TheRetroCritic

With Bane and Catwoman taking on The Bat this month, I thought I'd take a quick look back at my own favourite Batman villains. Bear in mind I haven't read every single Batman comic-book or seen every single episode of every single cartoon series so there might be some bad guys out there I am not familiar with or not familiar with enough to include in this list. Might amend the list later, we'll see... In the meantime, here are my own picks for best bat-villains: 10 HARLEY QUINN If you'd asked me about Harley Quinn as a kid I would have probably spat in your face. I really wasn't a big fan of the character back in the days of the Animated Series , mostly because she just seemed tacked-on as a character and seemed to only be there to interrupt The Joker and serve as comic relief. That may all be true to a certain extent but looking back at some of the episodes she was in I realized they did try to make her as three dimensional as they could and you do

Adorable.

Lets begin with a riddle: ‘What weighs six ounces, sits in a tree and is very dangerous’? Answer at the end of this review...   With the release of The Dark Night Rises   drawing ever closer, let us take a nostalgic trip back in time to the year 1966. Bring on the exaggerated acting and props that looked as if Blue Peter had made them. For anyone not familiar with Blue Peter: it’s a British children’s TV show which demonstrated how to make everything from cardboard sea creatures to rockets (I hated that show with a passion!!!!). If you liked the Batman TV series starring Adam West (as Batman/Bruce Wayne) and Burt Ward (as Robin/Dick Greyson) then you will love this film. It’s basically an extended version of the TV show. But having said that, it does stand alone as a movie and feels as if you are watching something more substantial than just a long episode. It has a good plot, lots of retro visual effects and all the mad Gotham villains we have come to love, assemb

As much as I love the Mission: Impossible movies, this first installment has always been my least favourite. Which is weird because being the first movie you'd expect it to easily be the best one, especially when it's directed by someone who knows what they're doing. And yet a re-watch confirms that this is still not the Mission: Impossible movie for me. Don't get me wrong: it's a decent movie and far less silly than its successor (what isn't?). It starts off strong with the team being taken down one by one in a mission that, ironically, really does prove impossible. Turns out a mole set everyone up and Ethan Hunt, being the only survivor, is the prime suspect. Luckily he's got old men masks, a shitty old PC and chewing gum bombs to keep him safe. He bolts and the rest of the film sees him having to retrieve a mega-important list of spies from a super-safe over at Langley thereby proving his innocence. To do this, he hires the help of Ving Rhames and

Tim Burton being the movie wizard of my childhood, people who know me at all will know that I’m somewhat biased when it comes to Burton’s films but that said, I will attempt to objectively review this one fairly and without any emo fanboy nonsense. Then again… Dark Shadows was wicked cool you guys!!! I’m kidding, it was fine. As trendy as it is these days to pan anything Mr Burton does, sadly this review won't. I mean, granted his movies post- Mars Attacks haven’t really reached the heights of his earlier works but a so-so Tim Burton movie tends to still be way more fun than most other films of that type and Dark Shadows is no exception. Actually, there aren’t many movies of that type making this the most original Burton film in years. The mix of overdramatic soap opera and Hammer-style horror is rare but works brilliantly here. Watch as vampires and witches worry about their seafood businesses in an unknown shitty little town. Seafood lol Actually,

So I'm walking around a store when I find... 24: THE DVD BOARD GAME I lol, dig in my pocket for two, yes TWO, coins (like it's the 1500's) and buy that shit heartily. Oh it looked beautiful. Being a DVD board game I had my doubts, of course, but Jack Bauer was there, his face right on the cover, comforting me and I knew everything was gonna be aaaaalright... After playing the game, really I found there was only one thing wrong with it: IT DOESN'T WORK!!! Yeah. *This DVD board game takes place between the hours of my balls and my ass* Now I don't mean that the game is broken and I couldn't play it. No. The game is broken in that it is actually unplayable . Which is a shame because it all starts rather well! You've got your cool CTU-approved board, a briefing by Jack Bauer himself (*squeeee*) with 3 promising missions to choose from and our favourite countdown from the show! *tick dumm* 0:01:00 *tick dumm* 0:00:59 Then you start pl

