TheRetroCritic

George Lucas' Star Wars "prequelogy" finally came to its epic conclusion back in 2005 which saw the long awaited birth of Darth Vader come to fruition. Was it all worth it? Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith definitely took a page out of Attack Of The Clones in that it prioritised big, visually impressive action sequences over anything else though an important concern, this time, was of course linking everything together in a way that makes sense. Good old Ian McDiarmid finally gets a chance to go full Palpatine in this one which leads to some enjoyably hammy, shamelessly over-the-top dialog and scenes. The dodgy Chancellor's slow yet meticulous way of getting into Anakin Skywalker's head is pretty masterful and you definitely buy that Anakin would turn to the Dark Side at the hands of this lightning-spraying ghoul. As for Hayden Christensen, he does a decent enough job this time and, at the very least, looks convincingly pissed off. The plot this time is

Dante and Randal on the building of the second Death Star. Randal and Elias argue over Star Wars vs The Lord Of The Rings .

After the original Star Wars trilogy, somehow the idea of an Ewok spin-off got tossed around and eventually became a thing. As if Return Of The Jedi didn't have enough puppets and furry creatures, we were then graced with not one but two made-for-TV movies all about the Ewoks. And of course I rented the hell out of those movies as a kid because... I was unhinged, I guess. Of course the point was to select some kid-friendly characters from the movies and give younger viewers something to keep them quiet at home post-Star Wars but, as we all know, kids would have probably much preferred a Boba Fett spin-off or, at the very least, some show about C-3PO and R2-D2 getting into all sorts of wacky adventures. But no: we got Ewoks and a mostly unwatchable Holiday Special. Thanks. Luckily, the blandly titled Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure , which was somehow released in theatres in Europe, at least had some sort of story and dialogs a human could understand. On the o

Well it's Star Wars Month (duh!) and since there's never a bad time to revisit this little gem, here we go!

"If there were thumbs in space and they got mad at each other there would be..." Thumb Wars was Steve Oedekerk's first attempt at making a short film spoof entirely out of thumbs and it was just as crazy and brilliant as you would expect. The 29 minute-long parody not only introduced a unique and bizarre thumb-based technique to tell its story (actors faces superimposed over clothed thumbs with wigs) but it spawned several other such spoofs. Thumb Wars retells Episode IV: A New Hope with Oedekerk's very own brand of silliness peppered throughout. Every character is given a goofy (or goofier, I should say) name and gets the full thumb treatment, whatever that means. Obi-Wan Kenobi is now Oobedoob Scoobi-Doobi Benubi and he quickly tries to convince Luke (aka Loke Groundrunner) to touch tongues with him, meanwhile Leia literally has buns on her head, hence the name Princess Bunhead, Yoda (aka Master Puppet) freely admits to being a puppet and Darth "Blac

In this 64th episode, Adam (aka The RetroCritic) and fellow film buff Jamie discuss movie news, review  Black Mass , discuss gangsters, Batman V Superman and Star Wars . 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

After the mostly negative feedback The Phantom Menace received, George Lucas nonetheless continued his prequel trilogy with Episode II: Attack Of The Clones , a vastly bigger, slicker and more action-packed effort.  Anakin Skywalker now all grown up, it was up to newcomer Hayden Christensen to take over the role from the wildly unpopular Jake Lloyd and the result was... another wildly unpopular performance fans are still talking about to this very day in hushed tones. Anakin's courtship of Padmé, which inexplicably included talk of sand ("it's coarse and rough and irritating"), did not help matters as the script's more romantic scenes definitely stood out as slightly clumsy. That said, the film around poor old Anakin looked so good and was so entertaining, even a wooden Christensen couldn't hurt it too much even if it did rub quite a few Star Warsians the wrong way. The film means business from the get-go as it learns from The Phantom Menace's mist

10 years after the release of the first Star Wars movie, master spoofer Mel Brooks decided to take on the epic space opera trilogy in the childishly titled Spaceballs which starred the likes of Rick Moranis (as Dark Helmet), John Candy (as Barf) and Brooks himself in multiple roles. In typical Brooksian fashion, Spaceballs was incredibly silly from start to finish and even though not all of its jokes work, it remains something of a cult comedy classic. The plot mostly uses the "save the princess" theme of A New Hope , adds a little Death Star business from Empire Strikes Back and poor old Jabba is reduced to Pizza The Hutt, a talking blob made out of pizza bits and voiced by Dom DeLuise. The film opens with a subtle, pretty clever joke as an absurdly long and intricate spaceship passes by the camera for ages and from then on it gets goofy and never looks back. Candy's Barf is half dog, Joan Rivers voices a C-3PO-style droid, Moranis' Dark Helmet is a bumbling f

Back in 2008, George Lucas produced a feature length animation set between Episode II: Attack Of The Clones and Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith . The Clone Wars was released in cinemas and would kick-start an animated series on Cartoon Network. While the film earned a very healthy amount at the box-office, it was pretty much critically panned. The animation style not exactly wowing critics who were expecting something a little more big-screen friendly instead of what was essentially just a TV pilot. The 3D animation in question certainly didn't go for a realistic take on the characters who all look like wooden caricatures, their hair never flowing in the wind, their faces not that expressive. It takes a little time to get used to and one could see how a critic expecting Pixar would leave the cinema slightly disappointed but on the small screen it's definitely easier to accept. It helps that the backgrounds and the action sequences look great. The animation may have bee

To say that there was a lot of anticipation for George Lucas' Star Wars prequels back before they were released would be sugar-coating what was probably one of geekdom's all-time biggest events. Seeing the rise of Darth Vader could only be awesome. ...right? Well let's just say that if ever there was a way not to start that trilogy, The Phantom Menace was it. Not that it didn't deliver anything of value but the backlash that followed the film was so huge that it made everyone very worried for the rest of the prequels. Jar Jar Binks became the single most hated Star Wars character of all time and The Phantom Menace, by extension, the most hated Star Wars movie of all time. But was that backlash an overreaction or was it somewhat deserved? While I'd love to say that The Phantom Menace was in fact a misunderstood gem, one can't deny just how inept parts of this movie are. Yes, Jar Jar Binks was a bad idea from the start: his bumbling antics unfunny f