The MacGuffin

Another Top 5 segment from The MacGuffin. This time Allen and Ed share their top 5 non-holiday movies to watch at the holidays.

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.

Spencer and Greg give their DVD rundown for June 12th, 2012. In this episode they discuss Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Gold Rush, and Superman vs. The Elite.

Another Top 5 segment from The MacGuffin. This time Allen and Edward share their top 5 film scores.

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.

Another Top 5 segment from The MacGuffin. This time Allen and Brandi share their top 5 winter films.

This segment is also available on Stitcher and iTunes. The audio version can be downloaded directly from here. After you’ve watched the video please vote in our poll and share which one you think is the best.

Spencer and John look at the cinematic history of the X-Men franchise, preview the indie films coming out this summer, and give their DVD picks of the week.

One of the most iconic images Charlie Chaplin ever gave to the world came in Modern Times (1936). It happens early on in the movie. The Little Tramp, working diligently on an automated assembly line, gets distracted and starts to lag behind. Desperate, he jumps on the moving conveyor belt and gets sucked into the machine. Then, we see him being dragged and twisted through the moving gears inside of it, while still checking and working on any nuts and bolts he can find. This is one of the most remembered shots in all of Chaplin’s work, a loud and clear sign showing his feelings about the rise of industrialization and the loss of the human individual. It only goes to show how much of a craftsman he was, incorporating this message within a very funny and entertaining film.

The Seattle International Film Festival theater is currently hosting a series of Charlie Chaplin classics in new 35mm prints. Amongst them is one of Chaplin’s most iconic of all films, The Gold Rush. And this screening is a great excuse to revisit this classic.

Often you find people don’t remember which movie this is just by the title. But even if you have never seen this whole movie before, you have seen it. This is the one with the famous bread roll dance that has been used in countless clips on awards shows and documentaries. While this sequence has been duplicated famously Johnny Depp in Benny and Joon or by Robert Downey Jr. in the biography Chaplin, the original has never been surpassed. This movie IS film history.

There was a time, not too long ago, when Charlie Chaplin was seen as the most famous man on earth. His films transcended borders, languages, and cultural barriers. Everyone knew who he was; his image held firmly in the minds of movie audiences around the world. He wrote, directed, acted, and scored his films; they were the ultimate illustrations of his sensibilities. The Tramp, one of the great, most lovable underdogs of the movies, was a character that everyone knew once they saw him. Even for people who have never seen any of his films, they somehow recognize the bowl hat, the large floppy shoes, the cane, the bowtie, and, of course, the mustache. Chaplin has ingrained himself in the public conscience like second nature, perhaps for all time. Of all the masterpieces he made, of all the memorable moments and fantastic comedic touches that inhabit his movies, City Lights (1931), to me, has remained the most perfect showcase of his brilliance, an even balance of hilarity and emotion, of laughter and tears. It is one of the great achievements of the silent era.

Allen and Edward look at the career of Charlie Chaplin in honor of SIFF Cinema’s “The Films of Charlie Chaplin” series. In this piece they discuss Charlie Chaplin, the films he made, and why he is such an iconic figure in film history.