TheRetroCritic

Few films have captured the hearts and minds of audiences quite as much as Tommy Wiseau's The Room . To some it's the worst movie ever made, to others it's one of the best but the reasons for both points of view are basically the same. With James Franco's The Disaster Artist  (based on Greg Sestero's book) currently in theatres with its slight peek behind the scenes of what is often seen as one of the best worst movies ever made, it's worth going back and revisiting the real deal. Since its modest release back in 2003, The Room has gained a cult following and is currently playing in many cinemas all over the US, the UK and beyond as fans arm themselves with plastic spoons and quote every line enthusiastically, having a good time throughout celebrating the film, making an event of it. While there are some comedic elements to the film, it isn't exactly the black comedy Wiseau has described it as so don't expect an intentional laugh riot. In fact, like

The Cagiest moments from the movie Trapped In Paradise .

Every so often an indie movie comes along to confuse your typically blockbuster-filled theatres and give you a bizarre yet refreshing alternative. Brigsby Bear certainly fit the bill with its unusual posters and trailers suggesting this would probably be this year's Gentlemen Broncos . The film follows a family living in some kind of bunker home, a couple played by Mark Hamill and Jane Adams with their son James, played by an excellent Kyle Mooney, who is obsessed with an educational sci-fi kids' show called Brigsby Bear. He owns every VHS tape of it, chats to others about Brigsby on forums and even records his own review show on his computer. One day, while sitting outside the bunker wearing a gas mask, a bunch of police cars show up and he finds out that none of his life was real including his parents and his beloved TV show. Turns out his "parents" were in fact kidnappers who kept him locked up underground and made a show just for him. James is therefore fina

I talk a bit about Netflix's new anime series Neo Yokio .

Even in a film like Guarding Tess , The Cage can't help himself...

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

M. Night Shyamalan had something of a mini-comeback with The Visit , a found-footage horror movie from 2015 about two kids going to live with their grandparents, whom they've never met, for a week. Audiences and critics didn't pan this one quite as much as the director's last few movies and it did well at the box-office so it was considered a success. The premise for The Visit sounded pretty silly and the trailers underlined that quite a bit as it showed two old people acting strangely and two kids being terrified of them for no real reason. The film itself, it turns out, mixes comedy and horror convincingly and is refreshingly self-aware. This was something The Happening attempted years prior but the whole thing ended up being unintentionally funny and the "scary" parts came off as goofy throughout, despite the sinister premise. The two kids who supposedly film the events in this movie, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), are decent actors

Ever since The Happening , every new M. Night Shyamalan movie has been met with cynicism. His last film The Visit was surprisingly well received, however, and so was  Split , a horror thriller starring James McAvoy as a man with 23 split personalities who kidnaps three teenagers. The serial killer premise sets the tone for the rest of the film, which is easily one of Shyamalan's creepiest efforts. We follow Kevin (McAvoy) as he incarcerates three innocent girls while still attending his psychiatrist's sessions. Meanwhile, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the other two teens try to figure out what's going on and look for a way to escape. Some of Kevin's personalities include a 9 year-old kid called Hedwig, the super intimidating Dennis and female mastermind Patricia. Your enjoyment of this film will depend completely on how you rate James McAvoy's performance which is both excellent but also wacky as hell. A lesser actor could have easily rendered Split either unwatc

Back in 1985, Terry Gilliam directed Brazil , a science-fiction comedy like no other about a dystopian future in which the world is run by totalitarian bureaucracy. It wasn't a big hit in the US but it did well everywhere else and over time it has become something of a cult classic. The film follows Jonathan Pryce's Sam Lowry, a meek government employee whose dreary life is turned upside down when he literally meets the woman of his dreams. The world depicted in Brazil is a gloomy, depressing one with its backwards technology, its inhuman laws, its crushingly industrial metropolis and yet Gilliam manages to find the humour in that setting by emphasising just how ridiculous this society has become with countless larger-than-life characters and awkward tech. The result is kind of a cross between 1984 , Blade Runner and Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life . The dreams Lowry has, in which he's flying, saving a damsel in distress from monsters, look beautiful and work a

There's something kinda perfect about the fact that Andy Kaufman's only proper movie remains Heartbeeps , an off-beat romantic comedy about two robots who fall in love and leave their factory to go on a life-changing adventure. Much like with most of Kaufman's comedy, critics and audiences back in the day just didn't get this movie and it was quickly dismissed as a bomb and a failure. Watching the film now, it's obvious why Heartbeeps didn't exactly wow the public: initially aimed at a young audience, the humour is at times much too weird or adult-themed and both Kaufman and Bernadette Peters look positively freakish. There's a cute baby robot thrown in there but, otherwise, this is one that only fans of the lead's unique sense of humour could possibly enjoy. Anyone else should find themselves scratching their heads, wondering why this movie even exists. Not that Heartbeeps isn't funny, quite the opposite, it's just that the jokes are so biz

Some films are just strange. Not bad, not good: just strange. This is not one of those films. This is bad, really bad AND incredibly strange. This is a kind of bad film subgenre which is always surprising, films which are essentially awful but which have the ability to confuse, gross-out or surprise the viewers nonetheless. The film opens on two identical twins (man and woman) in like the 17th century having sex...with each other. Pretty soon you notice the male twin is played by the same actress as the female twin, but with a moustache. It's at that point that an obligatory frown forms on your brow and you know you're in for something special. But then things get incredibly dull. A whited-up Roy Dupuis is on a boat wearing sunglasses, he has a nosebleed, he is taken in by a group of all-women grave diggers and some alcoholic doctor (Rutger Hauer). Turns out he's looking for the rest of his family (descendants of the sex-twins) etc... Yeah, the plot's absurd. So