A good film review ought to be as entertaining as the film that inspired it.
That's the 'high concept' behind our Movie Smackdown! site -- a whole new format in film reviews. While For What It's Worth takes a short Thanksgiving holiday, we want to introduce you what's going on over at www.moviesmackdown.com.
Others have tried adding a bell here and a whistle there to sizzle things up in movie criticism. First there were stars. You got a lot or a little. Then there were thumbs. They were up or down. Old School. One note.
We're talking film reviews that have winners and losers.
That's right. Film review as a contact sport.
Movie Smackdown! gives readers the suspense and drama of authentic film-on-film competition. It's based on the way people watch and talk about movies these days.
We constantly compare films we've just seen with other films, right? We'll have passionate arguments about which was better. Sometimes, disappointed, we'll even wonder if we should have stayed home -- saved the parking and popcorn -- and watched a new Blu-ray.
Like any blockbuster, Movie Smackdown! has a "high concept." Ours is as clean and simple as this:
Two Films -- One Review -- No Holds Barred!
Each review is a two-fer: usually a film that's out in the theaters
goes in the ring with a competitive film that's easily seen on DVD. They each share something, anything from a theme to a director.
Every review or "Smack" breaks down like a real fight into these sections:
- THE SMACKDOWN. This section explains why the two films are being put in competition against each other.
- THE CHALLENGER.
This is our newest film, the one that has just been released in
theaters or on DVD or, in the case of a classic, the most recent film.
- THE DEFENDING CHAMPION. The classic film that the first film is compared to is our champion.
- THE SCORECARD. This is the section where we compare each film's strengths and/or weaknesses.
- THE DECISION. We don't allow ties. We always declare a winner.
Times have been tough lately for the mainstream media's newspaper critics. They've been losing jobs at the same pace as the auto industry. The problem seems to be that people don't feel they need an established critic to tell them how to feel about a film and, if they do, they'll probably ask a trusted friend or look at a favorite blog or check out the official film site. Like so many other things today, consumers have options.
But the disconnect between audience and reviewer must be more complicated than that. After all, why would a piece of media content that talks about movies when people are going to movies as much as ever be unpopular?
My opinion's that film reviews, as they're done in print and on-air, are predictable. It's like a high school essay. Explain what the film's about, tell why you liked it or didn't, and conclude. My high schooler's writing one now for his film class. Been there, done that.
So we think it goes back to format. The ways that reviews have always worked has gotten old and stale and hasn't kept up with today's audiences.
Our way of doing things takes into account the burgeoning home viewing
market and the competitive frenzy that chasing box office has created.
Then it presents itself in a breezy and fun format (film-on-film
competition) that is, in its own right, a piece of entertainment.
MOVIE SMACKDOWN! will, hopefully, become more than a blog. It was conceived to be a versatile concept that can be expressed in a cross-platform way. It's both written and visual, and it's something that works as a blog, a TV series,
mobile content and regular entertainment column. That's the vision for
it. The end of 2008 wraps up a planned three-year "proof-of-concept"
stage where ideas and forms have been tested and developed, low-risk, on this blog.
FROM THE EDITOR: Bryce Zabel
MOVIE SMACKDOWN! started as a one man effort and has grown to where we now feature the work of 17 different "SmackRefs" (as we like to call them).
Our SmackRefs are a diverse group of voices, men and women, old and young, in the
biz and not. Everybody writes in the same format, but you'd be surprised
how versatile it is and open to creative riffs. Besides Bryce, three other strong voices can be found regularly on this site these days: Mark Sanchez, Sherry Coben and Beau DeMayo.
We also hear from a dozen others: Jay Amicarella, Scott
Baradell, Stephen Bell, Randal Cohen, Sarah
Harding, Sloane Hayes Skala, Bob Nowotny, Joe Rassulo, Lak Rana, Lorianne Tibbets, Tyger Torrez, Jonathan Zabel and Lauren
Zabel. You can read about all our SmackRefs on The Critics bio page and finds links to their specific work.
There's also a vibrant visual style, all over the site and within the reviews themselves. Designer Nancy Tokos of Tokos Design Associates is responsible for the incredible banners we've tried on so far. These days we're going with Nancy's take on the pop-art look.
You'll also notice that each film we review also comes with a captioned photo. We call these our Movie Smackdown "Comix." Armed only with an iMac, some Comic Life Magiq software and a serious authority issue, we take common publicity stills and present them in a way that you can't get anywhere else. Then we also collect them on a special iWeb created-site where you can download them to send them around to friends (they're protected as "fair use" because of their critical commentary) and where they're collected in "albums" that can play as a pretty cool slide-show. You really should check this out. Because it's graphic intensive and we offer these photos in high quality, these pages load a little more slowly than, say, the blog, but we think they're worth the few seconds wait.
We've done over 300 reviews (or "Smacks") so far. There's a Google Search box in the right sidebar that indexes only the Movie Smackdown! site. Type in the name of a film you're interested and you might find we've already taken a crack at it. Please write your own comments, too. We like the feedback and, frankly, we might be wrong in our decision(s), so fire away.
You'll also find a number of polls where you can make your own decision on a Smack, especially on some of the newer reviews. Many of these polls have hundreds of responses already. Some of them are more lop-sided than you'd think and a few of them are nearly dead even.
Responding to that point-of-view, in 2008, AMC even named Movie Smackdown! its "Site of the Week." They responded to our tone that we try to shed a little light but not take things too seriously either.
Movie Smackdown also happens to be a registered service mark with the U.S. government. Accept no substitutes!
Over on the left side-bar at the top, you'll find two ways to get MOVIE SMACKDOWN! on feeds. Come join us!
Let the million or so other film critics out there do it the old fashioned way -- one movie at a time. We’ll do it the new way.
Two films for the price of one!
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