TheRetroCritic

With the current political climate the way it is, there couldn't have been a better time to release The Post , Steven Spielberg's dramatic account of when The Washington's Post released leaked documents exposing a massive cover-up linked to the Vietnam War in the early 70's. Meryl Streep plays Katharine Graham, who became the owner of The Washington Post following her husband's death, and Tom Hanks is the newspaper's editor in chief Ben Bradlee. The latter is looking to elevate The Post beyond dealing with relatively trivial stories and constantly reacting to other publications' breaking news. When an ex-military analyst leaks documents to The New York Times proving current and past Presidents knew the Vietnam War was a disaster and still sent troops despite it being a lost cause, Richard Nixon's administration attempts to intimidate The Washington Post into not releasing more files. As Bradlee and his team rush to gather the rest of the leaked doc

Despite the lukewarm reception of both The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons , this year saw Ron Howard bring us yet another instalment based on Dan Brown's popular series of novels. Inferno continues Robert Langdon's (Tom Hanks) quest to save the world through running around museums and solving obscure historical puzzles. We first meet Langdon as he wakes up in hospital following some kind of accident he can't remember. His vision blurred and memory fuzzy due to head trauma, he is led out of the hospital by Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) who sees an assassin heading her patient's way. Strange, apocalyptic dreams and a hidden item lead Langdon and Brooks to slowly uncover the truth behind a mystery linked to Dante's Inferno. The real challenge for Robert Langdon this time is having to try and stop a potential terrorist plot despite not knowing who to trust because of partial amnesia. This being a Ron Howard film, it is competently made: the tense hosp

Tom Hanks stars in this 1985 comedy about a random guy who is used as a pawn by the CIA in the middle of some tit-for-that infighting. A remake of French spy farce  The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe starring Pierre Richard, this was yet another Hollywood attempt at adapting one of Francis Veber's most popular films. The general plot is the same as in the original except Tom Hanks' character isn't quite as clumsy or as much fun as Pierre Richard's François Perrin. There's no consistency in terms of the slapstick because Richard (Hanks) is portrayed as being just a normal guy whereas in the original, that character was very much an Inspector Clouseau-esque idiot. We know Tom Hanks can do slapstick really well from the likes of The Burbs or The Money Pit so it must have been a conscious decision to dumb down that character, which simply doesn't work since that's replaced with no real personality traits. The plot is also told with little style or en

Some time before the Beethoven movies took the whole slobbering dog movie concept to mindless levels while, at the same time, making an immortal musical icon synonymous with drool, we got both K-9 and Turner & Hooch  the same year. Produced by Disney, the 1989 film starred Tom Hanks as a neat police investigator stuck with taking care of rambunctious dog Hooch after its owner is suddenly murdered. Turner (Hanks) sets off on a search for the culprits but, first, he has to turn his life upside-down looking after his new slobbering pet. Of course, this leads to several scenes in which the dog destroys every inch of Turner's house much to the cop's horror. Hanks is reliably good as Turner and he elevates a role that, in lesser hands, could have easily fallen flat. Hooch (real name Beasley) is every bit as destructive and messy as you'd expect but the titular characters still bond and the movie makes that relationship convincing. In fact, we spend probably a bit too mu

Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah star in this 80's comedy re-imagining of the Little Mermaid fairy-tale which did what Disney is currently trying to do with its live-action adaptations of every animated film they've ever done but without any big special effects. And all before Disney's The   Little Mermaid was even released. Really, on paper Splash should have been awful but in the safe hands of director Ron Howard and with a first class cast which also included John Candy and Eugene Levy, it was a big hit and was even nominated for an Academy Award back in 1984. By handling the movie like a grown-up (and literal) fish-out-of-water story with some romance and jokes thrown in, Howard manages to make Splash more of a modern fairy-tale adults can enjoy rather than corny, kids-only fare. The very good, very funny script keeps a perfect balance between comedy and fantasy and the cast is simply flawless from Hanks' lonely romantic to Daryl Hannah's wide-eyed, innocent

Steven Spielberg directs this new Cold War-set thriller which sees a lawyer (played by Tom Hanks) being tasked with defending a caught suspected Soviet spy. After War Horse and Lincoln , it feels like a long while since Spielberg had a little fun, the last time probably being The Adventures Of Tintin , a film which, at this rate, should be getting its planned sequel some time in the next two or three decades. That said, even in serious mode, Spielberg somehow manages to knock it out of the park and Bridge Of Spies is no exception. Painter and suspected spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is caught by the FBI and is soon put on trial but when an opportunity presents itself to possibly exchange the prisoner for one of America's own, lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks) has to make a decision whether to leave his family and oversee the whole process himself thereby hopefully redeeming himself popularity-wise or wash his hands of the whole business. Donovan is sent to East Germany where

