The Wrestler (2008) -vs- Rocky Balboa (2006)
The Smackdown It’s a classic underdog story (and Smackdown) we have before us. Other than boxer George Foreman it almost never happens in real life but we love the very idea of an aging champ […]
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Slumdog Millionaire (2008) -vs- The Kite Runner (2007)
Childhood friendships can last a lifetime and have profound consequences. Both Slumdog Millionaire and The Kite Runner tell sweeping stories in the lives of two boys — a set of brothers in the former and a set of friends who act like brothers in the latter. They use narratives that cut back-and-forth across time, forcing them to use multiple sets of actors to portray their characters as boys turn to men. The contemporary story lines are deepened by the children’s experiences we see in flashback. Both films started as novels, force viewers (English-speaking ones anyway) to read a few subtitles and share settings — India and Afghanistan — that have been scarred by terrorism as deeply as the United States. And even though Slumdog Millionaire is assured of a “Best Picture” Oscar nomination this year (and currently, is the odds-on favorite to win), it’s still going to have to hold off The Kite Runner to win this Smackdown… […]
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) -vs- When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
The Smackdown I can’t criticize anyone who’s not struck by the party mood as 2008 lurches to a merciful end. Recession, foreclosures, unemployment. Really, what’s to celebrate, so let’s see how a pair of seasonal movies rise above […]
Valkyrie (2008) -vs- The Usual Suspects (1994)
The Smackdown All kinds of films that want to be considered for an Oscar just got dumped in theaters in a post-Christmas frenzy. Some of them won’t even be out in wide-release for weeks but […]
Gran Torino (2008) -vs- The Shootist (1976)
The Smackdown Rumor has it that Gran Torino will be the last film that Clint Eastwood acts in. In it, he basically plays a version of his tough-guy screen characters (think Harry Callahan) who, at […]
Diner (1982) -vs- The Apartment (1960)
The Smackdown There are a surprising number of worthwhile New Year’s Eve-themed films to consider watching, should other more social-type plans fail to materialize for you. I’m no drinker, no party animal; subsequently, New Year’s […]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) -vs- Forrest Gump (1994)
When “Forrest Gump” hit the theaters in 1994, it was a pure original: nothing quite like it had come before. Tom Hanks got the title role and basically hit it out of the park playing a man-child with an IQ of 75 who manages to be involved in every major happening in America between the 1950s and the 1980s. As directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film manages to move forward relentlessly in its narrative scope and, before it’s over, Tom Hanks has taught Elvis, made JFK laugh, been a hero in Vietnam, opened up China with his ping-pong skills, run across America and had a girlfriend die of AIDS. The bases are covered every which way but it’s Hanks’s dignified, down-to-Earth performance that sets it totally apart. It might be a comedy or a drama, I’m not really sure.
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The Best Christmas Movie Is…
…would you believe? … “It’s A Wonderful Christmas Story Actually.” It’s a three-way run-off! With Christmas only a few days away now, Americans are doing their part to jump-start the national economy by buying things […]
Milk (2008) -vs- Philadelphia (1993)
The Smackdown As Proposition 8 protesters take to California streets, Gus Van Sant’s Milk reminds us that we’ve been here before. Thirty years ago, the religious right-backed Proposition 6 was defeated by the first wave […]
The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) -vs- The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
A few years ago, Klaatu and Gort made their way back to the ‘hood, thanks to the mega-budget re-make of The Day The Earth Stood Still. The duo arrived, over five decades after the original, with every intention of forcing some extra-terrestrial “tough love” on us.
Keanu Reeves stuck his chest out and stepped into the lead role made famous in 1951 by Michael Rennie, joined in this go-round by Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, and surprisingly, John Cleese. Certainly, the overall production and effects budget makes possible images never even imagined back in near post-war filmmaking.
But can all this money and contemporary talent add up to make this new The Day The Earth Stood Still as enduringly memorable as the old The Day The Earth Stood Still that graced the world’s screens during the height of Cold War paranoia? […]