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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: Smackdown News
Oscar Wrap-Up 2013
Two years ago, the Oscars crossed the line from Annual Guilty Pleasure into Annual Torturous Ritual, and by the look of things last night, that’s where it’s planting its feet. The main issue I raised in this space about last … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Smackdown News
Tagged Academy Awards, Anne Hathaway, Argo, Billy Crystal, Bond, Daniel Day-Lewis, host, Jennifer Hudson, nominees, Oscars, Seth MacFarlane, Shirley Bassey, winners
7 Comments
Oscar Smack-a-thon!
Have you finalized your picks for the current crop of Oscar hopefuls yet? No? Well, allow us to help you. In this, our second annual Oscar Smackdown, we pit the nominees for Best Picture against each other. We’ve Smacked most … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Smackdown News
Tagged Academy Awards, Amour, Argo, Best Picture, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Oscars, Silver Linings Playbook, Smackdown, Zero Dark Thirty
1 Comment
The Tiersky Top Ten, 2012
2012 was a year of countless blockbuster disappointments, a handful of sleeper gems, several overhyped critical darlings, some masterful documentaries and foreign films, loads of forgettable dreck, a couple of delightful surprises, and no genuine masterpieces, but a fair amount … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Smackdown News
Tagged 21 Jump Street, Amour, awards, blockbuster, Cabin in the Woods, Django Unchained, Looper, The Imposter, top 10, Top Ten
5 Comments
Smackdown Smacks Down the 2013 Oscar Nominees
Movie Smackdown loves a good old fashioned film fight — it’s something we do every day that Hollywood does once a year during awards season. Who among us can’t appreciate putting some films in a cage and letting them duke it out until there’s only one left standing?
This year there were nine nominations out of a possibility of ten in the “Best Picture” category.
We’ve had most of the nominated “Best Picture” films in the Smack ring already. This offers us the chance, here in this single post, to create a gateway for you to lots of fresh writing, keen observation and (of course) a general lack of respect for authority, cinematic or otherwise. Continue reading
Men of Steel (Smackdown’s Superman Smashup)
If you count Christopher Reeve (ignoring the earlier Kirk Alyn “Superman”) as the original fully-realized film Superman in 1978′s “Superman: The Movie”, that makes Brandon Routh’s 2006 “Superman Returns” the reboot and 2013′s “Man of Steel” the reboot of the reboot.
But don’t forget the TV Supermans: George Reeves from “Adventures of Superman” to John Haymes Newton and Gerard Christopher in “Superboy” to Dean Cain in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” to Tom Welling in “Smallville.”
Our latest Smashup pays tribute to the reality that we’re almost getting to the point where as many actors have played Superman/Clark Kent as have played Hamlet. Continue reading
Posted in Blockbuster, Book Adaptation, Comic Book, Major Star Vehicle, Re-Make, Smackdown News
Tagged alien, blockbuster, book adaptation, box office, films, remake, sci-fi, sequel, superhero, Superman
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“Django Unchained” (Tarantino) Meets “Lincoln” (Spielberg)
The body count in Django Unchained — given that it’s a Quentin Tarantino film — is way, way high. The film hits theaters on Christmas Day so we can consider “Peace on Earth” while amping up on slave-era violence. It will likely pack the theaters, Rotten Tomatoes has it with 100% fresh reviews as we write this. We wish we were smart enough to figure out what all of this means about violence in America and what should be done. We are devastated, like everyone else, by what happened in Connecticut, but doubt that a red carpet arrival for Tarantino’s spaghetti-western ultra-violence-fest has much bearing on it. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Awards, Blockbuster, Politics, Smackdown News, Western
Tagged Django Unchained, Lincoln, Red Carpet, Spielberg, Tarantino, Weinstein
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Stephen Colbert Photobombs Jon Stewart at the Emmys
“Why,” Stephen Colbert must be thinking, “am I always in Jon Stewart’s shadow?
“Anyone can see that my hair is as better than Stewart’s grandfatherly silver mane. (And it’s WAY better than Bryce Zabel’s, the Movie Smackdown guy who seems to be sprucing up his ‘do with a lovely red tiara in this picture.) ”
Colbert has a long way to go before he catches up with his stable mate’s record-setting ten consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Variety Series, but in terms of subversive attitude, he’s lurking right there over Stewart’s shoulder. Photo by Lauren Zabel. (Cont.) Continue reading
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: Republican National Convention (2012) -vs- Democratic National Convention (2012)
In less than two months Americans will write the final chapter of the recurring reality show we once called the presidential election. Former Massachusetts Governor Willard “Mitt” Romney emerged from testy GOP Smackdown primaries with his haircut intact. President Barack Obama didn’t have a Democrat opponent, but faced a tougher job: He had to govern during the run-up to the conventions.
Now the conventions are over, and it’s our turn to cast a pre-vote of sorts. Just how well – as TV events – did the parties establish their candidates and focus their messages for November? Continue reading
Posted in Smackdown News
Tagged Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Charlotte, Clint Eastwood, convention, Democrats, election, Mitt Romney, president, Republicans, Tampa, vice president
6 Comments
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) -vs- Foster (2011)
When I first saw the trailer for The Odd Life of Timothy Green, it seemed so quirky and original that I was surprised to learn it had a perfect Smackdown opponent waiting in semi-obscurity to face off against it. Foster, released in 2011 but only seen by a handful of people — most of them probably in London art houses — is so similar to Timothy Green in concept that I began to question the latter’s provenance. (As it turns out, Timothy is not a recast Yank version of Foster but an original script by director Peter Hedges, from a story by Ahmet Zappa, one of Frank’s kids.) Both films are gentle fairy tales that examine family relationships. Both involve children, who magically appear when they are most needed and manage to teach their troubled adoptive parents a thing or two about love and parenting. Both fathers are in jeopardy of losing their jobs, which the magical children in their lives are also able to help them address. And both are full of hokey life lessons, yet surprisingly are able to touch audiences in a genuinely heartfelt way. Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Smackdown News
Tagged Ahmet Zappa, CJ Adams, Common, Dianne Wiest, Hayley Mills, Ioan Gruffudd, Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, Maurice Cole, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Toni Collette
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Dark Skies vs. Dark Skies
Our “Dark Skies” has established itself in the minds of a significant number of science fiction fans as a gripping piece of conspiracy drama set in the world of UFOs and abductions. It anchored NBC’s Saturday night “Thrillogy” concept in the 1996 season premiere and starred Eric Close (“Nashville”) and the late film character actor J.T. Walsh (“Sling Blade”). Its main title design won the Emmy award and its pilot screenplay received a Writers Guild nomination. The Syfy Channel aired the entire series multiple times. Since 2010 there’s been a Facebook page where thousands of fans from many different countries push Sony for a TV revival. Continue reading →