The MacGuffin

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

This segment is also available on Stitcher, iTunes and YouTube. 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.

In a darkened space below the deck of the Orca, a fishing boat that probably isn’t big enough, the Ahabesque character of Sam Quint relays a chilling tale about a mission to deliver an atomic bomb to Japan during World War II. While drunk and still laughing, Quint (played by Robert Shaw) begins to deliver this strange and haunting monologue to his two fellow crewmates, and while the music fades and the camera pushes in closer to his face, the tone of the movie makes an important shift. Carefully worded and with deep sincerity, Shaw explains in great detail about the night his character watched the other soldiers get picked off one by one by a swarm of tiger sharks while they waited in the Japanese waters to be saved by the US military. To anyone who has seen Jaws (1975) more than once, this scene quickly becomes their favorite. Steven Spielberg himself has admitted that this scene, consisting of only dialogue and a few reaction shots, is the moment from Jaws that he was most proud of. What this now-famous boat scene underlines is the dichotomy of its creator.

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

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.

In honor of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Spencer and Greg discuss Robert Downey Jr. Then they examine threequels and give DVD picks of the week.

Spencer and Greg look at the history of The Muppets, in honor of the new film, then share family movie-watching experiences for the holiday and give DVD picks.

Another Top 5 segment from The MacGuffin. Inspired by the films War Horse and Tintin, Allen and Edward share their top 5 underrated Steven Spielberg 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.

Being a parent comes with many (maybe too many) responsibilities. Near the top of this list is properly educating your child about cinema. At least, it’s near the top of my list. My father introduced me to movies when I was a kid, and when my daughter was born I looked forward to doing the same for her. Here was a blank slate! She hadn’t had her views and education warped by those whose knowledge was small and opinions were simply wrong. I was very excited.

What is your favorite movie? That’s not such a hard question, is it? You’re thinking, “Oh, there’s so many,” or “I can’t choose just one.” C’mon, now, I’m not asking you to name your favorite child. Everyone has a favorite movie. My answer to that question hasn’t changed since I first saw the movie when I was 10 years old. My favorite movie is , and I coerce my wife and daughter into watching it with me at least once a year on my birthday.

Spencer and John look back on Johnny Depp’s rise to stardom in honor of Pirates of the Caribbean 4, share some things they wish would go away now, and give their DVD picks of the week.

What makes a film cool? And what does “cool” mean, anyway? It feels like a word that means a million things and nothing at the same time, but it’s a concept that’s constantly used to promote, review and defend a huge amount of Hollywood mainstream cinema. If you ever watch a Michael Bay interview, you’ll probably notice he doesn’t really talk about the basics that much—he’ll mention the script a bit, say the actors have done a good job, but you know he’ll tell you Optimus Prime doing The Ram Jam on Megatron will be the most awesome thing anyone will ever see. So why does “awesome” become so important? What does it even really mean? Is it just a more fan accessible and media appropriate way of describing spectacle? In a sense, it probably is, but how many big budget action/adventure films have you seen that supersede this type of spectacle over every other part of the production—the films that think looking and being “cool” is a perfectly suitable substitute for any attempts at characterization, narrative coherency or originality? And the worst thing is, they get away with it.