, by the time the surprisingly violent and bloody end scene happens, it should hit you pretty hard. It's refreshing to re-watch this one post-the 2005 version as it makes the latter's flaws stand out a little better. The recent film just tried too hard to get to that dramatic ending (see the random ice-skating sc