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- 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
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Tag Archives: teenagers
Chronicle (2012) -vs- Kick-Ass (2010)
Ah, teenagers. Aren’t they charming? We don’t think so. We’ve got a surly bunch of ’em in this Smackdown, and rather than have them bother us hard-working adults, we’ll just let them whine and snap at each other or simply sulk in a corner by themselves. The main character in sci-fi drama Chronicle is a troubled loner dealing with a messed-up family life and a general inability to relate to other kids his age. Continue reading
Posted in Action, Comic Book, Drama, Sci-Fi
Tagged Chronicle, comic book, Hit Girl, Kick-ass, superhero, superheroes, supernatural power, superpower, superpowers, teenagers, teens, telekinesis
2 Comments
An Education (2009) -vs- Say Anything (1989)
Listen up, ‘rents. Being a father is never easy, but being the father of a teenage girl, and trying to get that one right is a true challenge. Both of these films — two decades apart in production dates and period settings — show fathers who, with the best of intentions, get it all wrong, but they get it wrong in exactly opposite ways.
You can care too little and you can care too much. When you’re in the middle of things, it’s not always so easy to see which is which. Believe me, as a father of girl who has just left her teenage years behind, these are matters I’ve thought a little bit about. I keep thinking of the famous Kenny Rogers’ song (“The Gambler,” written by Don Schlitz) that you gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. Like that’s easy. Still, what we have here to consider are a couple of fathers who don’t know best, not by a long shot… Continue reading
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) -vs- Transformers (2007)
Both “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” brim with elaborate action set-pieces, campy humor, and hyper-sexuality. Industrial Light and Magic struggles in both films to design the Transformers in such a way that we can distinguish one from the other. Whenever a fight erupts between Autobot and Decepticon, the on-screen action tumbles into a jumbled mess of flopping, indistinguishable mechanical parts. Sure, I appreciate the high level of detail, but not at the cost of coherent action scenes. “Transformers: RotF” especially suffers from ILM’s designs as Bay introduces a whole slew of new Transformers that simply blend together. It’s hard to appreciate large-scale action sequences when I can’t tell the good from the bad guys and thus, can’t tell who’s winning.
Now both films embrace Bay’s typical low-brow humor. Again, “Transformers: RotF” probably suffers most in this category. Gags like Sam’s mom lolly-gagging around on a college campus after eating pot-brownies or the dangling wrecking ball testicles on a construction Decepticon aren’t just dumb, they’re insulting to the audiences’ intelligence. “Transformers” had some corny moments, many centered around the Autobots fitting into Sam’s suburban life. However, none proved as gregarious and useless as those in Transformers: RotF” where the jokes simply exist onto themselves and are cracked in the most inappropriate moments.
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Posted in Action, Alien/UFO, Beau DeMayo, Comic Book, Sci-Fi, Teens
Tagged 1980s, Earth, global, marketing, Michael Bay, robots, sexuality, teenagers, violence
8 Comments