TheRetroCritic

Behold! My latest lengthy Blade Runner 2049 rant!

Before Blade Runner enjoyed a revival with a Director's Cut released 10 years after its original release in 1982, it was nowhere near the masterpiece it is now recognised to be. The film underperformed at the box-office, its more optimistic take not resonating with audiences. Indeed, this is the only version of the film with a happy ending of sorts as Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and replicant love interest Rachael (Sean Young) leave Los Angeles together after fellow Blade Runner Gaff (Edward James Olmos) spares her life. The infamous voice-over unconvincingly explains to us that Gaff just assumed she would only live for 4 years but luckily Tyrell told Deckard otherwise off-camera. Most people, including Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford, would agree that this voice-over, which pops up pretty randomly and abruptly, sometimes stating the blindingly obvious, was a mistake. Its content, delivery and placement just don't work. It constantly interrupts Vangelis' beautiful sco

Set 30 years after the events of Ridley Scott's cult classic sci-fi noir  Blade Runner , Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 aims to expand the world established by the original while also continuing the story of replicant hunter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Our lead this time is K (Ryan Gosling), an advanced, more obedient type of replicant who also works as a Blade Runner, hunting down older models who are hiding all over Los Angeles. After taking down one of them, a farmer played by a criminally underused Dave Bautista, K finds the remains of another replicant buried nearby and an investigation is opened. This new development piques the interest of the mysterious Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), the creator of all new replicants. The investigation leads us back to Rick Deckard, who turns out to be the key to this whole mess. Meanwhile, K's relationship with hologram girlfriend Joi (Ana de Armas) goes weird places and a prostitute is tasked by someone to place a trac

I review The Terminator for the Sega Genesis

I talk about the first two episodes of Marvel's Inhumans .

I talk a bit about Netflix's new anime series Neo Yokio .

Some thoughts on Star Trek Discovery .

CLICK HERE for the review, which was posted for the first instalment of Review A Bad Movie Day on September 8th.

As Terminator 2: Judgment Day enjoys a 3D re-release in theatres this Summer, there's no better time to revisit James Cameron's blockbuster masterpiece. The film was originally released back in 1991 and it was a huge hit, surpassing the original Terminator commercially and critically. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as the Austrian killing machine who terrified us all years prior except, this time, his mission is not to murder Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) but protect her son John Connor, played by a young Edward Furlong. The main threat being another Terminator, Robert Patrick's T-1000, a liquid metal shapeshifter who is even more unstoppable than the T-800. Terminator 2 keeps a lot of what we loved about the original film but presents a brand new character dynamic, big action set-pieces, more groundbreaking special effects and an altogether more epic experience. The Terminator was essentially a slick yet gritty robot slasher flick with a sci-fi edge, this sequel

Luigi proves he's not the sharpest tool in the plumber tool belt throughout the Super Mario Bros. movie. 

My review of early Marvel film: Howard The Duck .

Based on the French graphic novels, Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets is writer/director Luc Besson's latest sci-fi epic starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne as two special agents on a particularly unusual space-set mission. Boasting colourful visuals and lots of action, the trailers for Valerian evoked the fast-paced serial style of The Fifth Element and it definitely looked like fun. The film opens with a cool montage set to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in which we see the evolution of the titular City Of A Thousand Planets as increasingly odd-looking aliens shake hands with the humans greeting them: it sets the playful tone perfectly and we even get a Rutger Hauer cameo. We then follow a peaceful alien race as their paradise planet is destroyed by spaceships crashing into it out of nowhere and the plot is set in motion as special agent Valerian starts dreaming about that planet's dying princess. The special effects and art style are beautif

I talk a bit about Luc Besson's Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets .

I review the Super Mario Bros. movie!

Jamie and I review Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 on podcast The Big Rewind .

I talk briefly about Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 .

With the surprise success of 2014's  Guardians Of The Galaxy at the box-office, Marvel quickly confirmed a sequel and fans were overjoyed. A bit of a dark horse in that it felt like a possible one-off flop on paper before its release, the charm of the characters and the colourful galactic setting made these Guardians such a likeable bunch that seeing more of them was kind of a must. And so here we have Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 , which continues the heroes-for-hire's ongoing adventures, without worrying too much about how everything will fit into the next Avengers movies, surprisingly. The film opens with an action sequence where the Guardians are attempting to take down a giant octopus-like monster except most of the time we're watching the adorable Baby Groot dance and wrestle around with tiny creatures. This sets the tone for another light and playful outing for the gang, with the cartoonishness of it all enhanced somewhat. All the familiar characters are stil

I n this 73rd episode of  The Big Rewind , we review   Alien: Covenant ,   talk about  Ghost In The Shell and play Ridley's Believe It Or Not . CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE Email us here if you have any questions, requests or contributions:  bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com Or simply comment below :) Oh and you can also find us on  iTunes ,  Stitcher ,  Soundcloud  and  Player FM  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #TheBigRewind retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

Ridley Scott's long-awaited return to the science-fiction genre was met with both praise and cynicism as Alien prequel (of sorts) Prometheus delivered in the stylistic department but failed to convince those more demanding fans of the franchise who perhaps expected something slightly different. Alien: Covenant is very much a direct sequel to Prometheus with Michael Fassbender returning as dodgy robot David and the story picking up some time after he and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) departed for the Engineers' planet in the alien ship. Initially, however, we focus on new ship The Covenant and its crew who are travelling with thousands of human colonists and embryos in order to start a new life in a specific planet. Following a destructive accident in space which kills its Captain (an odd James Franco cameo), new robot Walter (also Fassbender) wakes up the crew and the new Captain decides to follow a radio transmission down to a nearby unknown world despite the fact it is

I talk about Chinese science-fiction film Battle Of Memories .