TheRetroCritic

It's funny how some movies shouldn't work and technically don't but totally do. Mallrats is one of those movies. Cinematically, it's all over the place. As a romantic comedy, it gets pretty corny and you could literally take out TS's (Jeremy London) subplot out entirely, replace it with more dick jokes and the whole movie would be even better for it. Not classier but better. As it stands, the tone is kinda hit-and-miss and some of the performances either fall flat (Claire Forlani's Brandi) or are hammy as hell (Michael Rooker). The result is a film which feels like many different types of movies stuck together randomly into some sort of post-modern 90's collage: the dialogs have a Woody Allen-esque verbosity to them every so often, all the Jay and Silent Bob stuff is pure Wile E. Coyote cartoon, the gross out jokes are straight out of something like Caddyshack so it's a weird mix to say the least. That said, as with several other Smith flicks,

Some jokes never get old. Then again some do. Sadly, the whole American Pie thing started getting old with American Pie: The Wedding , and that was before all those straight-to-DVD ones. So yeah, a reunion I guess could have been a good way to update the franchise a little bit and maybe do something epic with those characters for once... Unfortunately, studios went for the safer route: American Reunion is the typical comedy sequel with everyone having a bit of a mid-life crisis before all growing up and settling down like good little human puppets. YAWN. Now I suppose they can take comfort in the knowledge that American Reunion is the best American Pie film since the second one but it's a pretty big drop-off in between and with all the cast back for a full-on reunion, they could have put a tad bit more effort into telling some kind of memorable and different story. You know the drill: everyone shows up, Stifler screws up their lives after a (mildly) crazy week-end, ever

There is an irony about Teen Wolf Too that, if intentional, is pretty tragically clever in its own way. I mean the film is essentially about how everyone expects Jason Bateman to become the wolf and live up to Michael J. Fox but due to him... not being Michael J. Fox it proves more difficult to accept than it should. Teen Wolf Too is basically Teen Wolf . You've got a sporting event our hero needs to win NOT as the wolf to redeem himself in the end, you've got a stern principal (dean, whatever), you've got a bitch bimbo, a bully, goofy best friends, a sweet father figure, the red eyes scene, the hairy hands scene, the transformation scene.... it's the same movie! But Teen Wolf Too is to Teen Wolf what, say, Big Top Pee-Wee was to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure . The sequel lacks something that made the original film that little bit more enjoyable. It's not bad, some stinker lines aside it's not bad, just... it lacks something . For one thing it takes some ti

Watching Teen Wolf as a kid was a treat. I remember just waiting impatiently every time for the first full transformation scene with the dad showing up looking comically fluffy in the end. A fan of the cartoon series, watching the live-action feature was simply awesome. And you know what? I still love that shit! Is it dated? Of course! But that only adds RetroJoy to my RetroGasm. You've got all the cliches of an 80's sports flick, the typical teen movie metamorphosis-as-puberty thing and, of course, a whole bunch of werewolfy events. Like Fright Night , Once Bitten or The Lost Boys , Teen Wolf was an attempt at taking the monster movie genre and making it teen-friendly, reinventing the old genre in a light-hearted horror/comedy setting rather than handling it in the usual gothic style we all know and love. This, of course, was hit and miss depending on the film but Teen Wolf is one that worked. Michael J. Fox is Scott Howard, a regular kid for whom being what he call

Indie movie king Paul Giamatti stars as a desperate attorney/wrestling coach who decides to bend the law in order to keep himself afloat financially. Unfortunately with the unexpected arrival of a runaway kid at his doorstep, things soon get more complicated than he had originally anticipated. Giamatti can do that type of role in his sleep but somehow he keeps his performances fresh and fun everytime: this one's thankfully no exception and he elevates what could have easily felt as a slight, studenty-style little flick into something more prominent and heartfelt. Films like this often fall into the trap of wanting to be too quirky or cool and ending up feeling forced ( Juno ?) thankfully Win Win is grounded enough that it never feels the need to overcompensate for anything. The premise follows a flawed but well-meaning character through a little journey of self-work while tricking you into thinking this is nothing but a wrestling movie (it's really not) in order to bring a