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From the Editor-in-Chief

March 27, 2011 Bryce Zabel 1

Welcome to Movie Smackdown! 2.0, a film review concept that sees film reviewing as a competitive sport and exists to create moments of film-on-film violence!

The concept — 2 Movies. 1 Review. No Mercy. — is the same as it’s been since we began six years ago, based on the fact that most people like to talk about and rate films in terms of the other similar films they’ve seen before. We usually put a new film coming out in theaters in the ring with an older film that’s available on DVD or download.

That part hasn’t changed but the execution has evolved. First, we have a new look — more of a site and less of a blog.

Second, while you will still hear the opinions of our multiple reviewers as we have in the past, we’re also putting you in the center of the ring where you can make the call. […]

The Most Popular Movie President of All-Time Is…

May 11, 2010 Bryce Zabel 3

It was Ford in a landslide. Nope, not Ford as in Gerald who lost to Jimmy Carter, but Ford as in Harrison who walked away with our Movie Smackdown presidential poll, taking 26.4% of the votes in a ten-man race.

Ford played President James Marshall in the 1997 film, “Air Force One.” Marshall has just gone to Moscow where he’s told the entire world he will not negotiate with terrorists. Then, on the flight home, Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One forcing an ugly decision on Marshall: give in to terrorist demands or sacrifice not only the country’s dignity, but the lives of his wife and daughter. Well, there is one thing in his favor. He’s a military guy, a winner of the Medal of Honor, and he’s going to fight back.

Apparently we liked this version of the Marshall Plan a lot because when given ten of the top performances by an actor as a president to choose from, our Movie Smackdown voters gave a clear and convincing mandate to Harrison Ford. Here’s our results:
[…]

TV’s Last Suppers: Locke, Cylon Six & Tony

January 4, 2010 Bryce Zabel 5

We just couldn’t pass up this visual Smack on one of TV’s new trends, publicity stills that use the theme of “The Last Supper.” The latest to try this is ABC, promoting its final season of “Lost” but we’ve also seen Sci-Fi (SyFy) try it with the last pass at “Battlestar Galactica” and HBO in its first season (we think) with “The Sopranos.” If you click on the montage below, you can look at it in much fuller resolution. […]