TheRetroCritic

I talk a bit about James Franco's The Disaster Artist .

Loosely based on Greg Sestero's accounts on the making of The Room , The Disaster Artist follows Greg (Dave Franco) as he meets strange yet brave actor Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) before they travel to Los Angeles to pursue their dream of becoming big Hollywood stars. From the trailers, it wasn't clear what this movie would be: a typical comedy celebrating the beautiful awfulness of The Room or a semi-serious biography of Wiseau. James Franco, who also directs the film, attempts both and the first half of the film, which focuses on Greg and Tommy's odd, if surprisingly sweet friendship, is actually pretty effective. James Franco makes a terrific Tommy Wiseau, nailing his unique mannerisms and accent to a tee while keeping the character's mystery intact as we never find out his age, origins or the source of his apparent wealth in a recurring joke. Dave Franco's Greg Sestero is a naive, wide-eyed dreamer who sees Tommy's lack of fear when performing as inspi

Seth Rogen's first jump into animated waters last year was met with mixed reactions, to say the least. Sausage Party 's early trailers looked like a fun and clever R-rated romp but the more critics and audiences learned about the film, the more their excitement for it decreased. Close to the film's release, some controversy surrounding the animators being overworked and underpaid surfaced. The bad press continued but even if some critics were lukewarm towards to the film, it was still a significant box-office hit with audiences flocking to see it. The good thing about Sausage Party's success is it presented studios with another convincing pro R-rated blockbusters argument soon after Deadpool which should guarantee that we'll see less and less neutered content in theatres. The film is proudly raunchy with the whole plot being centered around a hot dog wanting to slip inside a bun, every single character swearing non-stop and an end orgy that makes the puppet se

Alright... What was all that fuss about, then? The Interview certainly made an impact lately, to say the least. For a moment there, it looked like this Seth Rogen comedy was going to start WWIII! Who would have thought that a film designed to royally piss off North Korea would end up royally pissing off North Korea?! Indeed The Interview's basic premise, two idiots being hired by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong Un, clearly wasn't aiming for subtle political satire. I mean, if it was, talk about a major misstep! The film sees James Franco play Dave Skylark, the cheesy TV host of a trashy talk show, being invited by the Supreme Leader to interview him. Skylark and his producer Aaron (Seth Rogen) are soon hired by the CIA for a mission involving the killing of Un during the interview. Why the U.S. government would want two well-known morons to take on such a dangerous mission is unclear but I guess suspension of disbelief and all that. I mean, up to that point

Back when Steve Carell was still mostly known for being that odd news guy in both Bruce Almighty and Anchorman , he finally got his first lead comedy role in The 40-Year-Old Virgin , a film which, on paper, may not have sounded all that exciting but, in Judd Apatow's reliable hands, did very well indeed. The film's premise is exactly what the title suggests as Carell plays Andy, a 40-year-old virgin we first meet one morning as he absently parades his morning boner while he gets ready for work. This sets most of the tone for the rest of the movie. We soon meet Andy's co-workers, incidentally an all-star cast packed with Apatow regulars from Seth Rogen to Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. Even Jonah Hill gets a cameo appearance. When Andy's "friends" figure out his big secret, this kick-starts their imaginations as they each decide to get him laid and impart their silly wisdom about sex upon him. Whether they're doing all this just to see Andy make a fool o

Like kind of a cross between Old School , Project X and Knocked Up ,  Neighbors promised the usual mix of slapstick chaos, gross-out humour, improv-style dialogs and observational married couple humour Judd Apatow pretty much perfected (and overused) about 12 movies ago. Neighbors feels instantly familiar, tired even, and although you keep hoping throughout that it dares to take a darker turn at some point, or any kind of unexpected turn, taking a page out of Pacific Heights rather than every Seth Rogen film ever made, perhaps, it sadly never happens. The plot sees Mac (Rogen) and his wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) clash with a fraternity (run by Zac Efron and Dave Franco) that's moved in right next door. This leads to some bromance and heavy partying followed by a tit-for-tat battle which escalates before predictably imploding. The comedy definitely had potential in that its premise was pretty straight-forward and left a path wide open for tons of jokes and set-ups. Indeed, Neigh

Nothing beats a good stoner movie. Pineapple Express sees Seth Rogen and James Franco, a stoner and his easy-going dealer, flee for fear of being tracked-down and eliminated after the former witnesses a murder. Along the way, Rogen attempts to warn his girlfriend (played by Amber Heard) and he and Franco run around like headless chickens until the somewhat epic climax. Think a buddy cop movie crossed with the kind of hijinks that Jay & Silent Bob would find really enjoyable. The film pokes fun at the thriller genre and all the cliches it usually involves while spending most of its time just kind of joking around with its goofy but loveable characters. Rogen clearly has a ball and Franco steals the show in quite possibly the role he was born to play. Forget James Dean or Allen Ginsberg, Saul IS vintage Franco. The Rogen/Franco dynamic really is the heart of this movie and as much as the film takes the piss of their buddy-buddiness, they're still pretty adorable. Whether th

If The Watch was too tame for you, here's a sci-fi comedy that should do the trick. An all-star cast leads an ambitious flick where a bunch of Hollywood actors (all playing exaggerated versions of themselves) find out they're in the middle of what could very well be the end of the world as we know it. This being a Seth Rogen film, expect gross-out humour aplenty (this includes dick jokes, don't worry), bromances left and right, lots and lots of weed and, of course, a psychotic Danny McBride. This Is The End is a one-joke movie, and it knows it. If you watch the trailers and expect to see much more sci-fi action then prepare to be slightly underwhelmed. Yes there is action in this movie but a lot of it is spent in James Franco's house where the guys are either running around terrified like headless chickens, arguing among themselves or just chilling out. That said, something really fun happens to Jonah Hill about halfway through so look out for that. Everyone is

Whenever a project is this delayed, usually we get something like The Wolfman : full of ideas, style and potential but ultimately a mess which just doesn't work. And although The Green Hornet is a bit of a mess at times, I'm happy to report that most of it actually does work. Most of it. The opening scene sets the tone for the rest of film perfectly as James Franco's petty gangster taunts main villain Christoph Waltz until, of course, the latter snaps. The jokes come thick and fast, the feel is playful, silly and fun. Then we meet Seth Rogen's Billionaire jerk, a character who is dangerously close to being entirely dislikable but Rogen just about keeps him afloat. Things get interesting when he meets Jay Chou's Kato and although the latter's English isn't exactly perfect, he is as cool as it gets and pulls off Bruce Lee's old character brilliantly. The pair work well together and make a good anti-hero duo. Cue awesome car, wacky gadgets, exciting