The MacGuffin

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 Brave, Spencer and Greg discuss female leads.

In honor of the release of Chimpanzee and To the Arctic 3D, Spencer and Greg discuss nature documentaries.

Please note: starting this week our video and audio podcasts are splitting. They have become their own individual properties. Hopefully you’ll check them both out.

Well, what a weak year it has been. Not that there haven’t been movies and performances that I have liked, but nothing is easy to point to and say: “this is a great piece of cinema that deserve accolades and will be talked about years from now.” The Academy has done little to help here, with many random—and, in some cases, dismal—nomination choices. But still, they have to give these awards to someone. So, here are my guesses and personal choices for the Academy Awards.

Margret Thatcher is a controversial figure even to her admirers. She is the woman who stood up to the unions and communism. To her detractors, she was a brutal woman who put down workers and helped the rich get richer. Just on the history alone, this is a prime subject for examination in a film. So it is sad that there is so little to be learned about her in The Iron Lady (2011).

The MacGuffin crew discuss Defending Your Life, from director/writer/actor Albert Brooks and co-starring Meryl Streep.

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

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

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.

Ah, winter. The time when my usual routine of watching a lot of stuff turns into “really watching a lot of stuff,” what with it being dreary outside most of the time. Here are a few things that have distracted me during the last stretch of particularly nasty days in Seattle:

The MacGuffin crew discuss Manhattan, from director/writer/actor Woody Allen and co-starring Diane Keaton.

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

We open with the city skyline; far in the back we can see The Empire State Building.  Cut down to the street, covered in snow, with people hustling and bustling about.  We then move to NYU, with students sitting next to a fountain, reading their books.  After that, cars riding along the street, a shopkeeper opening his store, a couple kissing on a balcony.  Music gently plays as a narrator describes the first chapter of a book he is writing.  We see more buildings, parks, and streets.  The music grows to a crescendo, ending with a spectacular fireworks display right above the heights of the city.  In this opening scene, which lasts nearly four minutes, Woody Allen establishes all the life, beauty, and romance that come with living in New York City, a perfect backdrop to his romantic-comedy masterpiece, Manhattan (1979).