Cinemaniacs Podcast

That Spielberg came back from the mauling he received over 1941 is remarkable enough. That he came back so quickly, taking just 18 months to put the budget-busting, just-in-profit farce behind him and turn out a film that would hold Paramount's dosh-raking record until the 1994 release of Forrest Gump is astonishing. That he did so without any perceptible retreat from the wistfully innocent movie vision that had sustained him thus far, and that had irked 1941's critics so violently has the eyes popping and the jaw skimming the carpet in an approximation of one of Tex Avery's cartoon wolves.

That he did so with a 1940s adventure serial homage about a daredevil archaeologist beggars belief. You wouldn't pitch it for all the cocaine in Hollywood, but Spielberg didn't need to. In as deep a career trough as he was ever again to dig, Steven Spielberg got by with a little help from his friends. Or rather, friend.

In fact, Indiana Jones was the invention of George Lucas, conceived back in 1973 and polished by Philip Kaufman, who introduced the main Ark Of The Covenant plotspring: the source of much subsequent bickering over credits and percentages. Summering with Lucas in Hawaii in 1977, Spielberg helped his old UCA pal to bat the idea around. Lawrence Kasdan, a young ad agency hotshot recently turned screenwriter stepped aboard and by the time shooting began on 1941, Raiders Of The Lost Ark was in presentable shape. Two hundred and 47 days later, with 1941 finally in the can and five times over its provisional budget, it needed to be, Because Spielberg really needed Raiders.

It instantly became the Platonic Ideal of the adventure movie; from John Williams' stirring Raiders march ("Dat-da-da-daaaah! Dat-da-daaaah") to Jones/Ford's frankly offhand treatment of his tomboy love interest Marion (Karen Allen another in a long line of indistinct Spielberg female "leads") it says "Girls? Forget about them for a year or two..."

Spielberg's entertainment instincts had returned. Pushing for belly laughs in the duff 1941, he'd come across like the college doofuss trying to impress the cool dudes on campus. By comparison, Raiders' humour, though relentless, is a by-product of the storytelling. In one knockout moment, and with comic timing which might have awed Chaplin, Jones faces a scimitar-flourishing Berber, shrugs, pulls his revolver and shoots him dead. Originally storyboarded as a lengthy ding-dong of swordplay and whipwork, the legends are legion as to how Spielberg dreamt it up, some sources alleging that Harrison Ford (it was nearly Tom Selleck, we have CBS-TV and Magnum PI to thank for kiboshing that), suffering from a touch of the Cairo Colon, demanded the scene be cut short before he was caught short. What the legends agree on is that the solution was improvised. And that, of course, it is genius.

The sheer speed of Raiders, its ground-breaking depiction of a sweating hero inclined to smugness but only barely coping with events, its dramatic camerawork and bravura editing: everything conspired to place the audience in the thick of the action and perennially uncertain as to the outcome. Ben Burtt. The sound man who conjured the sizzling travel of the Star Wars blasters by going into the middle of the Mojave desert, hitting a telegraph cable with a hammer and recording the other end, excelled himself. Towards the end, as Jones clings with his whip to the axle of a careering Wehrmacht truck, the vehicle itself seems to take on an air of living malevolence. Burtt did that by mixing a deafening lion's roar into the engine noise. His reward: an Academy Special Achievement Award.

Though some are loath to call Raiders a thoroughbred Spielberg film, they're just being silly. The shadow of Lucas notwithstanding, it so is. There are Nazis in it. There's a big old religious metaphor in it, It's no good at relationships (so "no good" that it doesn't even bother)

"Most people, ten years from now, same job, same place, same routine. Everything the same. Just keeping it safe over and over and over. Ten years from now. Man, you don’t know where you’ll be ten minutes from now" and that's Vincent's argument for you. Directed by Michael Mann Starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Javier Bardem, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Raffulo & Peter Berg.

