TheRetroCritic

Some movies are basically pointless but they're so much fun it hardly matters. Pure popcorn entertainment all the way. Gangster Squad is one of those movies. Which is not to say it's not well made or interesting, it is, but it's not the kind of film that really will have an emotional impact on you or leave you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. No, Gangster Squad is a playful homage to film noir and is all about being as cool, silly and entertaining as possible. It would make a good double-feature with Dick Tracy , to give you an idea. Hell, Sean Penn's Mickey Cohen is basically a Dick Tracy villain! His cartoonish performance is completely over the top but completely enjoyable. It just makes sense in Gangster Squad, it fits. You've got Josh Brolin playing it straight as the detective/family man who takes on the mob and is asked to gather a "squad" of misfit cops, Ryan Gosling is the mouthy, chain-smoking kid who has an affair with

For fans of sleazy 80's thrillers, the first 20 minutes of Drive are pretty much the most cream-worthy 20 minutes spent watching a movie for a very long time. Everything is simply perfect: the pace, the look, the tension, the music... it's so good in fact that the rest of the film in comparison is just disappointing. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't disappointed by Drive: it's very good. I was only disappointed that it wasn't amazing, which it so very closely was. That is, until Carey Mulligan shows up. Understand I have nothing against the actress (besides the fact she's famous and I'm not quite sure why), It's just the character she's been assigned and the way the plot just takes that character for granted feels like a lazy touch in an otherwise spot-on flick. I don't buy that she'd willingly be with Oscar Isaac's character, I don't buy that Gosling's character would jump into such a life-threatening clusterfuck just fo

Green Lantern is no Superman. As a character, green ring-toting Hal Jordan can be as likeably cocky as he wants he'll never be taken as seriously as his DC comics buddy. For one thing: his story is absurdity itself. Something about free will having a colour (?), purple aliens and magical glowing lanterns...? If only there was a live-action film! Oh... Well, they gave it a go. After the trailers popped up ages ago online, it seemed pretty clear that although clearly a lot of money was pumped into the project, a lot of Green Lantern would still fail to transcend the inherent silliness of the whole premise. Ryan 'Van Wilder' Reynolds alone seemed to lack a certain je-ne-sais-quoi one looks for in a superhero. Just look at Brandon Routh: adorable Clark Kent but The Man Of Steel? Surely you jest. Surprisingly though, Green Lantern is no disaster. In 3D, at least, it is visually fun even if the effects are very hit-and-miss. The CGI costume is a tad off-putting, a lot of

I have to say after all this talk of Hitchcock this and Hitchcock that I was expecting more than a "guy-in-a-box" concept movie. To give the film credit, for a film set in a coffin it does a good job keeping you entertained throughout. Loved the opening titles...and that's all I can say really. Overall Buried was pretty...pedestrian in its writing, acting and overall storytelling. Didn't think Ryan Reynolds was particularly convincing and a lot of his panting, screaming and heavy breathing felt forced and strangely comical at times. I also felt that the whole Irak setting and terrorist plot was obvious, clumsy and clichéd. Sure the film is a metaphor of the war etc. but it really didn't need to be. It should have just been about a guy in a box, with no recollection of how he got in, trying to call for help only to, at the end, get out and find that he's somewhere he never expected. Like a good episode of the Twilight Zone ! The bad guy on the phone felt s