TheRetroCritic

We talk briefly about Howard The Duck .

My review of early Marvel film: Howard The Duck .

I list 10 of the weirdest moments from Howard The Duck .

Back in 1986, Executive Producer George Lucas brought us a Marvel character in all his live-action glory. That character was Howard The Duck , a talking duck from another planet who somehow gets propelled through space all the way to Earth where his adventure truly begins. The film was critically panned and a box-office failure but it remains one of those cinematic question marks like Super Mario Bros. or Street Fighter  you just can't avoid. For one thing, if you grew up in the 80's, it's unlikely you missed this odd little movie: whether you know the comics or not, the title alone just screams "watch me!". The titular duck was portrayed by Ed Gale with Chip Zien providing the voice and the cast included Lea Thompson as Howard's friend and love interest Beverly, Tim Robbins as their annoying sidekick and Jeffrey Jones as a scientist who slowly turns into main villain Dark Overlord, some kind of space demon. The first half of the film is focused on Ho

Clint Eastwood directs this grim, Oscar-winning thriller from 2003 about an investigation following the death of a young girl in a Boston neighbourhood. It stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon as three friends who each have a connection to the case in some way. The film is essentially a murder mystery with Bacon and Laurence Fishburne as the detectives and everyone else as the suspects. We're first introduced to the main characters as children and learn that one of them was abducted and abused by two strangers for four days in a dark basement once, which makes for not exactly the most uplifting start to the proceedings but which becomes an important plot point later. We then catch up with the grown up kids years later: Dave (Robbins), who was abused, is now married and has a child, Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-thief with a family and dodgy connections and Sean (Bacon) is a cop. When Jimmy's daughter is found killed one morning, everyone's world is turned upside down a

Years before Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind really put Michel Gondry on the map as one of the most creative and unique directors working today, he made Human Nature : a weirdo comedy starring Tim Robbins, Rhys Ifans and Patricia Arquette. Gondry's first collaboration with genius oddball writer Charlie Kaufman really gels. Just like the latter's work with Spike Jonze on Being John Malkovitch , the off-beat visual style really compliments the off-beat writing. The result is a film which delights in being pretty out there. The plot sees a woman born with a condition that makes her extremely hairy meet a really uptight scientist who discovers a man raised by apes (or, rather, by a father who thinks he's an ape) and tries to teach him the finest things that society has to offer and make him abandon his every animal instinct. The film is partly a sort of parody of Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan mixed with some of the themes explored in greater detail in Adaptation .