-
Recent Posts
- 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)
Recent Comments
- celebrated chef julia child can cook rumali roti9 on Spider-Man Gets New Threads
- Luke Samorano on Les Miserables (2012) vs. The Fugitive (1993)
- ryan mercer writer on Men of Steel (Smackdown’s Superman Smashup)
- diane on The Walking Dead (AMC) -vs- Falling Skies (TNT)
- last Kings clothing | on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) -vs- The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965)
- Sometimes it is really difficult to find a fun craft for kids of all ages. It can be particularly tough when you have a wide range of ages. Finding a project that is interesting for older kids that have more coordination and ability and yet simple enough on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) -vs- Time After Time (1979)
- instant loans online on Battleship (2012)
- instant payday loans on Hugo (2011) -vs- Pinocchio (1940)
- instant loans on Smackdown Smacks Down the 2013 Oscar Nominees
- instant loan on X-Men: First Class (2011) -vs- X-Men (2000)
Tag Archives: alien
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
1 Comment
Prometheus (2012) -vs- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Strange artifacts are left here on Earth beckoning inhabitants to come visit superior beings and/or ancient visitors, requiring a massive undertaking to build and dispatch a mighty state-of-the-art spacecraft on a long, dangerous journey with an A.I. on board to take care of its human crew. Director Stanley Kubrick swung for the fences with this set-up over four decades ago and now it’s Ridley Scott’s turn.
Let’s get one thing out of the way right now — 2001: A Space Odyssey is a true film classic. It deserves its praise, and it deserves to be seen in any good film school program. If you haven’t seen it, you should. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi, SummerSmack
Tagged alien, alien contact, Alien Race, Ape, Charlize Theron, computer, evolution, future, Guy Pearce, Human Versus Alien, Idris Elba, Keir Dullea, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Monolith, Moon, Noomi Rapace, Ridley Scott, Space Expedition, Space Station, space travel, Space Voyage, Stanley Kubrick, technology
19 Comments
Men in Black 3 (2012) -vs- Mars Attacks! (1996)
The earth is about to be destroyed! And the devastation will be funny and entertaining to watch, at least by Hollywood standards.
In this winner-take-all battle, we’re pitting two satirical world-on-the-brink-of-destruction films against each other. The new release is Men in Black 3 (or Men in Black III, depending on whether you believe the official Sony Pictures site or IMDB), the latest offering in the popular string of sci-fi comedies. This installment features the franchise’s first time-travel plot, with our protagonist vaulting backwards by several decades in order to save his partner from being murdered and, consequently (of course) earth from being destroyed. Mars Attacks! also harkens to the past. It’s a wild, Tim Burton spoof of cheesy 1950s alien invasion movies, featuring a giant cast trying nearly in vain to defend our planet from interstellar bad guys. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Tagged alien, Annette Bening, Based On Comic Book, Bill Hader, Buddy Comedy, Danny DeVito, Fictional Government Agency, Glenn Close, High Tech, Jack Nicholson, Josh Brolin, Mars, Martian, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman, Pierce Brosnan, planet, Sarah Jessica Parker, Secret Agent, sequel, Sunglasses, Tim Burton, time travel, Tommy Lee Jones, Weapon, Will Smith
4 Comments
Battleship (2012)
There is a scene in Rob Reiner’s 1984 comedy masterpiece, This Is Spinal Tap, in which the members of the charmingly deluded heavy metal band are read a back catalogue of progressively terrible reviews for their albums to date. The … Continue reading
Posted in Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Tagged Alexander Skarsgård, alien, Brooklyn Decker, futuristic, Liam Neeson, Peter Berg, Rihanna, special effects, Taylor Kitsch, weapons
4 Comments
John Carter (2012) -vs- Avatar (2009)
In the genre of 3D outer space shoot-’em-ups, there are two ways to go: Either you’ve got your humans ruthlessly exploiting oddly shaped locals on some distant planet, or vice versa. John Carter chooses the less common scenario, an Earthling being used and abused by aliens for their own purposes, while the defending champion Avatar presents a classic story of corporate greed morphing into cultural affinity. Continue reading
Apollo 18 (2011) -vs- Apollo 13 (1995)
Probably the only good way to look at NASA these days is in the rear-view mirror of past accomplishments, given that the agency seems to have lost its way. After all, it’s ended the manned space missions of the Space Shuttle program with no clear replacement in site. There is no grand new mission, like going to Mars, just the past-tense glory days of going to the Moon.
But before we get too nostalgic here, we have a Smackdown to remind us that space is not always a triumph. Sometimes that cold vacuum of nothing can force a human to look straight in the eye of death. And, as Elton John reminded us in Rocket Man, “It’s lonely out in space.”
The new Apollo 18 is a fictional story about a manned space mission to the moon that you never heard about. NASA officially pulled the plug on Apollo after 17 missions. So this one is right out there in conspiracy theory heaven. And the other film, Apollo 13, is about the NASA’s greatest near miss with disaster that could easily have landed the astronauts involved into the history books with the crews of the Challenger and Columbia or the doomed Apollo 1 mission. Continue reading
“Galaxy Quest” Boldly Arrived Ten Years Ago!
Galaxy Quest (1999) -vs- Spaceballs (1987)
Patrolling the Universe for Laughs
The Smackdown. While the newspapers and magazines are full of “Best Of” lists for the past ten years, let’s get specific. It was a decade ago that the great “Star Trek” send-up “Galaxy Quest” came to theaters on Christmas Day of 1999. This year we put the film into the Smackdown ring against another comedy send-up “Spaceballs” which took on the other great space franchise, “Star Wars.” While fan boys and girls alike will be debating “Star Wars” versus “Star Trek” for generations to come, maybe just maybe we can get a clear winner out of the comic dopplegangers. Here we go!
Continue reading
Pandorum (2009) -vs- Event Horizon (1997)
Ever since “Alien” showed the dark side of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” filmgoers have been disabused in one film after another of any thought that going where humans haven’t gone before can be a noble journey. Cold, hostile, horrific space, set in the middle of this century — that’s our Smackdown …
Continue reading
Posted in Action, Alien/UFO, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Tagged alien, exploration, extra-terrestrial, Horror, NASA, space, Star Trek, UFO
8 Comments
Contact (1997) -vs- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977 | 1980 | 1998)
If you’re old enough to remember the marketing campaign for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” then you’ll remember the goosebumps you got when you heard the phrase, We are not alone. What was great about that simple sentence was that it promised a movie about aliens that was about wonder and mystery and wasn’t about the same old Hollywood treatment of life in the universe, namely that if it bothered to interact with humans it was for a nefarious reason, like “Independence Day” and “War of the Worlds.” Twenty years after “CE3″ came another film that promised to make first contact a matter of humanity’s growth out of the cradle and not some intergalactic cage match. Both “CE3″ and “Contact” were aliens for smart people brought to you first by the immense talent of Steven Spielberg and later by the immense intellect of Carl Sagan. In my Hollywood career, I’ve had the good fortune to discuss UFOs and extraterrestrial life with both of these men and found them to have some very different visions of the subject. They each have used film to express their views about life as it might exist “out there.” The question is, which version comes closest to what might be the truth about first contact, and which one is the better film?
Continue reading
Posted in Alien/UFO, Blockbuster, Book Adaptation, Bryce Zabel, Classic Smack, Drama, Religion, Sci-Fi, Science, Smack Classix
Tagged alien, Carl Sagan, contact, disclosure, extra-terrestrial, flying saucer, sci-fi, SETI, space, Steven Spielberg, UFO
14 Comments
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 →