TheRetroCritic

From director Alexander Payne comes Downsizing , a science-fiction comedy starring Matt Damon as a man who undergoes a shrinking procedure so he can live in a small-scale utopia where he would be wealthy and lead a worry-free life. The trailers for Downsizing promised a social satire full of the dry wit we've come to expect from Payne's films. This was sure to be a mostly upbeat and clever character study hinting at deeper themes through a "big" sci-fi concept with some inventive visuals and fun deadpan performances peppered throughout. After a brief and well-executed introduction showing the birth of the revolutionary "downsizing technology", we meet Paul Safranek (Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) who, many years later, start to consider moving to Leisureland, a seemingly perfect mini-world where your money is worth five times more. The only catch: you will need to shrink yourself to live in that world and the procedure is irreversible. The fi

Seth Rogen's first jump into animated waters last year was met with mixed reactions, to say the least. Sausage Party 's early trailers looked like a fun and clever R-rated romp but the more critics and audiences learned about the film, the more their excitement for it decreased. Close to the film's release, some controversy surrounding the animators being overworked and underpaid surfaced. The bad press continued but even if some critics were lukewarm towards to the film, it was still a significant box-office hit with audiences flocking to see it. The good thing about Sausage Party's success is it presented studios with another convincing pro R-rated blockbusters argument soon after Deadpool which should guarantee that we'll see less and less neutered content in theatres. The film is proudly raunchy with the whole plot being centered around a hot dog wanting to slip inside a bun, every single character swearing non-stop and an end orgy that makes the puppet se

I talk about the much talked-about new Ghostbusters movie.

As the internet finally recovers from all the silliness that surrounded the release of this Ghostbusters remake, we can now actually watch the film and talk about it like sober adults. I should point out that the real problems skeptics had with this movie was not the cast but the idea of another by-numbers remake nowhere near as good as the original films in the vein of Total Recall or RoboCop . And with the mostly unappealing trailers we got prior to the new movie's release, this was frankly a fair concern. Luckily, the film itself is far better than the awful marketing for it suggested but, on the other hand, it's still an inferior by-numbers remake that's not as good as the originals, which is why most reviews for it are so up and down. The cast, I can confirm, is likeable and does a decent job throughout. Melissa McCarthy is not the one-joke Chris Farley wannabe she tends to be in a lot of other movies instead taking on the Ray role with a slightly squeakier voi

When the sequel to Ben Stiller's 2001 comedy Zoolander was announced, everyone was pretty much unanimously game: not too much time has gone by so the original cast looks basically the same and there is plenty about current day pop culture to send up. Speaking of which, Zoolander No. 2 opens with a chase through the streets of Rome straight out of a spy movie as some bikers hunt down and kill Justin Bieber who sends out his last Instagram selfie as he dies. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the film which is not only more action oriented but also packed to the brim with cameo appearances. Penelope Cruz is a new addition to the cast, she plays a member the Fashion Police who is investigating the recent run of celebrity assassinations. Zoolander's (Ben Stiller) "Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Who Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too", it turns out, barely made it a day before crumbling to the ground, killing his wife and disfiguring (that'

With The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty , it was looking like Ben Stiller finally wanted to get recognised as the talented director he genuinely is, giving a more serious, restrained performance in the process. The trailers for the film promised a deadpan sense of humour, thrilling visuals and a positive message. The plot of the film sees Walter (Stiller) working as the negative assets manager of Life Magazine, which is shockingly still around, apparently. The magazine is taken over by a bunch of patronising dorks who are planning to lay off everybody and redirect everything online but Walter has misplaced the cover photograph provided by Sean Penn's photographer so it's up to him to go out and find the adventurous fellow in order to somehow recover the lost picture. Oh, and there's also a subplot in which Walter likes his co-worker Cheryl (played by Kristen Wiig) and sends her a "wink" on an internet dating site before a guy working at eHarmony keeps calling hi