TheRetroCritic

Released in 1983, A Christmas Story follows young boy Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) as he deals with school and his family during the holiday season, secretly hoping he'll receive a specific air rifle gun for Christmas. Since the late 90's, this movie's popularity has increased quite a bit making it something of a cult classic. Through narration, an older Ralphie recounts the events of a particular Christmas during his childhood. This includes clashing with bullies, sucking up to teachers and playing with friends at school, trying to influence his family to buy him the controversial BB gun and meeting an intimidating mall Santa. In a memorable (if a tad bizarre) subplot, Ralphie's father, played with vaudevillian flair by Darren McGavin, wins an ugly leg-shaped lamp in a contest and insists on displaying it proudly in the house, much to his wife's (Melinda Dillon) chagrin. The film's title is a little misleading in that, while Christmas is an important part

Robin Williams stars in this surreal comedy from 1992 directed by Barry Levinson in which a toy factory is handed over to a sadistic army General who uses its resources to create war toys. A box-office flop, Toys famously did not exactly wow critics and audiences alike even if it did receive some praise for its creative visuals. Indeed, the René Magritte-inspired art direction and costumes earned the film some Oscar nominations but little else about it managed to charm anyone. The main complaint being that, while Toys is rich in fancy sets, it is weak in terms of story and character and with a running time of over two hours that's a legitimate concern. On paper, this is a simple, straight-forward story and yet in Levinson's hands it's borderline incomprehensible. Every scene aims to entertain by showing you increasingly whimsical stuff but it all falls flat due to a lifeless, unfunny script and some criminally underwritten characters. Tonally, the film is also off as

After the first season of Comic Book Men opened the doors of the Secret Stash comic-book store to television for all to see, AMC soon went ahead with a second season with Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Mike Zapcic, Ming Chen and Bryan Johnson all returning. This time, the show would be spread out over 16 episodes instead of just 6, each of them half the length of what they were in the last season. And although this meant a more rushed pace and less time with the Stash gang, Season 2 did well to manage this new format by not over-crowding and overloading the episodes. In terms of guest appearances, there are thankfully not too many with Jason Mewes popping up in a couple of episodes and the season ending with Walt meeting some veteran Jersey Devils hockey players. The highlight guests-wise has to be Stan Lee who shows up at the Stash for a photo-shoot and answers some of the cast's geekiest questions. It's a fun tribute to Lee and comic-book fans should really enjoy the few t

Dumbest video ever... and I made it! :D  Beware: SPOILERS and extreme silliness.