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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
- baby showers on The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) -vs- The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
- virility ex trial samples on Without Limits (1998) -vs- Prefontaine (1997)
- polo factory store on Wreck-it Ralph (2012) vs. Toy Story (1995)
- courtney on Brave (2012) -vs- Mulan (1998)
- Elvin Hence on POTC: On Stranger Tides (2011) -vs- POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
- All Natural Male Enlargement on Without Limits (1998) -vs- Prefontaine (1997)
- Edward on The Thing (2011) -vs- The Thing (1982)
- http://thoughts.blewblew.com/ on Without Limits (1998) -vs- Prefontaine (1997)
- male enhancement system on Without Limits (1998) -vs- Prefontaine (1997)
- vårdföretag on The Tiersky Top Ten, 2012
Tag Archives: Oscar
The Descendants (2011) -vs- About Schmidt (2002)
The need for a Smackdown between writer/director Alexander Payne’s earlier effort About Schimidt and his Oscar nominated The Descendants is so obvious that we just can’t let the final days before the Academy Awards go by without making it. After all, both … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Awards 2012, Book Adaptation, Drama, Indie, Oscar, Smackdown News
Tagged About Schmidt, Academy Awards, adultery, films, George Clooney, Jack Nicholson, movies, Oscar, Smackdown, The Descendants
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Albert Nobbs: A Cross-Dressing Downton Abbey
The film Albert Nobbs — a cross-dressing version of Downton Abbey — features Glenn Close dressed as a man the entire movie. She plays the title character, a 19th-century Dublin woman who passes as a man so she can work as a waiter. I’ll bet confused waiters all over the world are racing off to check the movie listings even as we speak.
The look is so bizarre that my daughter who attended the screening with me expressed her fear after the film that she’s going to have nightmares about the character. But the voting members of the film Academy gave Close an Oscar nomination. . Continue reading
Posted in Awards 2012, Drama, Gay Interest, Major Star Vehicle, Oscar, Period, Smackdown News
Tagged Academy Award, Albert Nobbs, Best Actress, cross-dressing, daughter, Downton Abbey, Dublin, fear, film, gay, gender, Glenn Close, history, Ireland, Irish, Mia Wasikowska, nightmares, Oscar, waiter
6 Comments
The Oscar as the Ultimate Smackdown
Despite the major studios’ insistence on making primarily mega-budget, tent-pole, comic-book, sequel-remake, monster-alien-scifi films as their bread-and-butter, challenging and compelling original films do get made every year through alternative means. And, despite the harping and complaining we all do, there always seems to be a great crop that bridge the divide and are worth saluting. Those are the kinds of films that the Academy Awards gravitate to as their nominees. Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Awards 2012, Bryce Zabel, Lists, News, Oscar, Smackdown News
Tagged Academy Awards, awards, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, film, Hollywood, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, movies, Oscar, review, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Tree of Life, War Horse
2 Comments
In Praise of… 50/50
50/50 deserves every bit as much Oscar love as The Descendants which is going to get its share. Both films are about dealing with terrible news and living through those stages of grief and 50/50 more than holds its own in that comparison.
Instead Academy members will probably see 50/50 as a diversion for people in their 20s, as light and comedic, and as another Seth Rogen getting stoned kind of movie. Well, it is actually those things within its frames, but it is so much more. Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Biopic, Bryce Zabel, Comedy, Coming of Age, Smackdown News
Tagged 50/50, Academy Awards, awards, black comedy, cancer, comedy, death, film, Funny People, illness, love, Oscar, review, Seth Rogan, Terms of Endearment
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Hollywood Directors at DGA Pick Their Top Five Films
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced its nominees today for the 64th annual DGA Awards. We all know the drill for what comes next in such coverage; in fact, we can probably recite it by memory. All together now: … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Awards 2012, Commentary, Lists, News, Polls, Smackdown News, Top Ten Lists
Tagged Academy Awards, awards, Best Picture, Billy Crystal, DGA, Directors Guild, films, golden globes, movies, Oscar, The Artist
1 Comment
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) -vs- Reign Over Me (2007)
I’d imagine a screenplay or a novel about grieving families of 9/11 victims must have been quite difficult and risky to write in the first few years following the attack. Now, having boldly faced the task of writing a snarky column comparing two movies about 9/11 grief, I can entirely sympathize with those intrepid, suffering screenwriters. Hell, someone had to write this Smackdown, and if I didn’t, who would? (A: Probably one of the other Smackers. There’s like a jillion of us now.) Continue reading
Posted in Awards 2012, Smackdown News
Tagged 9/11, Academy Award, mental health, Oscar, terrorism, war
3 Comments
Real Steel (2011) -vs- Rocky (1976)
Ah, the American dream. The hope that everyone, regardless of status, wealth or origin, has the opportunity to work for what they want and get it. One of the great ways Hollywood has represented the American dream in film is through boxing. Films like Cinderella Man, Ali, The Fighter and the most famous of all, Rocky. Rocky Balboa has been a symbol of the American dream for more than three decades. He continues to win the hearts of Americans by proving that the underdog from humble beginnings can go the distance.
