TheRetroCritic

In this fifth episode, fellow film buff Jamie and I discuss movie news, review a recent release ( After Earth this time) and rewind back to more retro cinematic topics. Do you know the answer to The Big Game ? What song is being sung during the "I Shat Myself" segment? Send your answers here: bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com The winner will get a mention in The Big Shout Outs at the end of the next episode. @TheRetroCritic retrocriticblog.blogspot.com youtube.com/Cablogula youtube.com/TheRetroCritic

When thinking about alien movies in the 80's, what comes to mind? Besides Alien . Spielberg, right? E.T. , Close Encounters Of The Third Kind etc. For me, though, a close second is Mr John Carpenter, who quietly brought us two of the best alien movies to date around about the same time: one was The Thing , the other was Starman . Thinking about it now, the idea of Jeff Bridges as a child-like alien is pretty hilarious. And, indeed, there are silly/cheesy things about Starman, no doubt about it. And yet, it works better as a sci-fi film than either E.T. or Close Encounters...weird, huh? It is a shame that John Carpenter's sci-fi romance is often overlooked, I remember as a kid everything was all about E.T.: I didn't even like E.T.! That whole bit where he turns white and starts dying for half an hour: freaked the hell out of me! Gave me nightmares! Starman however I would just sit and watch no problem: it was funny, sweet, sad, entertaining...I just loved it. Still do!