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The Way We See it: Joe Rassulo on the Oscars

February 8, 2012 Joe Rassulo 8

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. […]

Rampart (2011) -vs- Training Day (2001)

February 8, 2012 Eric Volkman 0

Our contenders here are hardened Los Angeles cops who come to the ring after years of battling gang-bangers, crooked politicians and their own evil instincts. Both these films were inspired by the LAPD’s troubled Rampart division which, during the late 1990s pretty much set the bar for police misconduct, and also inspired the classic cable hit, The Shield. So naturally, the squads in this fight are street-tough, hard-cases who should be difficult to knock down for a win. Always eager for a scuffle, they’re hyperventilating in their corners, ready for a blast of Smackdown violence. So let’s throw them at each other right away. Rrriiiiiiing! […]

Chronicle (2012) -vs- Kick-Ass (2010)

February 5, 2012 Eric Volkman 2

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. […]

Big Miracle (2012) -vs- Free Willy (1993)

February 3, 2012 Nicole Marchesani 0

After sitting at home, wiping the tears off of my cheeks as a boy goes over and beyond to liberate a killer whale from its tank, and then sitting in a movie theater crying my eyes out over the giant rescue mission to save three whales from suffocating in the ice, I had to wonder why humans care so much about their seafaring brothers-in-mammaldom. Why was it so believable that these characters would go to such great lengths to protect some whales? And why did I use a whole box of tissues over it? Drew Barrymore’s character explains it this way in Big Miracle: “Even though they’re big and powerful, they’re so much like us. We’re vulnerable, and we get scared, and we need help sometimes too.” […]

The Oscar as the Ultimate Smackdown

January 30, 2012 Bryce Zabel 2

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. […]

The Grey (2012) -vs- The Edge (1997)

January 27, 2012 Sarah Harding 5

When it comes to high profile, scenery-chewing actors lost in the wild, Mother Nature sure can be a bitch. In The Grey and The Edge it’s Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Man, and Actors vs. Script. It’s survival of the fittest, Smackdown-style. […]

On The End

January 26, 2012 Adam Gentry 0

This is it.

Here we go…

Today’s screenings:

Price Check: Perennial Sundance favorite Parker Posey plays Susan, a newly hired, incredibly manic boss who turns her department upside down and inside out, wreaking particular havoc on the life of nice guy/worker-bee Pete Cozy (Eric Mabius). […]

Man on a Ledge (2012) -vs- Inside Man (2006)

January 26, 2012 Arthur Tiersky 0

A bank robbery that isn’t really a bank robbery!

A suicide attempt that isn’t really a suicide attempt!

A Jodie Foster performance that isn’t really good!

A movie star who isn’t really an actor!

Yes, nothing is what it seems this week, except that this really is a Smackdown of the new Man on a Ledge and 2006’s Inside Man, two heist movies, each set mostly on one long day in Manhattan, and neither of them are Dog Day Afternoon. Are you kiddin’ me? Fuhgetaboutit. […]

On Early Mornings at the End

January 26, 2012 Adam Gentry 1

Four screenings on the docket today, so let’s get to ’em:

Goats: A chance to go to this Sundance screening popped up at the last minute yesterday, when a colleague offered me an extra ticket, and I grabbed it, despite it’s 9 a.m. starting time. […]

On Graffiti, Mental Athleticism, Comic Books and the French

January 25, 2012 Adam Gentry 1

Now that the weekend’s screenings and events are behind us, Park City’s a much quieter town. Personally, that’s just fine with me. As terrific as all excitement’s been, it’s nice to know I’ll be able to make it up Main Street to a screening without having to fight my way past a ton of people. It’s been warmer over the past few days, but, as I write this, it’s 18 degrees (F). That’s eighteen degrees, people. This is the kind of temperature at which your memories of the fourth grade start feeling the cold. […]

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