TheRetroCritic

I talk about my favourite (and not-so favourite) Pixar movies.

Pixar's latest has all the makings of a brilliant, picturesque, fantasy epic: stunning visuals, heart, mystery, bears. What more do you need? I'll get to that... This is certainly a departure for Pixar, the studio this time going for a very Disney princess-goes-rogue tale instead of the usual off-beat approach. If anything, Brave is more like a darker, less bright-and-cuddly version of Tangled than a unique creation on a par with Wall-E or Up . Princess Merida is the heroic, red-haired lass and her story basically involves not wanting to be forced into marriage, running away, meeting up with a witch, turning her mother into a bear and trying to fix that very spell. She is understandably pretty whiny and only seems to be happy when riding a horse, shooting arrows randomly and being a bit of a spoilt brat. Her dad's pretty awesome, not just because he's Billy Connolly, but also because he's actually a fun, friendly guy. Unfortunately he is also a bit of a wi

For a film about downsizing, Up In The Air really doesn't have much to say on the matter except, well, that it's a painful experience. But that's hardly an innovative notion. As a character study though, Up In The Air is pretty good with George Clooney's Ryan not exactly the kind of guy you expect to end up liking but you do anyway. It's light, breezy, funny, stylish and pretty entertaining.  The Oscar buzz feels undeserved though, as good as Clooney is, his performance doesn't exactly leap off the screen and as fun as the film is, it doesn't have much to say besides the old Disney message that families are "good". Unlike Reitman's  Thank You For Smoking  which was far more convincing as a similar type of study. Overall, see it, just don't expect  Lost in Translation .  

  Steve Oedekerk stars in this glorious cinematic rant and complains about all the little things which make up his life's DNA. A young Jim Carrey cameos as a rubberfaced weirdo who pesters him about "8 o'clock". What does it mean? What does he want? Well it's well worth sitting through the rants to find out. Like a sort of more intense Seinfeld film, High Strung is as pure as a stand-up comedy movie could ever get so if you don't like stand-up or Oedekerk's wacky style, it's very simple, you'll hate this film. If, however, you were charmed by the likes of Kung Pow , Bat Thumb and Ace Ventura 2 , you'll be in heaven. Very funny, very random, clever and surprisingly entertaining (mostly due to Oedekerk and the cartoonish camera work), High Strung is an underrated little gem and a must-see for fans of the goofy duo.