I know, I'm like 100 years late. But I'm The "Retro" Critic! :P I remember catching a glimpse of this iconic show back in the day and actually finding it pretty entertaining. Sadly, I hadn't followed the thread from the very beginning so it felt like catching the season about halfway through would be a bit of a waste. I decided to wait until I could check it out on DVD. 10 years later... Well I finally made it, that's the main thing, right? So was it worth the wait? What do I make of this very first season? It's good. I thought it would be quite good and it was. Basically I'm rarely taken by a cop-themed series unless you've got a mad scientist in there ( Fringe ), evil twins ( Alias ) or... Columbo ( Columbo ). But 24 did a hell of a good job keeping me entertained throughout and making me care about MOST of what was going on. Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer is a hard one to dislike and is pretty much the glue holding the whole sho

I resisted. Honestly I did. Before watching Alias I only knew it involved some girl running around corridors with wigs and I refused to believe there was anything more to it than that. I refused to allow myself to like it. To be fair, there is a LOT of Jennifer Garner running around in wigs down corridors. That's like a given for any episode: that WILL happen. Accept it now and you'll feel better about it very quickly. So what is Alias? And how can I even begin to explain without spoiling the whole thing for you guys? Lets just say it's a European-style spy thriller series created by Lost / Fringe maestro J.J. Abrams with a terrific cast of characters, some of the best twists and cliffhangers you'll find in any show, a kinda supernatural underbelly (so good) and one of the all time great TV villains. Being an early noughties thing, expect the odd shitty pop song, copious amounts of techno music and Brosnan-era Bond-style technology. Season 1 is quick to get

Can YOU guess... GUESS NOW!

Yes it's Guest Review Week on The RetroCritic blog. We'll be posting reviews throughout the week written or filmed by guest critics, if you are interested in taking part please contact me HERE . It can be a film, game, TV show (or specific season), play, musical or album review. Written (500 words max) or video (Youtube link if possible). I'd suggest picking something I haven't already reviewed but by all means choose whatever you like. Not really anymore rules to speak of, if you have a blog, website or video channel you'd like to promote please include a link to your site and I'll make sure I include it in the blog post. Thanks guys! Happy reviewin' ;)

I remember first hearing that David Lynch had made a TV series. It was crazy clown time. I couldn't wait to check it out. So here we are, 2011, and finally I have allowed myself to sit through the whole first season of Twin Peaks . Was it worth the wait? Oh yes. That Twin Peaks only lasted two seasons is both shocking and unsurprising. Sure it was great but how long could a soap opera satire about dreams, lumber... oh and one little murder last for longer than more accessible shows like Sabrina The Teenage Witch ? Oh 90's, you complicated mistress you... The Twin Peaks Pilot episode gets the show on the road in a dramatic yet positively gloomy way with Kyle McLachlan's jolly detective, strong contender for best guy ever, only popping by about halfway through. The show revolves around the murder of high school student Laura Palmer, it's a whodunit where the usual CSI rules do not apply. It's a show in which birds, coconuts and logs often hold more eviden

Now this is what I'm talking about! After a frankly dull first season and an uneven (if promising) second here we finally have a focused, genuinely well-made, wholly entertaining season which benefits from being a little darker and a little less all about that boring old beach we've grown so accustomed to! It's an island. There's sand. We get it. Again, a lot of the wrongs of season 1 are put right and now the show finally finds itself with not only a great villain, dodgy "Other" leader Benjamin Linus, but interesting main characters you actually do care about (...and Kate). Everyone's backstories are fleshed out a bit more and interlinked with each other in clever ways, characters face real conflicts and have an immediate purpose. This time, these guys are shown no mercy. Long gone are the days when Charlie would worry about peanut butter, long gone are the boring "lets-all-sit-around!" episodes: no, this is the season where the smo