TheRetroCritic

As the Justice League gets ready to finally unite in DC's latest crossover, Marvel delivers its third Thor movie: a neon-lit campy roller-coaster ride through the galaxy that sees the God of Thunder lose his beloved Mjolnir hammer and much more. The trailer for Thor: Ragnarok promised a colourful Flash Gordon -style fantasy epic with tons of over-the-top action, larger-than-life characters and a rocking soundtrack. Taking a page out of Guardians Of The Galaxy , this was set to be the inter-galactic adventure we wanted to see from Day 1. The good news is that Marvel wasn't lying and we got exactly what we expected: a ridiculously fun, action-packed comic-book sci-fi romp which should please the fans and effortlessly entertain everyone else. Chris Hemsworth has a lot of fun (perhaps too much fun?) as Thor and, even though he's much more bumbling than he probably should have been, he remains charming and likeable throughout. The plot sees Hela (Cate Blanchett), the Godde

Thor is back! Sorry, did I say Thor? I meant Flash Gordon.

Another Disney animated classic gets the live-action treatment as, surprisingly soon after Into The Woods , we get another interpretation of Cinderella . This time, the Mouse House is taking a more traditional approach by telling the story without updating it too much or adding too many surprises. Unlike last year's Maleficent which felt the need to turn one of the studio's most iconic and frightening villains into a misunderstood hero (urgh...), this Cinderella is basically a straight-up retelling. Minus the talking mice, though they do sort of talk throughout. While this means very little in the way of new elements to talk about, it's also somewhat refreshing to see a classic fairytale told without any forced irony or lame attempts at modernising a story as old as time itself. This is the Cinderella tale at its most earnest and, admittedly, this makes parts of it pretty darn corny and predictable. The opening 5 minutes where Ella's youth is so crazily happy all

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

Ever since Rushmore , Bill Murray has starred in every single Wes Anderson film to date. Sometimes fleetingly, sometimes, like in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou , in the main role. Re-watching the latter, you really do wish that the actor tackled more roles like this one these days. The film sees a Jacques Cousteau-esque oceanographer, Steve Zissou (Murray), announce at a film festival that he's planning to seek revenge from a "Jaguar Shark" whom, he claims, ate his friend Esteban. His faithful red hat-wearing team and new recruit Ned (Owen Wilson), who may or may not be Zissou's biological son, follow him on this quest which proves to be his biggest challenge yet. The Life Aquatic is Wes Anderson at his very best as an all-star cast brings his razor-sharp script (co-written by Noah Baumbach) to life and he, with the help of stop-motion maestro Henry Selick, creates a unique visual style that's both more down-to-Earth than, say, the more obviously cartoon

George Clooney's latest film, The Monuments Men , sets out to tell the little-told true story of a group of ageing American soldiers (and a French dude) whose mission it was to recover as many precious art pieces as possible from the nazis who had stolen them from all over an occupied France. The film opens by giving us some background and Clooney's lieutenant is soon off to gather his team of all-stars including Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban and Hugh Boneville... together at last! After a promising Indiana Jones-esque first few minutes involving Cate Blanchett's cartoonish French (at least I think that's what she was going for) spy, the film's tone switches to something more akin to Stripes or the MASH TV series before occasionally dipping back into serious mode. Clooney clearly wanted to even out the film by putting in a sad, emotional moment for every jokey, light-hearted scene, Disney-style, but, after watching The Monu

One more year, one more Woody Allen film. After the success of classy but light-hearted effort Midnight In Paris and the uneven but mostly enjoyable To Rome With Love , comes Allen's latest Blue Jasmine and, this time around, things are slightly different. For one thing, this isn't one of those "holiday" movies where the setting is the main character and everyone else is kind of a walking and talking accessory. Here, we have a more focused character piece that's really about the main character and what impact her selfish actions are having on the people around her. Cate Blanchett plays the titular Jasmine as we find her post-nervous breakdown having to go and live with her working class half-sister (Sally Hawkins) after her rich but dodgy ex-husband (played by Alec Baldwin) was caught pursuing fraudulent financial endeavours and her marriage crumbled. Jasmine is introduced as eccentric and self-involved, linking everything that happens to others back to her