Tom Hanks and Shelley Long star in The Money Pit , a Steven Spielberg-produced comedy from 1986. The film sees a couple get a good deal on a house before realising it's literally falling apart. Much like their relationship, the house is slowly but surely collapsing but it's also being renovated and while this metaphor isn't too subtle it completely works here. The plot may not sound all that appealing but the film itself is a lot of fun as the ridiculously precarious house leads to some genuinely funny slapstick moments. Highlights include a long stretch during which Hanks is literally stuck in-between floors, the hilarious sudden breakdown of what seemed like a perfectly usable kitchen, some paint-induced catastrophe on scaffolding and Hanks' priceless reaction to a bathtub bursting through down to another floor. The Money Pit does feel like an old-fashioned screwball comedy crossed with wacky antics the likes of Charlie Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy would have

Because making a straight-up Robinson Crusoe movie would have been too easy, director Robert Zemeckis went for Cast Away instead: a modern-day retelling of the familiar tale of a man stuck on a desert island. With only the love of FedEx to keep him warm at night. Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is the put-upon castaway whose FedEx plane crashes in the sea in one of the film's best, most effective sequences. We then follow him as he slowly but surely comes to terms with his new life alone on the deserted island he randomly found himself on. With only coconuts and the odd (raw) fish to eat, he struggles at first but eventually starts to learn some key survival skills which end up saving his life in the four years he ends up spending on the island. That and the company of a personalised volleyball he calls Wilson, one of the film's biggest characters and most genius product placement ideas. Hanks' very own physical transformation during the making of the film certainly add

In this 61st episode, Adam (aka The RetroCritic), fellow film buff Jamie and special guest Dale (@Silent_Consumer) discuss movie news, review Fantastic Four   and talk retro stuff. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE 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  and  Player FM  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic @Silent_Consumer #TheBigRewind retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula youtube.com/SilentConsumer

There's biopics and then there's sort-of-biopics which don't exactly go through a person's entire life's work but which instead focus on one specific, iconic event. Think Capote , Hitchcock or, more recently, Saving Mr. Banks : a look at how Walt Disney obtained the rights to Mary Poppins from the story's writer P. L. Travers. This one isn't even really a making-of movie as we see none of the filming for Mary Poppins or (wisely) meet any weird Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke lookalikes. Saving Mr. Banks limits itself to a few recording sessions with Travers (Emma Thompson) and The Sherman Brothers, who came up with all of the film's catchy songs, intercut with flashbacks depicting some of the writer's early life and conversations she had with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) as well as Paul Giamatti's chatty driver. Finding out why Travers resisted Disney's offers to buy the movie rights to Poppins for so long and why Disney was this insistent

Based on true events, Catch Me If You Can would have made a compelling film regardless of who directed it. A compelling documentary, even. But with Steven Spielberg behind the camera, the film was a sure-fire hit and was a thrilling, fast-paced rollercoaster ride of creative conmanism. Set in the 1960's, the film follows teenager Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo Di Caprio) who learns that not only is his father (Christopher Walken) ruined but his parents are getting a divorce. Looking to find a way to fix that somehow, financially at least, Frank sets out to assume various identities and con banks with the help of fake cheques. He becomes co-pilot for an airline, a doctor and a lawyer among other things. Along the way, he is pursued by Tom Hanks' FBI agent Carl Hanratty whom he manages to trick over and over, always leaving him one step behind. It's a relentless cat and mouse game right up until the movie's final shot and although the film takes time-outs here and the

Having not seen a Tom Hanks film that wasn't a Toy Story sequel since Angels & Demons (yes, I missed Cloud Atlas , I know), I went into Captain Phillips  (the movie, that is...) looking forward to see the actor back in action. Besides, the solid trailer promised a tense sea-set thriller. Based on a true story, the film follows Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) as he is tasked with taking a cargo ship through the Persian Gulf. Unfortunately, Somali pirates show up with the intent of hijacking the ship. After several attempts at keeping them from entering the ship and taking hostages, they do finally come aboard and Muse (Barkhad Abdi), the leader, uses Phillips to try and find the rest of the crew. That doesn't go quite according to plan so the pirates end up taking Phillips hostage on a lifeboat instead. After a low-key opening in which we see Phillips and his wife (played by Catherine Keener) wake up early in the morning and drive to the airport, we are shown how t