Major Star Vehicle Archives - Page 2 of 8

Date Night (2010) -vs- The Joneses (2010)

April 14, 2010 Sherry Coben 8

“The Joneses” is about something important. I hesitate to explain much more than that, not wanting to spoil your fun. The film hasn’t been hyped, and if you hurry, you just might manage to see it without hearing much about the twists. Suffice it to say it’s super smart, ambitious, and it looks pretty darned good too. The cast is solid, and the ideas are sound. Moore looks absolutely amazing, and Duchovny delivers one of his surest performances ever. Simultaneously confident and vulnerable, they both play middle aged panic beautifully. The younger Joneses are played by fresher faces – the impossibly beautiful and occasionally naked (There. I’ve got your attention.) Amber Heard and heartthrob-in-training Ben Hollingsworth. Picture perfect as can be at first and even second glance, the reality behind the ideal reveals itself slowly and powerfully.
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Green Zone (2010) -vs- The Hurt Locker (2009)

March 16, 2010 Beau DeMayo 5

It’s not a good time for the American occupation of Iraq. The news from “over there” is that the followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical cleric who led the Shia insurgency against the American occupation, have emerged as Iraqâ€™s equivalent of the 1994 Republican Party. Meanwhile, back in the United States, Americans voted about Iraq, too, refusing to give “Green Zone” any mandate whatsoever. And, keep in mind that the other Iraq film that just won the Best Picture Oscar, “The Hurt Locker,” basically was one of the worst-peforming winners in that category ever. Maybe it’s just the hot button political sensitivities, war-weariness, or that it is simply “too soon.” Other critics can decide that, however, because here at the Smack, we simply want to know which film about the Iraq War gets it most right, box-office be damned!
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Shutter Island (2010) -vs- The Shining (1980)

February 28, 2010 Stephen Bell 6

The Smackdown Martin Scorsese. Stanley Kubrick. Two masters of cinema direction, both with distinguished careers making films in multiple genres. But what happens when they square off outside their comfort zones and try to serve […]

From Paris With Love (2010) -vs- Taken (2009)

February 12, 2010 Bryce Zabel 4

Watch out when the American CIA comes to Europe in any movie made by the collaboration between French filmmakers Pierre Morel and Luc Besson because the body count will be high and the local infra-structure will certainly suffer. While both of these films let their leads hunt down and kill prodigious amounts of bad guys, one of them wanted to be Taken seriously while the other one merely wants to let you know that it’s a comically violent gift sent you From Paris with Love. The truth is if the CIA really had any agents who behave like Liam Neeson or John Travolta, the entire War on Terrorism would probably have been wrapped up by now. And Paris would probably be burning. […]

Edge of Darkness (2010) -vs- The Brave One (2007)

January 30, 2010 Mark Sanchez 5

High stakes for Mel Gibson these days. As an actor he’s been off the screen.. and uncomfortably in the headlines.. the past half-dozen years. I’m not the only person wondering if audiences would remember Mel Gibson for what he said on screen.. or for what he said during a drunk driving arrest.
So here he comes in the remake of “Edge of Darkness.” This carefully chosen material calls out all the character elements that define Gibson’s screen work: emotional intensity, a violated sense of right and wrong, and few qualms about a violent response.
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When In Rome (2010) -vs- Roman Holiday (1953)

January 29, 2010 Sherry Coben 9

Featuring precious little Rome and a lot of Antic, â€œWhen In Romeâ€ falls back on every exhausted (and exhausting) rom-com convention in the book. In Rome for her sister’s wedding, a career woman cynically steals coins from a fountain and unknowingly makes five strangers fall madly in love with her. Kristen Bell makes for an adorable lead who needs fresher and smarter material to reach her full rom-com heroine potential. Josh Duhamel stands tall as her love object, slightly less generic than the usual rom-com Ken doll. Thereâ€™s not much standing in their way, no real obstacles, and therein lies the rub. The two meet semi-cute in the first ten minutes, and we know theyâ€™ll wind up together; nothing much happens in the middle to call their happy ending into question. Thereâ€™s much ado about the nothing; pilfered coins, local legend, and enchanted suitors sound like more fun than they are.
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An Education (2009) -vs- A Single Man (2009)

January 28, 2010 Sherry Coben 14

Itâ€™s 1962, stylishly retro and way cool. TVâ€™s Mad Men have paved the cultural way for two more stellar entries in the Sex And The Sixties pantheon. With the swinging sixties looming right on the horizon, Los Angeles college literature professor George (Colin Firth) and sixteen year old suburban London student Jenny (Carey Mulligan) fumble their un-merry ways through the rough-and-tumble terrain of love, loss, secrets, and sexual experience. Both lead performances have stirred up considerable Academy Award buzz, but theyâ€™re unlikely to compete head to head anywhere but right here. Dewy Maiden with Distinct Audrey Hepburn Echoes takes on World-Weary Confirmed Bachelor with a Not-So-Secret Secret. The winner? A grateful arthouse (and beyond) audience.
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Leap Year (2010) -vs- Youth in Revolt (2010)

January 20, 2010 Sherry Coben 6

Cookie cutter romantic comedy satisfies a too-easily edified audience. No matter how formulaic and tepid the sausage, the factories grind out more product to feed the gaping maw; indie films usually attract a more marginal fringe-ier crew, on the hunt for the original, the untold (or even oft-told) story told in fresh new ways. Pitting a humble little indie versus a major studio wide release makes for an inherently unfair fight and one with a foregone conclusion at the box office, but ticket sales wonâ€™t sway this Smackdown. As â€œLeap Yearâ€ bounds onto virtually every available screen and Quirky Indie-That-Could â€œYouth In Revoltâ€ limps onto a fraction of that number, ask yourself: Is bigger necessarily better? Does conventional beat quirky?
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Nine (2009) -vs- Crazy Heart (2009)

December 30, 2009 Sherry Coben 4

The Smackdown Movies about show business multiplyÂ like rabbits, and hereâ€™s a simple explanation. Not only do writers write whatÂ they know — everyone in show business finds show business (and himself)Â endlessly fascinating. Thatâ€™s why theyâ€™re there […]

The Young Victoria (2009) -vs- Sherlock Holmes (2009)

December 27, 2009 Sherry Coben 3

Calling all Anglophiles! Englandâ€™s longest reigning monarch takes on the cleverest subject of her (fictional) realm in this All-Union-Jack Smackdown. Both repackaged and reimagined for the new millenniumâ€™s theatergoing audience — the usually buttoned-up Victoria gets unstuffed and sexed up in a lush period romance/political drama, and Sherlock gets the no-holds-barred no-punches-pulled Guy Ritchie/Joel Silver treatment. Both title characters make formidable contenders for the Smackdown crown; thereâ€™s nothing I appreciate more than a really good makeover.
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