Jack Nicholson Archives - Movie SmackdownÂ®

Jokers Wild

April 28, 2015 Bryce Zabel 2

Here at the Smack, weâ€™d have to say that heâ€™s the most iconic comic book villain of all time. The Joker just turned 75, by the way, having first appeared in Batman #1 back on April 25, 1940.

So happy birthday, you green-haired, crazy-eyed, psychopathic criminal, you!

As a straight-up birthday present to fans, Suicide Squad director David Ayer just tweeted out a clear look at the Joker as heâ€™s going to be portrayed by Jared Leto. Impossible as this may sound, Letoâ€™s Joker is as surprising today as Heath Ledgerâ€™s Joker was when we first saw him. […]

Men in Black 3 (2012) -vs- Mars Attacks! (1996)

May 24, 2012 Eric Volkman 6

The earth is about to be destroyed! And the devastation will be funny and entertaining to watch, at least by Hollywood standards.

In this winner-take-all battle, weâ€™re pitting two satirical world-on-the-brink-of-destruction films against each other. The new release is Men in Black 3 (or Men in Black III, depending on whether you believe the official Sony Pictures site or IMDB), the latest offering in the popular string of sci-fi comedies. This installment features the franchiseâ€™s first time-travel plot, with our protagonist vaulting backwards by several decades in order to save his partner from being murdered and, consequently (of course) earth from being destroyed. Mars Attacks! also harkens to the past. Itâ€™s a wild, Tim Burton spoof of cheesy 1950s alien invasion movies, featuring a giant cast trying nearly in vain to defend our planet from interstellar bad guys. […]

The Descendants (2011) -vs- About Schmidt (2002)

February 21, 2012 Bryce Zabel 0

The need for a Smackdown between writer/director Alexander Payne’s earlier effortÂ About SchimidtÂ and his Oscar nominated The Descendants is so obvious that we just can’t let the final days before the Academy Awards go by without […]

The Bucket List (2007) -vs- Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

January 18, 2008 Bob Nowotny 6

Both the hotly-promoted “The Bucket List” and the below-the-radar “Bubba Ho-Tep” feature a pair of geriatric geezers (one white, one black) undertaking adventure in the twilight of their lives in a search to give meaning to what went before. Both films are entertaining, but can the big budget, major studio offering with an “A List” cast and a big name director trump a small, independently-made gem based on a Bram Stoker Award nominated short story? Can Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman best Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis? Is gallimaufry globetrotting more poignant than fighting giant roaches in Nacogdoches? Will the Hollywood-based screenwriter from NYU’s film school hold his own against the Mojo Storyteller from the Big Thicket in East Texas? In short, will “The Bucket List” command as fervent and as loyal a following as “Bubba Ho-Tep?” Will the questions ever stop…
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