The MacGuffin

In honor of the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, Spencer and Greg discuss Simon Pegg.

Spencer and Greg give their DVD rundown for March 19th, 2013. In this episode they discuss The Hobbit, Bachelorette, Zero Dark Thirty and Badlands.

In honor of the release of Oz the Great and Powerful, Spencer and Greg discuss James Franco.

In honor of the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Spencer and Greg discuss Peter Jackson.

The MacGuffin joins forces with The Backroom for a bonus discussion on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, from director Peter Jackson and starring Martin Freeman & Ian McKellen.

This episode can be played online via the flash player below or it can be downloaded from here. It is also available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Another Top 5 segment from The MacGuffin. This time Allen and Ed share their top 5 rivalries.

This segment is also available on Stitcher, iTunes and from here. After you’ve watched the video please vote in our poll and share which one you think is the best.

When you have the word “superhero” in your film title and open in Seattle on the same day as The Avengers, you run the risk of people thinking your movie is about a comic hero. That couldn’t be further from the truth, though, with Death of a Superhero, from director Ian Fitzgibbon.

Now this is what I’m talking about. The beautiful thing about seeing Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin (2011) is realizing all the shortcomings that made up his lackluster film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Sure, both films have similarities: both are over the top adventure films, both have absurd plots that stretch the limits of believability, and both see our heroes in the middle of thrilling action sequences. But the difference here is that Tintin has much more life, energy, and enthusiasm, while Crystal Skull felt like an uninspired attempt at recapturing the once-great magic of a franchise. While the characters of Herge’s comic book series have been around for quite some time, this feels as though it is something new, something to be discovered and perhaps inviting us to revisit those stories, told in a way that can only come from the partnership of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

Aardman Animation proves themselves once again in the delightful new holiday animated movie Arthur Christmas. Aardman is the production company behind both Chicken Run and the delightful Wallace and Gromit series of shorts. While there was some trepidation that their expertise in stop motion animation might not carry over into the medium of high budget computer animation, those fears are long left behind now. Arthur Christmas is a delight.

Every Saturday night The Tomb of Terror opens, unleashing reviews of the obscure and the classic in horror cinema.

At one time, John Landis was on one of the best rolls of any comedy director. Following the cult success of Kentucky Fried Movie in 1977, he made the comedy classics National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and my vote for best horror film of all time, An American Werewolf in London. Then Twilight Zone: The Movie happened. We’ve all heard the story. Vic Morrow and two illegally-hired child actors were killed when a special effect went bad and caused a helicopter to fall from the sky. Even though Landis was acquitted of all charges related to the incident, it has haunted him his entire career since. He still managed a couple of hits after this incident, including the iconic music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America. Unfortunately, his 90s output mainly consisted of failure (Beverly Hills Cop III) after failure (The Stupids) after failure (Blues Brothers 2000). Burke and Hare, which is playing as part of the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival, is his first narrative feature in twelve years and is also his best in nearly twenty.