Movie Smackdown, Author at Movie SmackdownÂ®

THE THING: Back Again After Being Back Again the First Time

October 9, 2011 Movie Smackdown 0

Despite the fact that people from around the world go to Antarctica in the spirit of friendship and scientific cooperation (more or less), in the movies it is usually a setting for Something Bad That Is About to Happen.

The Thing has been made before. In the first go-round, it was The Thing from Another World in 1951. Three decades later, 1982, it was just The Thing and in the hands of John Carpenter. Now, another three decades later, 2011, it’s still The Thing, only constructed now to serve as a prelude and not a remake of Carpenter’s classic version. […]

THE BIG YEAR: Another Movie That’s for the Birds

October 8, 2011 Movie Smackdown 0

The Big Year takes place in the world of competitive bird watching. Most of us, of course, have no clue whatsoever that there even is a world of competitive bird watching. You should know this film is a comedy, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson.

It’s loosely built around Mark Obmascikâ€™s award-winning 2004 nonfiction book about 1988â€™s The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession. Again, we’re not kidding, this is a yearly competition where “birders” or bird enthusiasts travel North America and the prize goes to the person who spots the most rare birds. You should also know that Owen Wilson plays the record-holding champion. […]

If You Put a Smack and a Mashup in an Atom Collider…

September 13, 2011 Movie Smackdown 1

The SmashUps! are a collaboration between Smackdown guru and iMovie addict Bryce Zabel, who writes and produces them, and myself. I voice them and add what Bryce calls “the cool, weird stuff.” (I think that’s a compliment, but you never know with Bryce.)

So, please, take a look at our latest, the one that came from sticking the upcoming Real Steel in that particle acceler-o-meter or atomic whatsis with the classic Rocky film that won the Academy Award back in 1976. Given that our site has a couple of awards statues boxing each other in its banner, this one hits pretty close to home. This is its world premiere but, because it’s virtual, we don’t have to provide the hor d’oevres which, in this economy, means a lot. […]

SmackPoll: Back-to-School Comedies

August 31, 2011 Movie Smackdown 0

For some kids, the end of summer means the loss of freedom and an end to sleeping late. For others, it means a chance to go shopping for school supplies! Pens, notebooks, folders, and (if you’re old enough to remember the ’80s) a Trapper Keeper. Sure, school sucks hard at times, but it’s also a great opportunity for comedy. At least, Hollywood thinks so. […]

SmackPoll: Best Continuing Film Franchise

August 25, 2011 Movie Smackdown 0

Here at Movie Smackdown! we spend a lot of time arguing about movies — which ones we like, which ones we don’t, and which are the greatest. Naturally, when summer comes, we see a lot of sequels, prequels, and “reimaginings.” And from all these films comes a question of which film franchise is the best.

To come up with our top 10, we’ve decided that a “franchise” requires at least three films. And we’ve taken the extra step of counting only film franchises that are currently active — even if the franchise doesn’t have a film in production, but plans to carry on. A franchise can be relatively new (like Pirates of the Caribbean) or have decades of experience (“Bond. James Bond”). […]

RESULTS! The SmackPoll: Comic-Con Superhero Edition

July 24, 2011 Movie Smackdown 0

THE RESULTS ARE IN. All the fighters have entered the ring now in this “Summer of Smackdown!” With the release of Captain America this weekend, the battle for blockbuster superiority is now in full swing. So far Thor has dropped the hammer on the competition, taking in over $446M since its international release.

From the beginning, we’ve had our SmackPoll up, asking our readers which film they think will go down as the best super-hero film of the summer. No, it’s not scientific, nor even a real fair fight given the staggered release dates, but it is kind of surprising. As of today, the film that just was released Captain America: The First Avenger is in first place, followed by Thor, followed by X-Men: First Class and it’s DC’s Green Lantern at the back of the pack.

The poll will stay open until the end of Comic-Con on Sunday at 5:00pm PST. If you’re in attendance, or following things on the Internet, pass the poll around to your friends and, now that Captain America is out, let’s see if he can hang on to his lead. […]

Spider-Man Gets New Threads

July 14, 2011 Movie Smackdown 5

Now that re-boots are planned while the last re-boot is finishing its run, it’s back to the beginning for Spider-Man in the new imagining. Because this version known as The Amazing Spider-Man is set in high school, it’s out with old-man Tobey Maguire and in with new-guy Andrew Garfield. Although to be honest, Garfield is like only seven years younger than Maguire and would probably last about five minutes in a real high school before somebody outed him as an undercover cop or something.

But this is Hollywood, so never mind. Along with the new actor, Spidey is getting a new costume. And the new costume is getting its coming out party in this week’s Entertainment Weekly with a cover splash (seen here) and a collection of other photos showing off the new look.

We first got a look at the suit six months ago, so in the carefully orchestrated run up to release, it’s time to throw some more fuel on the fire. It’s all timed for fan boys and girls in anticipation of next week’s trailer premiere and San Diego Comic-Con panel. That trailer is rumored to be first scene by the public in advance of the July 22nd release of Captain America: The First Avenger. […]

Smack Classix Week: Rise of the Doppelgangers

Smack Classix: Rise of the Doppelgangers

June 20, 2011 Movie Smackdown 1

Doppel-what? Doppelganger, as in, a tangible double or look-alike of a living person. Last year millions of people used their celebrity Doppelgangers as their Facebook photos, remember?

Here at the Smack, we use Doppelganger to refer to a specific style of content collision in the film industry.

Dop*pel*gang*er [dop-ul-gang-er] n. 1) an event that happens when two different studios both release nearly identical films within the period of a single year 2) a Hollywood box office game of chicken

We’re about to see it happen with competing Sleeping Beauty projects, but it’s happened many times before.

Two of our most popular posts are Doppelgangers — Without Limits -vs- Prefontaine; and Armageddon -vs- Deep Impact.

We’re going to look at seven Doppelgangers this week to see if, like the Doublemint twins of yesterday, if we can double our pleasure and double our fun. […]

Smack Classix Week: Father’s Daze

June 12, 2011 Movie Smackdown 1

Fathers in film come in all shapes and sizes; tough, funny, sad, angry, you name it. Letâ€™s face it, Don Corleone was a dad and so is Homer Simpson. Thereâ€™s a lot of latitude in the job description.

Sometimes theyâ€™re cardboard stereotypes only there to give their kids someone to fight with and other times they show us moral courage and patriarchal strength.

Jimmy Stewart was the quintessential breadwinner and family man George Bailey in Itâ€™s a Wonderful Life. John Wayne acted as a surrogate father to a collection of schoolboys in The Cowboys. Gregory Peck played the remarkable Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. And in recent years, audiences have chuckled at the antics of Steve Martin as Gil Buckman in Parenthood, and Eugene Levy as Jimâ€™s Dad in the American Pie films. Most often, these modern dads donâ€™t know best at all. […]

Our Smack Tribute to National Donut Day… and More!

June 3, 2011 Movie Smackdown 0

Iron Man would like to remind you that today is National Donut Day. We don’t ordinarily pay attention to such matters but while scooting through all the news channels this morning Fox had a reporter on location at a donut shop so we figured it must be important. We also remembered this great still photo from Iron Man 2.

With the pressing donut issue dealt with, we would also like to remind the handful of people out there who are not aware of this fact that X-Men: First Class is playing on like 14-billion screens today that we will also be Smacking that new film down against X-Men, the first film in the series.

Kevin Wohler is all over that one and he’s braving a re-enacted Cuban Missile Crisis to bring it to the Smack… soon…

Meantime, here’s a little something to hold you over: […]

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