"Why is it, that a dog, sleeping in the sun, is so beautiful, y'know, it is, it's beautiful, but a guy, standing at a bank machine, trying to take some money out, looks like a complete moron?" i agree Jesse, similarly a fairly new couple, holding hands, roaming around an alluring cityscape, talking about the most random thing one can possibly think of could be interesting to gaze upon. Weaved by Richard Linklater, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. i don't need to mention much about this movie really, you can feel the essence of the movie just by looking at the stills, it was the first film that broke the cliché of having a plot for a romantic story, you can show it just by talking about love and idea of falling in love.

Of course we are talking about matrix here but i’m not going to make you choose between red or blue pill but what I’m going to ask you is to look out for problems in your life and think about the level of detail that particular problem have, doesn’t making any sense right? Well, it’ll make sense eventually.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Anne-Moss & Joe Pantoliano. Directed by The Wachowskis, captured by Bill Pope. This movies explores the idea of simulated reality in dystopian setting, robots are our breeders and we are breeding more slaves for their endless thirst for power, afterall they have to sustain themselves too.

Join us, we had a fun discussion here, we talked about reasons behind the title of this movie, why they used different tints for scenes in matrix and in reality, how it borrowed the ideas and concepts from 2001: a space odyssey and Jean Baudrillard' book Simulacra and Simulation, and we did the sin by replacing the lead cast with other actors too, yeah we are ready for the hate.

The greatest trick an illusionist can pull off is to make you believe that what he did can be repeated multiple times and there's only one way to do it and all the other ways are just misdirections, well it'll eventually pull down your gaurds and you'll stop thinking about other possibilities and at the end of it, he wins! but sometimes he have to do something real and leave just enough to make it look suspicious. Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, Michael Caine and David Bowie. this movie talks about backstage wizards by showing their obsessive side. in this conversation we discussed about director's unique style, importance of intercutting and inserts in non-linear storytelling, how editing elevates the suspense and overall performance of all the actors in the movie. It was ahead of it's time and that's what makes it special, you just simply can't watch it once and not watch it again and again, this is one of those few movies that requires multiple watches to truly appreciate the craftsmenship behind it.

It’s Warlord not Lord of War but director prefers it in his way, not gonna argue about that neither about how magnificent this movie is, it’s alluring cinematography captures everything without getting shy away from showing ugly truth and brutality of terrorist infected part of our world.

Directed by Andrew Niccol, starring Nicholas Cage, Jared Leto, Ethan Hawke, Bridget Moynahan, Eamonn Walker and Ian Holm.

This movie focuses more upon repercussions of gunrunning business and how it affects the global political situation, you’ll hear us talking about energetic performance by Nicholas, Jared Leto's consistency and presence of Ethan Hawke dispite having less than 15 minutes of screentime. This movie is surely not for everyone but meant to experienced by everyone, if you’ve already watched it then you know how affective it’s cinematography was and movie's overall approach on using real locations and real arsenals. That’s enough build-up, join the discussion to hear more and also the other guy is speaking bit low don’t be shy just crank up the volume little bit.

How many times does it happens that you watch a movie and it's universe pulls you in not because of plot or anything like that but rather because of beauty within it's absurdly detailed dollhouse dramedy, well that's The Grand Budapest Hotel for you.

Staged by Wes Anderson where characters become more lively than narrative itself. Put together by huge cast such as Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, William Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Léa Seydoux, Bill Murray, Mathieu Amalric, Tony Revolori and Saoirse Ronan, quite a list isn't it? Join us to hear us talking about the hidden meaning behind Author's name, why Monsieur Gustav was so particular about everything in the hotel, how transitions through decades changed the look and feel of the hotel and how fake world can look more real by adding textures not layers. It's a long talk so buckle up, we are not here to critique the film but to explore it.

Have you seen Once upon a time in Hollywood? if yes, we are here to give you a reason to watch it again and if not, you know what's the drill.

A modern classic written and directed by Quintin Tarantino starring Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio.

We here in Cinemaniacs discuss movies and give our perspective about it, from why they named it Once upon a time in Hollywood to the reason behind that controversial Bruce-Cliff fight scene.

Why Tarantino is a master of revitalizing nostalgia and needle drops, this movies effortlessly makes you dive deep into late 60's and forces you to fascinates you about that period, a force you can't resist.

Join us on this podcast to know more about the movie, we don't review the movie we explore it.