The MacGuffin

Another MacGuffin Film Podcast Top 5′s segment. In honor of the release of Let Me In, Brandi and Allen share their top 5 film remakes.

Here at the MacGuffin, we’ve made no secret about our collective love for horror films. October is, of course, a great time for horror fans, and we’ll be celebrating all month long.

In 1987, Gordon Gekko famously told us that greed was good.  Flash forward to the present, and it appears that greed has turned in to the norm.  With director Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street (1987), he presented us with a cautionary tale about the risks of one’s obsession with wealth.  In his newest film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), he shows us the affects of that obsession, how it can break a person’s life, and how it can hurt the people we care for the most.  The first film revolved around the Reagonomics of the 80’s, here we deal with a present day market on the brink of collapse.  It is the link with what is happening today that made this one of the more fascinating films of the year.

The documentary Babies comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray September 28th. I saw this film in the theater with a bunch of ooooo-ing and aaaah-ing women. Just being in the presence of this movie started me lactating. I think I may actually physically have extra X chromosomes now.

After the infuriating disappointment of The Expendables, I tried to scale back my anticipation of Machete. I saw the previews for both about the same time and thought these were going to be the two best films of 2010. The Expendables let me down in a serious way, but Machete did NOT. Thank you, Danny Trejo.

Spencer and John look back on the career of David Fincher in advance of The Social Network, debate the merits of Let Me In – the remake of Let The Right One In, and give their DVD picks of the week.

The Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (M.I.F.F.F.) takes place every year in Seattle, Washington and is dedicated to screening independent genre films from around the world.  As their website states, “The event was created to offer exposure to films that traditionally are overlooked by the festival circuit from genres including action, fantasy, horror, and science fiction.”  This year the festival was held over the weekend of September 17th through the 19th at the Seattle International Film Festival theatre in the neighborhood of Queen Anne.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend as many screenings as I’d hoped, the line-up looked great with several blocks of different themed short films playing on Saturday and Sunday such as, Animation, Fantasy, Horror and Action/Science Fiction, followed by four featured length Horror films in the evenings.  I was able to catch the Animation short film block on Saturday which particularly caught my interest since it wasn’t just an animation showcase, which I love, but a showcase of animation films dealing particularly with genre subject matters, which is something I love even more.

If there’s one thing Jack Goes Boating (2010) does really well, is that it successfully shows love and relationships on the opposite ends of the spectrum.  We see the awkward yet sweet interactions of a budding romance, while at the same time witnessing the effects of years of lies and betrayal bubbling to the surface.  The film is not concerned with everything that happens in between.  Adapted by Robert Glaudini from his own play, the film is a first time directorial effort by Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Already an accomplished actor, Hoffman shows that he can also work behind the camera with a keen visual eye.  Is there anything this man can’t do?

In Catfish, we meet Nev Schulman, a photographer in New York City. His brother Rel and their friend Henry Joost make movies. When Nev is contacted by 8-year-old Michigan girl Abby, who has created a painting from one of his photos, Rel and Henry begin to document a burgeoning modern-day-pen-pal friendship between the two. Soon Nev is also in regular contact with Abby’s family, and begins a serious flirtation with her older sister Megan via email, Facebook, and texting.

The original title for director George Miller’s follow up to his International hit movie debut, Mad Max, was simply Mad Max 2 when it opened to Australian and Japanese theaters in 1981.  Overseas in the United States it was re-titled for American audiences as The Road Warrior.  Distributors felt no one would see a movie that was a sequel to a film most people in the USA had not seen.  With the Blu-Ray release of the film in 2007 the original title card of Mad Max 2 was restored in place at the beginning of the movie, after the credits a low level build of horns and drums slowly usher us before it.