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- 42 (2013) vs. Remember the Titans (2000)
- Admission (2013) vs. About a Boy (2002)
- Oz the Great and Powerful (2012) vs. The NeverEnding Story (1984)
- Dark Skies (2013) vs. Dark Skies (1996)
- Oscar Wrap-Up 2013
- A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) vs. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
- Oscar Smack-a-thon!
- The Tiersky Top Ten, 2012
- Smackdown Smacks Down the 2013 Oscar Nominees
- Broken City (2013) vs. City Hall (1996)
- Men of Steel (Smackdown’s Superman Smashup)
- Les Miserables (2012) vs. The Fugitive (1993)
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Category Archives: Adventure
Oz the Great and Powerful (2012) vs. The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Let’s exit Earth for a while and travel to colorful lands distant from our own. Our contestants in this Smack are a pair of big-budget fantasy epics adapted from popular books. Hailing from storm-wracked Kansas is our challenger, Oz the Great and Powerful, a reimagining of one of the most beloved family films of all time. In this new version, our focus has shifted to the title character, a two-bit carnival magician with a grand stage name. He’s transported to the vibrant land bearing his name and gets thrown into a civil war among several bickering witches.
Flying in from Germany on a giant talking dog is The NeverEnding Story, in which a lonely young boy borrows and reads a book described by its seller as “unsafe.” And we all know what happens when a little boy reads an unsafe book, right? Of course — he gets dragged into the proceedings himself, which in this case means a fight between a fantasy kingdom and a scary black void that threatens to engulf that happy society. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Tagged adapted from books, fantasy, James Franco, magic, Michelle Williams, Oz, Rachel Weisz, Sam Raimi, wizard, Wolfgang Petersen
7 Comments
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) vs. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
What’s better than an adventure movie featuring a rugged, two-fisted hero? An adventure movie featuring a father and son team of rugged, two-fisted heroes, of course. Today’s competitors are a pair of sequels, each of which brings either a progenitor or an offspring into the proceedings. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – the third Indy movie and last one before that set of films’ loooong hiatus and better-forgotten, 2008 finale – everybody’s favorite archeologist is joined by his grumpy dad Dr. Henry Jones Sr., played by Sean Connery (you did know that Indy’s real name is Henry, right?).
It’s a Russian family reunion in A Good Day to Die Hard, with the apparently immortal John McClane (Bruce Willis, if you’ve been living in a cave until now) journeying to Moscow to connect with son Jack (Jai Courtney), a visit which immediately triggers nearly two hours of Die Hardish firefights, chases and explosions. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, Crime, Thriller
Tagged Bruce Willis, CIA, cop, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, Jai Courtney, John McClane, John Moore, Moscow, Russia, Sean Connery, Sebastian Koch, Steven Spielberg, uranium
2 Comments
Life of Pi (2012) vs. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Life, as they say, is a journey, and that’s never so clear as when watching a life story unfold in the hands of a masterful film director. In Life of Pi, the voyage is both literal and symbolic, as the title character is forced to traverse the high seas under Grimms’ fairy tale-like circumstances that must be seen to be — well, if not believed, then at least experienced at a deep level. At the same time, the young, Indian lead character, a devoted spiritual seeker, undergoes an intense inner journey as well.
Slumdog Millionaire, the multi-Academy Award winning 2008 film, similarly explores a young, Indian’s life journey as he navigates the Dickensian streets of Mumbai, constantly relying on his wiles to survive, while also seeking love and, ultimately, fabulous wealth and the respect he deserves. Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Awards, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Tagged Adil Hussain, Ang Lee, Bengal tiger, best-selling novel, Danny Boyle, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, India, Irrfan Khan, life story, lifeboat, Mumbai, orphan, police, shipwreck, Suraj Sharma, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Yann Martel, youth
1 Comment
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 vs. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
If movies are like summer flings, movie franchises are more like long-term romances. We invest a lot of time and emotion in them; we feel really good while we’re involved; and after they’re all over, we wonder if we’ll ever experience anything else quite the same. I was thirteen years old when the first Harry Potter film was released in 2001 (the same age as Harry was). When the final film was premiering in theaters, I was 22. Essentially, Harry and I grew up together.
Similarly, Twilight hit theaters during my first year at college, and now, five years later, the final installment has arrived. Bella, the clumsy human turned empowered vampire, has graduated from high school and is forced to make some pretty adult, albeit bizarre, decisions. This feeling that we grow and mature and change alongside the characters is something we can’t ever get from just one film. We’ve formed meaningful attachments to these characters, and so, for the fans, it’s imperative that the endings be everything we hope for and more. Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Tagged Alan Rickman, Battle, Black Magic, Daniel Radcliffe, dark arts, Emma Watson, Immortality, J.K. Rowling, Kristen Stewart, Maggie Grace, Michael Gambon, Peter Facinelli, Ralph Fiennes, Robert Pattinson, Rupert Grint, Stephenie Meyer, Steve Kloves, Taylor Lautner, vampire, werewolf, Witch, wizard
3 Comments
Skyfall (2012) vs. The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Two determined superspies, two venerable movie franchises. The more venerable one, James Bond – by some standards, the longest-running film series in history – fattens its library this weekend with the release of Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig, who plays the suave secret agent for only the third time. Fighting in the defending champ’s corner is The Bourne Legacy, featuring a lead character so new, he’s not even named Bourne. Jeremy Renner plays the genetically enhanced secret warrior Aaron Cross, outrunning various government creeps who are trying to assassinate their own man to protect their black-ops program. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, Crime
Tagged 007, Albert Finney, Bond, British, British government, cover-up, covert, Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Jeremy Renner, Judi Dench, lab, London, Matt Damon, MI6, Naomie Harris, Rachel Weisz, Sam Mendes, scientist, spy, superspy
8 Comments
Wreck-it Ralph (2012) vs. Toy Story (1995)
When we Baby Boomers were kids, our toys had lives of their own to us. Now that our children are young, it’s their video game characters that seem real to them. So, having once cherished my Davy Crockett coonskin cap and toy rifle, it was easy for me to see poetry in Toy Story’s Woody, a child’s inanimate cowboy doll by day, and a fretting, insecure, full-blooded character, when no one was looking at night.
