The MacGuffin

Spencer is joined by Nick Ahlers (The MacGuffin, The Grapes of Rad), Aaron Mason (The Grapes of Rad), and Steve Spielberg.

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.

Spencer and Greg give their DVD rundown for December 4th, 2012. In this episode they discuss The Dark Knight Rises, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Brazil.

I haven’t necessarily loved all of Rian Johnson’s movies, but I have always thought that he was an immensely talented filmmaker. His debut, with the modern noir Brick, was a treat across the board and instantly brought him widespread acclaim. Though his sophomore effort, The Brothers Bloom, failed to capture me with the story and casting, I did find the style and creativity of the movie to be masterful. It is should be no surprise, then, that his time travel thriller Looper would be high on the list of films I was eager about this year.

Spencer is joined by Aaron Mason (The Grapes of Rad) and Nick Ahlers (Planned Brotherhood, The MacGuffin).

Topics include: the trouble with Compliance, the sudden arrival of Before Midnight, looking forward to ‘Avatarland,’ theorizing about the future of Planet of the Apes, debating whether Jim Carrey can Kick-Ass too, reflecting on EW’s summer movie awards, the sad state of Oogieloves, and musing about Axel Foley – “TV star.”

Additionally, we play another game of “Film or Fiction” (special thanks to Brandon Jerwa for the help with that).

Links:
Vote for The MacGuffin as the ‘best local podcast’ (http://bit.ly/rndvi3)
Entertainment Weekly’s Summer Movie Awards (http://bit.ly/TZ0vEL)

Spencer is joined by Aaron Mason (The Grapes of Rad) and Aaron Roden (The Air-Raid Podcast).

Topics include: the Batman curse, the risk of Dark Knight Rises spinoffs, the possibility of a third Hobbit movie, expectations for Vince Vaughn ‘action star,’ a look at Kevin Clash’s future, the problem with public apologies, the porn industries dispute over condoms, taking issue with more vampires, and hopes for JJ Abrams and Edgar Wright’s collaboration.

Links:
GrapesOfRad.com
twitter.com/GrapesOfRad
facebook.com/GrapesOfRad
Air-Raid.net
twitter.com/AirRaidnet
facebook.com/TheAirRaidPodcast

In honor of the release of The Dark Knight Rises, Spencer and Greg look back on Batman’s history in TV & film.

It is with both excitement and reluctance that we reach the end of the road on Christopher Nolan’s Batman universe. Without question, The Dark Knight Rises has been my most anticipated film of the year…but, at the same time, I knew this was the end for this iteration of the Batman franchise. Despite the high level of anticipation heading into this film, I had faith Nolan could deliver, and he rewarded me handsomely for that belief.

The MacGuffin joins forces with The Backroom for a bonus roundtable discussion on The Dark Knight Rises, from director Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale & Tom Hardy.

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.

Spencer is joined by Adam Gehrke (Q13, Metro Networks).

Topics include: A look at the origins of Adam’s interest in movies, working on indie films, the joy of preview screenings, the future of Dumb and Dumber, debating how much press is too much and speculating what Roger Avery & Paul Verhoeven’s Jesus would be like.

Links:
http://www.AdamGehrke.com
http://www.twitter.com/AdamGehrke
http://www.Gofobo.com
http://www.facebook.com/43kixSeattle

Notes:
Join us for the podcast meetup – http://on.fb.me/Le9KxP
Special thanks to Demitri’s Bloody Mary Seasonings – http://www.Demitris.com