The 2008 Critics Choice Awards: Movie Smackdown! Edition
Even as the Golden Globes were falling apart over the on-going WGA strike, the show at tonight’s 13th Annual The Critics Choice Awards managed to go on because the event is put on by the […]
Oscar
Lars and the Real Girl (2007) -vs- Half Nelson (2006)
The Smackdown Movie afficionados already know what the public at large has yet to discover: Ryan Gosling is one of the great actors of his twentysomething generation and, like those who have come before him, […]
Hairspray (2007) -vs- Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Thirty Years of Dancing Travolta! The Smackdown It was three decades ago that a charismatic sitcom star named John Travolta crossed over into feature film fame with the cultural sensation Saturday Night Fever. In the […]
American Gangster (2007) -vs- The Godfather, Part II (1974)
The Smackdown It can’t be easy being a young criminal crime boss and drug lord, coming from a struggling underclass, living in the shadow of an even more powerful criminal. Both Frank Lucas and Michael […]
Shooting Craps with Joel Siegel
It seems like everybody in America could recognize film critic Joel Siegel. He was the guy with the mustache on the network morning news show who reviewed films and provided comic relief, the guy who […]
The Good German (2007) -vs- Chinatown (1974)
The Smackdown The trouble with being a Man Who Wants to Know Too Much is that you can take a real beating for your curiosity. Now that “The Good German” is out on DVD, we’re […]
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) -vs- Carmen (1983)
The Smackdown Spain has given us an Inquisition by which all others are measured, funding for the voyage of Columbus, a compelling Civil War, tapas culture and a growing Spanish cinema. Although Smackdown would never […]