Witney Seibold Reviews 'Once Upon a Time in the West'

[The following article was sponsored and assigned by our Patreon subscriber Eric Darling. To learn how to sponsor and assign articles to William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold for publication at Critically Acclaimed, visit our Patreon page.]

Sergio Leone's 1968 classic “Once Upon a Time in the West” is the purest of his westerns.

With his acclaimed "Man With No Name" films, Leone established what had become the archetypal style and mood for any and all deconstructionist westerns that were to follow for the next few decades (at least up until “Unforgiven” in 1992). As such, the story, the characters, and even certain shots and photography choices feel uncannily familiar even to the uninitiated. It is, wielding American studio dollars, an impeccable, high-profile version of the slightly more ragged films that preceded it.

Movie Trivia Schmoedown Free-For-All 3: Critically Acclaimed Does Trivia LIVE!!!

William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold, Critically Acclaimed themselves, appear in front of a LIVE audience in the ultimate movie trivia competition! Forty players enter, and two of them are Bibbs and Witney, and if you want to know how they stacked up against all this competition you HAVE to watch this epic competition.

Seriously... if you're a fan of Critically Acclaimed, you HAVE to watch this. Trust us.

Enjoy!

The Six-Shot: All the 'Bring It On' Movies!

Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union and Eliza Dushku starred in "Bring It On," a slumber party classic about a championship cheerleading squad which learns that, unbeknownst to them, their success was based on plagiarism and cultural appropriation! It's surprisingly smart, thoughtful and funny, and it's considered a minor classic. But while people may remember "Bring It On" fondly, most people don't realize there were SIX movies in the franchise, five of which went straight to video and starred recognizable actors like Rihanna, Felicia Day, Hayden Panettiere and Solange Knowles!

This week on THE SIX-SHOT (a very special episode of THE TWO-SHOT), film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold explore the entire "Bring It On" series to reveal which sequels work and which ones barely seem like real movies!

Give it a listen!

William Bibbiani Ranks All the Disney Live-Action Remakes!

Disney's lucrative business plan, of remaking all their animated classics in big-budget live-action (or arguably live-action) productions, has led to an extremely uneven series of films! In his latest article for The Wrap, William Bibbiani is ranking every single live-action Disney remake, from the 1994 version of "The Jungle Book" that nobody talks about, to contemporary smashes like "The Jungle Book," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Dumbo!"

Read: William Bibbiani Ranks All the Disney Live-Action Remakes at The Wrap!

Photos: Disney

Critically Acclaimed #72: Us, Larry Cohen, and the Dark Side of the Fox/Disney Merger

Jordan Peele is back with a new horror blockbuster and this time... the evil is "Us." On this week's CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold delve into the film everyone is talking about, the trippy murder mystery "Out of Blue," and the re-release of the 1999 teen cult classic "Cruel Intentions!"

Also this week, William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold look back at the celebrated history of the late genre filmmaker Larry Cohen, and examine the dark underbelly of the Disney/Fox merger that everyone is talking about. Maybe it's NOT such a good thing...

Give it a listen!

The Two-Shot: 'Catwoman' and 'Working Girl' with Rachel Cushing!

Rachel "The Crusher" Cushing from The Movie Trivia Schmoedown joins us this week, and she brought the Halle Berry "Catwoman" with her! It's one of the most baffling superhero movies ever made, and the trivia champ helps us dissect everything that works (not much), doesn't work (a lot) and almost works (more than you'd think) about this notorious 2004 disaster of a movie, in an all-new episode of THE TWO-SHOT!

And on the classics front, Rachel Cushing helps William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold introduce and analyze another film about a meek woman, spurned by her wicked boss, who adopts a new identity and finds her power. It's the Oscar-winning Mike Nichols dramedy "Working Girl," starring Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack!

Give it a listen!

Canceled Too Soon #141: 'Dead Last' (2001)

A group of rock musicians develop the power to talk to ghosts, and it turns out the ghosts are really, really annoying! That's the premise of "Dead Last," a short-lived and mostly forgotten supernatural comedy series from The WB, from the writers of "Grosse Point Blank" and "High Fidelity," and that's the show our Patreon subscribers wanted us to review in the month of March!

Was "Dead Last" a forgotten gem, or does it deserve to wallow in obscurity? Film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold take a dip into the early 2000s to figure out if this series was... CANCELED TOO SOON!

Give it a listen!