TheRetroCritic

Visuals look 10/10. We'll see if the film delivers.

As the first season of the new Westworld series on HBO finally wraps up, it's time to look back at the film that started it all. Penned by Michael Crichton and released in 1973, the movie was a descent into hell as the world's most ingenious theme park slowly but surely meets its end. Guests pay a lot of money to visit Westworld, a recreation of the Old West with realistic-looking robots populating the town. You can interact with them however you please, you can even shoot them but they can't hurt you. There's also an equally convincing Roman World and Medieval World not too far away. We follow two guests, Peter and John, played by Richard Benjamin and James Brolin respectively, as they enter the park and try out some of its key features like duelling with enemies, drinking, fighting, breaking out of jail and, of course, visiting the brothel. When the scientists running the show discover some discrepancies with the robots, whose sensors have become temperamental,

I finally talk about Arrival . Or will I finally talk about Arrival? Or have I...?

Here's the video version of my Flight Of The Navigator review.

From executive producers J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau, Revolution was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi series from 2012 set after the power inexplicably goes out in the world leaving it in a permanent blackout as America's leadership is completely reshuffled and a resistance grows. Revolution presents a big concept with a lot of potential and the previews for this show looked like a lot of fun. With the involvement of Abrams and the usually reliable Billy Burke, this certainly ticked all right boxes. The Pilot episode, directed by Favreau himself, introduces us to the main characters and this new post-power world rather well as America finds itself divided with the North-Eastern coast being run by intimidating dictator Monroe (David Lyons). When scientist Ben Matheson (Tim Guinee), who was involved in the mess that led to the power being turned off, is killed by the Monroe Republic militia and his son Danny (Graham Rogers) is kidnapped, his headstrong daughter Charlie (Tracy Spiridak

Here's the video version of my K-PAX review.

Directed by Joe Dante, Explorers is a very Spielbergian sci-fi 80's film starring a young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix as two of three kids who, following some rather abstract Tron -like recurring dreams, discover a way to potentially travel inside some kind of glass bubble they manage to control. The film was rushed into theatres back in 1985, much to Dante's distaste, and it was a flop at the box-office but it's since enjoyed a cult following and, with the popularity of the nostalgia-celebrating series Stranger Things , it's likely even more people will discover or re-discover this little film. The kids, who often communicate with walkie-talkies, are exactly the types you'd expect: Wolfgang is the nerdy one (Phoenix), Darren is the tough one (played by Jason Presson) and Ben is the imaginative one (Hawke). They are bullied at school, of course, and their home lives aren't exactly a joy so when they find this mysterious bubble, they soon decide to build

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in The Running Man , a loose 1987 movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel in which a man is wrongfully arrested and thrown into a sadistic game show taking place in the dystopian future society of 2017. Here's yet another film which'll make The Hunger Games seem even less original than it already is as poor old Arnie is forced to battle enemies to the death in a modern arena. He plays Ben Richards, a helicopter pilot who, upon refusing to kill innocent civilians, is ruthlessly thrown in jail: the US has become a totalitarian police state and the media single-handedly controls what people think. Richards escapes and attempts to flee to Hawaii using a random woman's ID but the misinformed Maria Conchita Alonso turns on Richards and blows the whistle on him to the police who soon catch him again. He is soon blackmailed into taking part in the biggest game show on TV "The Running Man" hosted by a cruel (and brilliant) Richard Daw

From director Alex Proyas comes Dark City , a modern film noir detective flick with a difference. While its story may develop in a similar way to other films in that genre, you've got a mysterious group of powerful, bald, vampire-like weirdos in there and a good bunch of bizarre twists which add a layer of surrealism to the whole thing. Dark City stars Rufus Sewell as John Murdoch, a man suspected of killing several prostitutes who finds himself on the run after waking up in a hotel room he doesn't remember. In fact, his memory is pretty much all gone so it makes finding out the truth even more tricky. William Hurt is the detective tasked with the case, Jennifer Connelly is John's concerned wife and Kiefer Sutherland is a shady doctor who appears to know more than he claims. As a piece of neo-noir, Dark City is pretty fascinating as it, about halfway through, defies your expectations and goes in a direction you wouldn't expect. As the plot moves towards more of a

After the runaway success of Star Wars , George Lucas handed the directing reigns to Irvin Kirshner for the sequel which is still seen by many as the franchise's best instalment. The Empire Strikes Back , as the title suggests, is not the upbeat adventure with the fairy-tale ending the first film was. This time, the Empire gets its revenge following the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope and our heroes suffer for it. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), after having a bad run-in with a Wampa (some abominable snowman-looking beast) and a chat with the ghost of Alec Guinness, departs for the Dagobah System to learn the ways of the Force from Yoda (Frank Oz) leaving Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewie (Peter Mayhew) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) to be betrayed by old friend Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams). This gives ample opportunity for galactic badass Darth Vader to plot against our heroes. Character development-wise, a romance finally brews between Solo and Leia, Luke goes

Review now available on the new website . 