My 10-year-old son Jack never had a doll like Woody to play with, but he did grow up with video games and movie characters, including Mario and Luigi. So naturally, Disney, which teamed with Pixar to bring us Toy Story, has jumped into the breach with a similarly themed movie for the Millennials. The new film, Wreck-It Ralph is also about the secret lives of children’s play-things once humans are out of the way. And the same John Lasseter who skyrocketed to prominence as Toy Story’s writer-director is overseeing Ralph as executive producer. Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family
Tagged 3D animation, Adam Carolla, animation, arcade, Buzz Lightyear, Disney, Don Rickles, Ed O'Neill, enemy, hero, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch Sarah Silverman, John C. Reilly, John Lasseter, John Ratzenberger, Mindy Kaling, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, toys, video game, Woody
3 Comments
Flight (2012) vs. Cast Away (2000)
I’ve tried to warm up to the motion-capture films Robert Zemeckis has been drawn to recently (Polar Express, Beowulf, Mars Needs Moms) and failed, mainly because it feels as if they have not yet sufficiently warmed up to me. But despite his recent, animated Crapfest from the Uncanny Valley, these two live-action, survival dramas – Flight and Cast Away – are among my favorite films.
When it comes to drama about the human condition, they’re both a cut above. And they have something else in common too: Each tries pretty successfully to create the scariest jet crash ever seen on film, at the time it went before the cameras. Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Awards, Drama
Tagged airline, airplane, alcoholism, Bruce Greenwood, crash, Denzel Washington, deserted, fed-ex, Helen Hunt, investigation, pilot, plane, raft, Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, tropical, William Broyles Jr.
1 Comment
Taken 2 (2012) -vs- Taken (2008)
So I mean, if it were me, and I’d just gone on my first vacation to Europe and gotten targeted by the first person I met in France and subsequently kidnapped by sex slave-traders and basically had the most harrowing experience of my life, I probably wouldn’t be going back to Europe any time soon. I don’t care how bad-ass my dad is, or even that he’s played by Liam Neeson. But then, I’m not perky teenager Kim Mills, nor am I Maggie Grace, who has now co-starred as Kim Mills in two movies, despite being more than ten years the character’s senior, so what do I know? Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Tagged agent, American Abroad, CIA, Famke Janssen, Father Daughter Relationship, Istanbul Turkey, Kidnapped, Kidnapping, Liam Neeson, Luc Besson, Maggie Grace, Paris, Revenge
9 Comments
The Bourne Legacy (2012) -vs- The Bourne Identity (2002)
Rumpled bureaucrats stand around a cramped room, surrounded by state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, barking orders at the underlings and whispering tensely among themselves as they watch a muscular super-agent and his female companion out-gun, out-run, out-fight and out-think them at every turn.
Where else could we be but Bourne again? (Sorry.)
Yes, that’s right, the lucrative franchise, loosely adapted from Robert Ludlum’s novels, that closed out its initial trilogy with (the now inappropriately titled) Bourne Ultimatum (2006) is back. The hooks for The Bourne Legacy are a mostly new cast, including lead actor, the screenwriter of all four taking over directing chores as well, and that other than the occasional photo, there’s not an actual Bourne in sight. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, SummerSmack, Thriller
Tagged amnesia, assassin, bank, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Doug Liman, Edward Norton, Franka Potente, Jeremy Renner, martial arts, Matt Damon, memory, Rachel Weisz, Robert Ludlam, sequel, spy, Tony Gilroy
1 Comment
Total Recall (2012) -vs- Total Recall (1990)
Welcome! Sit yourself in this chair and don’t worry when we strap your limbs down securely and tape electrodes to your head. There’s nothing to be worried about!
In the both of the Total Recalls we’ll be comparing in this review, a visit to such a patient’s seat launches a mind-bending sci-fi espionage adventure for the seemingly ordinary Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1990 original, Colin Farrell in the just-released update). Both big-budget movies unspool roughly the same story and feature plenty of slam-bang action, a nightmare vision of a bleak future, and not a little violence. They also play with the idea of implanted memory. Can we really be sure we’re truly experiencing the here and now? Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, SummerSmack
Tagged Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Nighy, Bryan Cranston, Colin Farrell, colony, dream, implanted memory, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Mars, memory, Paul Verhoeven, Philip Dick, planet, remake, Sharon Stone, spy
10 Comments