TheRetroCritic

Nicolas Cage is many things: amazing, awful, hilarious, dull, entertaining, unique, talented, fascinating and, most importantly, completely out of his freakin' mind. He also has some weird obsession with fire. Somehow, a huge chunk of his films seem to have "fire" as a main motif, especially where the posters are concerned. Whether fire is actually an important part of the film depicted or not, you can be sure that there'll be some spark here or there regardless. Which is why I thought I'd list some of my favourite fire-related Nicolas Cage posters because it's frankly odd that this is a thing AND most of these posters are so bad, so ridiculous, they're in fact beautiful, awesome and perfect in every way. Let's do this. 15 BANGKOK DANGEROUS Who knows what the hell's going on in this poster?! Cage's oversized left arm is clearly dislocated and he looks more like he's scratching the back of his right shoulder than he looks

In this 42nd episode, Adam (aka The RetroCritic) and fellow film buff Jamie discuss movie news, review Luc Besson's Lucy 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  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #TheBigRewind retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

Gothamized  is a completely unofficial guide to new series  Gotham  and a debate arena for all things Batman. CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE In this fifth episode, we discuss Professor Pyg, squirrels, Netflix, mushrooms and we end with a riddle. Hope you enjoy it! You can also find us on podcast  The Big Rewind  (available on iTunes) and send us emails with your Bat-questions, Six Degrees challenges and riddles here:  gothamized@gmail.com (for the pilot episode  CLICK HERE )

To keep Liam Neeson fans satisfied in-between Taken movies, Unknown was made and claimed to be in the same vein boasting action-packed trailers displaying another European setting and shady bad guys wearing leather jackets. The film itself does sort of develop into something resembling a Taken movie but, for the most part, this is a different genre altogether. Unknown goes for more of a Hitchcockian mystery like, say, The Man Who Knew Too Much but with a modern edge, of course. Neeson plays a man who arrives in Berlin for an event but, on the way to recovering his briefcase from the airport, soon has a car accident. When he wakes up and leaves the hospital, he finds that no-one, not even his wife recognises him and that another man has taken over his identity. The whole film is spent following Neeson's character as he tries to figure out exactly what the hell is going on, who is messing with him or whether he's somehow lost his mind. It's a fun intrigue to try and

2001 was a weird year. Tim Burton was ruling the Planet Of The Apes , Billy Bob Thornton was married to Angelina Jolie and A Beautiful Mind was considered a good movie. Also, a little Bruce Willis film was quietly nominated for a couple of Golden Globes. That film was Bandits . Directed by respected veteran filmmaker Barry Levinson ( Rainman , Good Morning Vietnam ), the film is a screwball heist comedy about a couple of mismatched bank-robbing pals nicknamed "The Sleepover Bandits" who meet an aimless, eccentric gal and together they all continue stealing dough while dealing with a pesky love triangle. I know, that's not much of a plot and, believe me, I'm making it sound better than it is. That said, Bandits' concept was a promising one: a Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid for the modern age but far more light-hearted and upbeat. The cast was/is solid and the trailer looked like fun. Then the movie starts playing and, essentially, it's nothin

Nicolas Cage faces off against John Cusack in The Frozen Ground , a dark Alaska-set thriller in the vein of Insomnia in which a cop tries desperately to arrest a serial killer but struggles due to the people around him being unhelpful douchebags. The main focus of the story (which is based on real events) is Vanessa Hudgens' prostitute Cindy who manages to escape Robert Hansen (a chilling John Cusack), claiming he kidnapped her, raped her and tried to kill her. Though she is being truthful, the police refuse to buy her story because of her background, which leaves Nicolas Cage's good cop in a tricky position seeing as he believes her, literally all the evidence points to the same suspect and there's a loose psychopathic killer lurking around, ready to strike again at any moment. This is one of those tense, serious movies that relies heavily on atmosphere and strong performances rather than action and artifice so if you're looking for balls-to-the-wall gun fights,

Along with Shaolin Soccer , cartoonish martial arts movie homage Kung Fu Hustle introduced western audiences to Stephen Chow's films and his uniquely wacky style of humour, leaving people in Europe and the US wondering if all Chinese comedies were THIS insane when, really, this movie was pretty out there even by Chow's standards. Man was it fun, though. The film sees the shady and very dangerous Axe Gang threaten a small village. As it turns out, kung-fu masters secretly live in the village so, when this is revealed, the gang is forced to find new ways to take the place and its inhabitants down. The whole thing escalates and the fate of the village soon rests on whoever "the chosen one" is. As ever, Chow mixes silly, often pretty gross characters with cartoony action sequences and brutal moments. To give you an idea, the film opens with the Axe Gang slicing off someone's leg and shooting some woman in the back with a shotgun. Much like in Chow's Journe

The best Michel Gondry films are tough acts to follow, which is why for every brilliant Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind there's a lukewarm Be Kind Rewind . Luckily, even at his worst, Gondry's work is creative and inventive enough to keep you intrigued throughout. Sadly, his new effort Mood Indigo (aka L'Écume Des Jours) is yet another not bad but not great flick with tons and tons of charm and mind-bending DIY effects but unfortunately nowhere near the level of intricate dark, surreal wit you'd find in a Charlie Kaufman script. The French film, based on a novel by Boris Vian, sees Romain Duris fall in love with Audrey Tautou's character and get married before she becomes sick and their relationship slowly but surely starts crumbling. The cast also includes Omar Sy as Duris' verbose friend/butler, Gad Elmaleh as his troubled pal and Gondry himself as Tautou's doctor. Also look out for a fun cameo appearance by Alain Chabat as a TV cook. From t