Retro Movie Review 119 results

Retro Movie Review – Hot Tub Time Machine

The story is a throw away and mostly just provides a vehicle to revisit a period when fluro colours, leg warmers and big hair ruled the day. You can see the jokes coming from a mile away but most of the time you still can’t help yourself and laugh anyway.   //   The quality is elevated slightly by a cast with some actually acting ability and it’s to the film’s credit that the main players stay in character and don’t become superheroes but remain basically smucks ...

Retro Movie Review – Senna

His career also ran parallel to the dawn of the new media age pertaining to live sport, so his life was very well documented visually, so well in fact that the film is built entirely from actual footage from his career, while a large part of the film’s dialogue comes from Senna himself. It’s a masterful job of blending archival footage, spoken snippets from Ayrton himself and comments from some media experts that knew him well. There is also family footage that nicely places the ...

Retro Movie Review – Life Of Pi

The film is based on the book of the same name by Yann Martel and was considered by many to be unable to be transformed into the film medium; Ang Lee has proven them to be wrong. The film comfortably transitions from live action story telling to an imaginary CGI universe that is so bold and beautiful you often wish the film resided only in that world.   //   The story revolves around the life of Pi Patel (played as a youth by Gautam Belur, Ayush Tandon and Suraj Sharma ...

Retro Movie Review – Moonrise Kingdom

There are a number of technical things that make up this wonderful landscape, not the least of which is Anderson’s ability to elicit a style of performance from his actors that rounds the rough edges off. There is still human emotion, even sorry, it’s just filtered through a prism that reflects more than just human angst.   //   In his latest film, Wes has assembled a few of his usual suspects like Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman but has added a number of new ...

Retro Movie Review – Jackie

She married into one of America’s most infamous and wealthy political families at only 24 years old and seemed to dissolve herself into their clan. Her husband John F. Kennedy was a man used to getting his own way and the outward appearance was that she capitulated to most of his whims. There was a strength there however that she possessed that wasn’t always apparent in the sexist media coverage of the times.   //   That her life blossomed in the years after the ...

Retro Movie Review – Moon

Moon is the first major film by the son of David Bowie, Duncan Jones (born Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones) and it ticks a lot of the boxes. It’s got a great concept, great acting by Sam Rockwell, looks suitably grotty to be actually located on the moon and most of all, features good science.   //   The story revolves around a lone individual, Sam Bell (Rockwell) who is nearing the end of a three-year stint as the sole proprietor of a mining establishment on the Earth’s ...

Retro Movie Review – Kingsman: The Golden Circle

It’s an odd universe that super spy and everyday pom Eggsy (Taron Egerton) had returned to. He’s made good as a Kingsman and has a successful relationship with Princess Tilde (Hanna Alström) even though it’s against company policy. His world is turned upside down when super baddie Poppy (Julianne Moore) reeks havoc on the secret affiliation.   //   All of the over the top tendencies are not only keep intact from the first film but with a bigger budget and more ...

Retro Movie Review – The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Jackson as the hitman tries his best to drop more F bombs than any of his other films and Reynolds delivers a Deadpool lite performance that shows how well he has a handle on comic timing. Salma Hayek, who has little screen time but nonetheless gives Jackson a run for his money in the profane stakes, plays the incarcerated wife of the hitman.   //   The story simplified to its core element is just a soon to be buddies road movie and almost all the characters are comic ...

Retro Movie Review – Jackass 3D

Just in time for the holidays, another round of my favourite form of regression therapy, the Jackass franchise and this time in the now almost obligatory 3D (for sequels at any rate). Now matter how much one simulates the facade of maturity, expose them to juvenile pranks such as this and the boy who laughs at the basest of humour comes out. It almost becomes secondary weather the material warrants it or not, it’s just plain fun to be this kind of kid again. As for the now included 3D ...

Retro Movie Review – Knight and Day

The comic elements of this film provide the viewer with the most entertainment and Cruise is at his best when he tones down his more strident nature on-screen. Cameron Diaz provides just the right amount of wide-eyed innocence to sell her side of the story and together they actually have a fair amount of chemistry.   //   The story, as is the case in most films of this type (a tale of spies and double crosses) is almost completely preposterous and that really just adds ...