The MacGuffin

In honor of the release of The Great Gatsby, Spencer and Greg discuss Tobey Maguire.

Ahh, the summer movie season. This is the time for big spectacles, epic stories, and plenty of action and excitement. The buzz is never stronger during the year than it is right now. And nothing says “Summer Blockbuster” like…The Great Gatsby 3D? Sure, the idea may seem a little strange, but let’s think about this for a moment. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s well-known novel is a story of excessive indulgence—of bright lights, fancy clothes, and lots of money. If anything, the surface level extravagance fits right in with the movie season. And who better to bring this to life than one of the more excessive filmmakers around: Baz Luhrmann? While we’ve seen films tackle this material before, none have done so the way that Luhrmann has. He’s taken this classic story and molded it into a very contemporary piece.

Spencer and Greg give their DVD rundown for April 16th, 2013. In this episode they discuss Django Unchained, The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, Disneynature: Wings of Life and Repo Man.

In honor of the release of Trance, Spencer and Greg discuss Danny Boyle.

2012 was a terrific year at the movies. 2010 and 2011 both felt a little underwhelming at the time. There was some good work, to be sure, but the amount of work that felt new or exciting was less and less. However, this last year felt like an embarrassment of riches at times. Good stuff was coming out every week, and a lot of it had real merit. Below is my list of top 10 films for 2012.

It’s been one heck of a good year for movies. From mainstream blockbusters to low-budget indies, there was a little bit for everyone in 2012. Even with a less than stellar summer season, I would argue that this been the strongest film year since 2007. When I sat down to write my end of the year list, I kept scratching out certain entries and starting over, because there were so many films that I wanted to mention. Even with the list you’re about to go through, I’m already questioning whether I should do it again just one more time. That’s the silliness of making these things in the first place. There were so many good movies this year that attempting to rank them one over the other is an exercise in absurdity. But that’s the kind of absurdity we movie fans love to put ourselves through.

It seemed like only a matter of time before Quentin Tarantino would make his version of a western. His career has been hinting at it for awhile. Films like Inglourious Basterds (2009) and the Kill Bill series borrow elements from the genre—particularly from spaghetti westerns. But now, with Django Unchained, we see him delve deeply into it. There is no confusing where the source of Tarantino’s inspiration lies; the title clearly gives it away. He is unmistakably calling back to Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci, particularly his film Django (1966), starring Franco Nero. This is made even more evident when the opening credits use the same theme song. But this is not a director simply copying from his cinematic hero. He has created a story infused with his own personal touch, including all the great dialogue and well-built suspense/violence that we have come to expect.

Predicting the movies that you will like is (let’s be honest) really, really fun. You take little details that you know about a movie and you find yourself excited beyond logic. Here are the upcoming films that have me most excited.

Spencer is joined for the second episode of audio-only podcasting by MacGuffin team member Ed.

Topics include: the success of Titanic 3D, Transformers the Ride, debating the best James Bond, looking forward to Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock, and thinking about the most annoying TV characters.

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

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.