I review Christopher Nolan's latest. It's called Interstellar , in case you don't know.

After finally letting go of his (and our) beloved Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan finally ventured into the unknown, to more ambitious cinema where no man has gone before. Well, maybe Kubrick... Still, with Gravity greedily and, some would say, undeservedly claiming the space opera genre last year, only Mr Nolan could swoop in and reclaim it with a movie crazy enough to make you completely forget that Sandra Bullock was once spinning around somewhere. The film, of course, is Interstellar : a grand sci-fi blockbuster in which an ex-engineer/space pilot-turned farmer leads an expedition through wormholes and strange planets in what is essentially Earth's very last hope for survival as our world literally turns to dust. We spend some time with Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his family which includes his young daughter Murph (later played by Jessica Chastain) who seems to believe in ghosts and his father-in-law, played by a sadly once again restrained John Lithgow. C

Back when E.T. was all the rage and a few copycat movies quickly followed from *batteries not included to Mac And Me , Flight Of The Navigator came out and it was obviously seen as not much more than yet another E.T. rip-off. Luckily, the film was also all kinds of great and arguably even better than Spielberg's movie in some ways. The film opens with a montage showing dogs catching, or rather attempting to catch, frisbees in what is both a completely irrelevant and completely wonderful opening title sequence. Initially set in the 70's, the plot sees a kid, David (Joey Cramer), wander into the woods at night only to slip and fall before waking up 8 years later in the same spot. Meanwhile, NASA come face to face with a silver, very light walnut-shaped UFO and try to keep the discovery under wraps. That is, until David's mysterious disappearance turns out to be related to that UFO somehow by which point NASA promptly "invites" the boy over for a couple of d

Here's a forgotten little thing that happened back in 2001: Kevin Spacey starred as Prot, a man claiming to be from a distant planet called K-PAX in a movie called just that. Prot is found early on wandering around a train station and is soon taken to a mental institution where Jeff Bridges' psychiatrist meets him and tries to figure out whether Prot is really from K-PAX or whether he's just a very troubled fellow and, if so, what could have prompted creating such a fantastical and convincing persona. The film is kind of a cross between Starman and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest as the very off-beat Prot meets all the colourful characters living in the institution and has an impact of some sort on their lives. Kevin Spacey finally lives up to his last name and delivers a decidedly "spacey" performance, his Prot being a complex character to say the least: on the surface he's a wise, friendly, if eccentric, alien with cool Bono-style sunglasses but t

Before Bruce Willis was sent back in time in Looper , he was sent back in time in Twelve Monkeys and, funnily enough, things didn't turn out so good for him then either! Further proof that, if you're going to mess with time travel, you'd better have a Doc Brown helping ya. Terry Gilliam's modern take on La Jetée 's themes is set in the near future (well, the late nineties, anyway) when a virus has wiped out most of humanity leaving only animals to rule the Earth, Planet Of The Apes -style except they don't talk and ride horses, that'd be absurd. The remaining people, who live underground, decide to send back in time some prisoner in order to try and figure out what the hell happened, who started this and perhaps stop it altogether. It's not quite clear how this time-travelling technology works and that's dealt with abstractly, which is probably a good move seeing as it cuts down on what could have been 10 dull minutes of explanation. Being a n

After the huge disappointment that was The Lone Ranger , another quirky, make-up heavy Johnny Depp performance would have probably sent everyone running in the other direction. Thankfully, the Christopher Nolan-produced Transcendence sees the actor trying something a little bit different. The film sees poisoned and dying scientist Will (Depp) as he has his consciousness uploaded into a super-computer Lawnmower Man 2 -style and starts to show-off his new, seemingly endless, power, with shady, potentially catastrophic consequences. Add to that some confused FBI agents played by a third of the Batman Begins cast (Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy), a bunch of anti-tech terrorist rebels and Will's wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), who finds herself at the heart of it all, and you've got yourself a pretty ludicrous sci-fi flick with all the ingredients which make up a good old B movie yet which still remains somewhat slick and A-list. The whole thing is definitely out there and that&#

Terry Gilliam's latest, The Zero Theorem , finally gets a trailer!

That Akira is still, to this day, respected this much and seen as one of the great anime classics is no accident. Watching it as a kid, I had no idea what the hell was going on but the film stayed with me, it had an impact. After a re-watch, I can finally say without hesitation that Akira is, indeed, one of the most important anime features every made. First off, it looks amazing. The film's futuristic setting, a neon-lit, 80's-style Neo Tokyo worthy of Blade Runner is not only believably depicted but is detailed, colourful and has depth. It's a violent, dangerous new world but a beautiful one nonetheless. Katsuhiro Otomo's film is visually extremely creative and delivers some of the most unforgettable, craziest anime action sequences you'll ever see. I mean, there's a scene in this where a giant teddy bear, a giant rabbit and a giant toy car go ape shit and start wrecking havoc thanks to a bunch of weird blue old people children. Akira deals with big the