Stepping into the smackdown ring to challenge Rocky is Real Steel, set to release in theaters Friday, October 6. Real Steel is a real contender, with a dynamic cast, stellar special effects and a sentimental story with heart. But does it have what it takes to defeat Rocky, the legendary, reigning champion? Let’s bring this fight to the ring and find out. There’s the opening bell… Continue reading
Posted in Action, Awards, Blockbuster, Drama, Oscar, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized
Tagged boxing, championship, fights, Hugh Jackman, Oscar, Real Steel, robots, Rocky, Smackdown, Stallone
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Remembering G.D. Spradlin
You probably knew G.D. Spradlin best as Senator Pat Geary from The Godfather, Part II, where he played the corrupt politician blackmailed by by Michael Corleone after he wakes up and finds himself drenched in a dead prostitute’s blood.
I knew him as Elliot P. Grantham, the Idaho farmer who was Patient Zero, the first official victim of the alien Hive’s infestation in the NBC series Dark Skies.
My co-creator Brent Friedman and I knew we’d gotten lucky in casting. Who didn’t cringe a little in The Godfather, Part II when Spradlin’s Senator Geary treats Michael Corleone with contempt early in the film? You knew it wouldn’t go well. We had gotten lucky early on by offering a series lead role to J.T. Walsh to play Frank Bach and he said yes. We tried again with Spradlin, wondering if he would find the part too small or, given the alien angle, too silly. But he said yes, too. We were thrilled. As it turned out, Dark Skies was the last television he ever did and the second to last acting job (he also appeared in the feature film, Dick). Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Apocalypse Now, Coppola, Dark Skies, film, G.D. Spradlin, Godfather, Oscar, The Godfather Part II, UFO
1 Comment
Incendies (2011) -vs- The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
Years ago, I reported and field-produced stories during a month-long trip into Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt. Well-armed authority ruled each country; I met guards with machine guns as I stepped from the plane in Riyadh, and private armies patrolled Damascus and other parts of Syria. Egypt was an active military state. This uniformed muscle enforced the appearance of order at the cost of personal freedom. This is the atmospheric real estate where the essential drama of Incendies plays out.
It now steps into the ring against a proven winner, The Year of Living Dangerously from 1982. This film combines a love story with armed revolution in Indonesia. It pushed Mel Gibson’s star even higher, and won Linda Hunt a well-deserved Oscar. Peter Weir directed and shares screenwriting credits with David Williamson and Christopher Koch in adapting Koch’s novel.
Here’s a Smackdown where lives collide with life-threatening situations. Which film survives the firepower to deliver the stronger human story? Duck and cover! Continue reading
Posted in Drama, War
Tagged adapted screenplay, Christopher Koch, Indonesia, Linda Hunt, Middle East, Oscar, review, Wajdi Mouawad
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The Way We See it: Joe Rassulo on the Oscars
The Artist is this year’s most talked about and most overrated film. Yes, it’s charming and filled with lovely, touching performances and indelible moments of black and white reveries of movies and times past. It is a wonderful homage to an era long gone. Its obvious relevance to today is its theme of technology leaving many obsolete in its wake. There’s a familiar resonance to the despair many feel in today’s technological storm, which has left so many jobless and even homeless. But the film touches on that theme in a broad, superficial way. “Modern Times” it is not. It’s a singular, gimmicky, almost-silent film that works on every level except one of true substance. And, I believe, a best picture of the year should do more than charm. Continue reading →