TheRetroCritic

I finally talk about Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . Had to happen.

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 14th episode, we discuss the tenth episode of  Gotham , Alfred, Will Smith, Viola Davis and Danny Elfman. (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 )

Not content with painting his face green in The Mask and wearing nothing but green as The Riddler in Batman Forever , Jim Carrey decided to cover himself in green fur for Ron Howard's live-action version of Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas . This decision did pay off in that Carrey turned out to be the perfect choice to play the moody Grinch and, whether you like the movie or not, it's hard to deny the rubber-faced actor's energy makes his portrayal of the classic character a lot of fun from start to finish. Who else could have pulled off such a cartoonish role so convincingly? He even aces the old "You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch" tune in one of the movie's best and most memorable sequences. The make-up effects on Carrey as well as on all the actors playing the Whos of Who-ville are impressive and spot-on, bringing Dr Seuss' unique visual style to a live-action setting beautifully. Unfortunately, while the film boasts tons of Christma

In-between directing more arty/trendy flicks, Terry Zwigoff tried his hand at a somewhat more commercial effort with Bad Santa , a Christmas movie with a difference. The main difference being that our "bad Santa" is a shady, foul-mouthed, boozing thief who pisses his pants. Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox's Christmas tradition in this movie is posing as a mall Santa and Elf then robbing the whole place after the busiest shopping day of the year. Unfortunately, Willie (Thornton) is struggling to keep both his alcoholism and his sex addiction under control so he soon becomes a liability in grave danger of messing up the whole plan. Along the way, Willie meets Sue (Lauren Graham), a girl with a Santa fetish and they begin a relationship of sorts. He also meets a clingy overweight young boy amusingly called Thurman Merman, played by an appropriately wide-eyed Brett Kelly, who, for whatever reason, believes Willie to be the real Santa Claus. And although the kid annoys

If anyone was going to save Christmas, it had to be Ernest P. Worrell. Those of you unfamiliar with Jim Varney's somewhat cult creation may be missing out on some fun times, though Ernest Goes To Africa was pretty brutal... Yeah, I watched that. Ernest Saves Christmas , luckily, is one of the good ones. Not only because Varney once again delivers his own brand of rubber-faced, fast-talkin', cartoonish madness but also because Douglas Seale makes one loveable Santa and adds a lot of heart to an otherwise purely slapsticky farce. The film sees Santa search for a worthy successor and seeing as Ernest, who kindly drives Santa around in a cab, is all about that Christmas spirit, there's no better candidate to help Santa achieve his goal. Except maybe the elves who actually do have their own subplot in this movie, as do the reindeers, believe it or not. Actually, come to think of it, this movie has more subplots than it does have a plot as Noelle Parker becomes Ernest&#

If there was one comedy I was not expecting to ever get a sequel, it was  Horrible Bosses . Armed with a fun, clever concept and a strong cast, the film still somehow managed to be very uneven and instantly forgettable. So now we have Horrible Bosses 2 and our moronic trio are back with yet another unlikely plan involving, albeit rather indirectly, some horrible bosses. The plot sees Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day try to sell a new product of their conception called "The Shower Buddy" to a big company run by an intimidating Christoph Waltz and his spoilt, twisted son, an almost show-stealing Chris Pine. Of course, the gang are soon tricked into being ruined and selling their product for cheap to Waltz and they are soon plotting their revenge. Murder isn't so much on their mind this time as they turn their intention towards kidnapping. Or "kidnaping", rather. What follows is a series of nifty twists and turns as Pine gets involved in thei

Dustin Hoffman takes on the role of iconic 60's stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce in Lenny , director Bob Fosse's first post- Cabaret film. The movie, which is presented to us in gorgeous black and white, follows Bruce's relationship with stripper Honey (Valerie Perrine) as they get married and eventually share some tumultuous times together. We also, of course, see how Bruce's career as a comedian developed over the years and get a good glimpse of the sleazy side of his character and comedy clubs. Though the film is about Lenny Bruce, one of the most important comedians to date, I wouldn't expect too many laughs with this movie as it's far darker and moodier than you'd expect. There's a fascinating contrast throughout the movie between the cornier aspects of Bruce's early style of comedy and the raw and gritty 70's style of the film itself. Fosse certainly doesn't sugar-coat anything and even includes some documentary-style Q&A's w

Another year, another Hunger Games movie. Well, part of one, anyway. The popular pseudo- Battle Royale franchise is back as the actual "games" finally take a backseat to an actual plot and Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers a hidden world outside the big city and her own district. To put it in retro movie terms: this is basically the Beneath The Planet Of The Apes of the series, except not awesome. After breaking out of the arena, Katniss finally wakes up in some kind of underground bunker/shelter occupied by a rebel army led by yet another silly-named character: President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). She is kept up to date by Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his *sob* final roles) and Jeffrey Wright's character as they try to convince Coin that Katniss is a worthy "Mockingjay", the face and spirit of the resistance. But Katniss' beloved Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is still held captive by Donald Sutherland's intim

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 13th episode, we discuss the ninth episode of  Gotham , Harvey Dent, The Suicide Squad, Baywatch Nights and Adam Sandler movies. (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 46th episode, Adam (aka The RetroCritic) and fellow film buff Jamie discuss movie news, review  Nightcrawler  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  and now Stitcher 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