TheRetroCritic

Back when E.T. was all the rage and a few copycat movies quickly followed from *batteries not included to Mac And Me , Flight Of The Navigator came out and it was obviously seen as not much more than yet another E.T. rip-off. Luckily, the film was also all kinds of great and arguably even better than Spielberg's movie in some ways. The film opens with a montage showing dogs catching, or rather attempting to catch, frisbees in what is both a completely irrelevant and completely wonderful opening title sequence. Initially set in the 70's, the plot sees a kid, David (Joey Cramer), wander into the woods at night only to slip and fall before waking up 8 years later in the same spot. Meanwhile, NASA come face to face with a silver, very light walnut-shaped UFO and try to keep the discovery under wraps. That is, until David's mysterious disappearance turns out to be related to that UFO somehow by which point NASA promptly "invites" the boy over for a couple of d

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 10th episode, we discuss the sixth episode of  Gotham , goats, Halloween costumes, Dolly Parton and chickens. (for my written review of the Gotham Pilot,  click here! ) 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 )

In this 44th episode, Adam (aka The RetroCritic) and fellow film buff Jamie discuss movie news, review Dracula Untold  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

Good news, everyone! Mel Gibson is no longer the scariest thing to come out of Australia! This Halloween, the likes of Ouija and Annabelle may have competed for the box-office top spot but it's likely to be off-beat Australian entry The Babadook  we'll remember long after as it's very likely to become a cult hit and inevitably should spawn several sequels. Also, its silly title is pretty unforgettable not to mention a lot of fun to say out loud. The movie sees a super stressed-out and frankly worn-out mother (played by Essie Davis) attempt to take care of her hyper, trouble-making young son several years after her husband died in a car accident. Her misery does nothing but increase like crazy throughout the movie as her so-called friends fail to support her emotionally, shunning her and her son, the boy's school comes down on him unfairly and insensitively, plus there's the small matter of a creepy children's book called The Babadook which freaks th

Some Halloween movies are just perfect. Perhaps not perfect as movies but perfect movies for that season and Hocus Pocus is definitely one of those. The film sees Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimi play the Sanderson Sisters, a trio of witches from Salem who thrive on stealing the lifeforce from children. One day, they are hung after essentially murdering a child and turning some kid into a cat (talk about a busy day) but a curse on the town prophesizes their deadly return. Cut to 300 years later and some idiot kid gets the bright idea to light the black fire candle which brings the witches back to present day (well, 1993) Salem. The latter have one night to recover their beloved spell book and feed some potion to whatever virgin they can get their hands on otherwise they're gone for good so the race is on. Cue quite a few Dark Shadows -style temporal fish-out-of-water jokes, a lot of Halloween-related shenanigans and the usual clichés that come with most

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 ninth episode, we discuss the fourth and fifth episode of  Gotham , Batman Forever , girl Robin, Viper juice and Christopher Lambert's laugh. (for my written review of the Gotham Pilot,  click here! ) 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 )

This week, I taste the milkiest of all milks. Peanut milk.

Upon hearing that we'd be getting a new Dracula movie this Halloween and that it would star the usually reliable Luke Evans in the title role, I was definitely looking forward to it. It had been a while since the last Dracula movie and an epic period piece sounded like a good idea. Then the trailer happened. Then the movie happened. And then I started missing Dracula 2000 . As it turns out, this Dracula story was "untold" for a reason: it's mostly rubbish. The film is kind of a prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula in that you see a fuller version of how Vlad The Impaler became a vampire but, of course, minus the style and poetic approach of Francis Ford Coppola's film (or Bram Stoker's novel for that matter). What we're left with is a by-numbers epic movie with some unlikely vampire theme thrown in. Dracula Untold , much like Man Of Steel , is a reboot for the sake of being a reboot: it serves a functional purpose, nothing more. Essentially, a

Megan Fox sucks. Now the elephant in the room's finally out of the way and I've clarified that for ya right off the bat: let's take a look at the new Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or, as it is also called, Ninja Turtles . This looked set to be a disaster from the get-go with Bay attached, the casting of Fox and major changes to the Turtles' story all announced at the same time. Then came the very dumb trailer which didn't look all that amazing and actually turned off a lot of people who thought the turtles looked too freaky. Because we all know what a teenage mutant ninja LIVE ACTION turtle should look like, don't we? And what we're all picturing right now isn't weird at all, right? Come on, mutated turtles that can talk, fight and eat pizza were always going to look bizarre not in a cartoon or a comic book. The biggest surprise the film had to offer wasn't the new "roided-out" look of its titular characters

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 eighth episode, we discuss the third episode of  Gotham , eggs, The Balloonman, Sean Penn, Pyg Balloons, The Flash and we end with a riddle. (for my written review of the Gotham Pilot,  click here! ) 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 )