The MacGuffin

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

Spencer and Allen give a video review of A Good Day to Die Hard, from director John Moore and starring Bruce Willis & Jai Courtney.

In honor of the release of The Master, Spencer and Greg discuss Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In honor of the release of The Bourne Legacy, Spencer and Greg discuss Jeremy Renner.

In honor of the release of Rock of Ages, Spencer and Greg discuss Tom Cruise.

Spencer and Greg give their DVD rundown for April 17th, 2012. In this episode they discuss Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, Frozen Planet, and Shame.

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.

It’s not a new idea to say Hollywood is unoriginal. Everything old is new again, as everything is either a sequel or a remake. One of the most popular approaches is to convert TV shows into movies. Generally, they have been turned into over the top comedy (like Starsky & Hutch) or overly dramatic fare (like Miami Vice), with neither approach replicating the tone of the original series. With 21 Jump Street, the original tone of the show might still be off, but the movie strikes a good balance between being approachable to the original audience as well as a new generation.

In honor of 21 Jump Street, Spencer and Greg look at TV-to-film conversions. Then they examine the topic of sibling filmmakers and give DVD picks of the week.

Tom Cruise is back once again as super agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), the fourth installment in the highly popular series. This time around, the film is directed by Brad Bird, the man who brought us some of the best animated movies in the last fifteen years in The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004), and Ratatouille (2007). I was a little surprised that a person who is so associated with the animated world would be helming the next film of a franchise that has seen the likes of Brian DePalma, John Woo, and J.J. Abrams. Would his storytelling abilities translate well to a live action setting? Well, let me tell it to you like this: with a film that has the title Mission: Impossible, I walked in expecting over the top action, death-defying set pieces, preposterous plot twists, and really cool gadgets. I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed.