Smackdown '85: Meet the Panelists!

The Next Supporting Actress Smackdown is on Sunday - get your votes in by Friday night please. Please only vote on the performances you've seen. Your host has been backstage doing the difficult (but exciting) work of wrangling up critics, industry professionals, and writers to discuss these Oscar years with you. (Coming soon: 1944, 2017, 1970, 1994)

MEET THE PANELISTS
Here's a little bit about our exciting panel to prep you for our conversation as we finish up our screenings. We're heavy on new Smackdowners and Los Angelenos this time which is a fun development.

First Time Smackdowners

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What's Streaming from 1985?

by Nathaniel R

Most streaming platforms don't have great search capabilities. As we've long complained, they're much better for casual viewers who'll watch whatever is curated for them than devoted cinephiles who often give themselves projects (I know I'm not the only one!) to watch a certain set of films of some ilk, year, awards race of yesteryear or from some filmography. Since 1985 is our "year of the month" -- the Smackdown is just one week away! (have you voted yet?) -- I thought we'd play our streaming screengrab roulette game (wherever the scroll bar lands we take that photo - no searching for cool images or key scenes) with film titles from 1985 that are streaming currently on one of the major services. These weren't super easy to look up but here's what I found on Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. 

Will any of these random screengrabs inspire you to watch a movie? Please do speak out about anything related to any of these movies in the comments. It's more fun when you we're not just typing into the abyss.

Okay, ready here we go...

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Cast This: "Clue" The Remake

I grew up playing "Clue" at home with my family so when the movie came out I was thrilled and saw it three times to catch the separate endings. My story is not unique (except for falling for the studio's marketing gamble and seeing it three times in theaters) because the board game has been hugely popular since its initial release in 1949 so multiple generations have played it and loved it. It has a built in audience so naturally movie studios are interested because franchises is what they do. Remember a handful of years ago when Universal was going to remake the movie Clue (1985) but nothing came of it? Too make a long story short... "too late!" ... the project is back on again at a different studio. 

Clue art by Kevin Wada

Now, Fox will remake the movie despite the fact that board game based movies haven't done well at the box office (including the original Clue, despite its huge fanbase after the fact). Nevertheless it's a perfect opportunity for us to play CAST THIS! after the jump...

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Tweetweek: Clue, Star Wars, Awards Silliness

We weren't allowed to say this for fear of screening crashers but as you're reading this I'm probably watching the credits crawl at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. More soon obviously.

The past week has been just crazy with awards announcements and it's easy to drop usual columns on accident but I can't not share these choice tweets that amused on actressexuality,.

Clue, Sir Patrick Stewart, Golden Globes and a lot of Star Wars silliness after the jump...

When Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, he really skimped on explaining the whole gays-and-actresses thing

— Tim Robey (@trim_obey) December 9, 2015

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What is the Greatest Movie Ever Made Based on Toys or Games?

With The LEGO Movie winning rave reviews from critics (no, really) and looking to dominate the weekend, it's time to ask:

What's the best movie ever made based on toys or games? 

My vote would probably go to Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996) which I found so deeply silly on first viewing that I got the giggles in the theater and could not stop... even during the less funnies. We quoted it for months afterwards. Or at least we froze our faces awkwardly and barked "Ack" at each other when it seemed appropriate... which was all. the. time. 

But then there's Clue. Soooo.... tough call?

Any other contenders? First person who says Transformers has to do all of our household chores for a week.