Posted on January 17, 2010 by GuruBob

“Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.” – Martin Scorsese

I’m changing direction in this post in that I’m going to be discussing my favorite movie podcasts.  In my opening post on this blog ‘Who is GuruBob …and why is he Blogging‘, I mentioned that movies and cinema is one of my passions and I have already mentioned some movies and the IMDB iPhone App over on GuruBob’s Posterous blog. I will generally direct most of my discussion about movies over on Posterous but I did want to talk specifically about the movie podcast in this post as it higlights one of the most amazing features of the Internet that is only getting better and more varied as time goes by.

If you happen to be interested in a particular subject or hobby, almost certainly there will be a popular blog or podcast on the Internet that is dedicated to that subject. The amazing characteristic of this is that when you find the right ones, it is almost if they were written for you personally because you feel that the blogger/podcaster feels and thinks just the same way as you about this subject. It is somehow comforting to find a community of people that feel and think the same way as you about something. This phenomenon has been facilitated significantly by the Internet and particularly with the advent of podcasting and blogging. So if you have an interest or hobby, make sure you do a thorough search on the Internet and look for blogs and/or podcasts run by like-minded people.

The premier platform for the dissemination of podcasts is Apple iTunes and the mobile device that makes it so easy to listen to your podcasts is, of course, the iPhone. Once you have subscribed to a particular podcast in iTunes it is so easy to transfer that podcast to the iPhone to listen to whenever it suits you.  For me, this is usually when I’m driving.

But this post is about my favorite movie podcasts, so here goes.

BBC 5 Live – Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews

I was introduced to this podcast by Andrew Nesbitt as he knew of my love for movies and couldn’t believe I wasn’t already subscribed to this podcast.  Mark Kermode is a well regarded movie critic in the UK and he has a weekly film review slot on Simon Mayo’s radio programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. Simon is the host of the programme and while he has an opinion on some of the movies being discussed, it is mainly Mark Kermode who contributes most of the movie discussion. Simon does however keep Mark’s sizeable ego in check from time to time.

Mark Kermode is extremely opinionated on the subject of movies and a true critic in the sense of the word. He can be overly critical at times, but I feel that his reviews are generally well balanced based on his extensive movie knowledge. I enjoy this podcast because Mark offers his opinion on the movies in the top 10 in the UK in any given week with special attention on particular movies that have caught his attention. The discussion is always ‘lively’ and Mark’s love of cinema shines through.

This is really film criticism from a single critic, so is less of a discussion, than a vehicle for Mark Kermode.  Never the less, I do enjoy listening every week.

If you have iTunes installed, click on the button below to subscribe to this podcast:

Filmspotting.net – Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson

With my enjoyment of the podcast discussed above, I went looking to see if I could find any other podcasts that I would enjoy as well.  I did find some others that didn’t quite cut it for me but eventually, I found the wonderful weekly podcast by Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson of filmspotting.net. Right from the outset, this podcast just resonated with me and I couldn’t believe that it had been available for several years and I wasn’t aware of it! Fortunately, back listings of all of the show recordings are available on the website and I have gone back and downloaded (and listened) to all the shows from the last year.

Both Adam and Matty are equally devoted in their love of movies and this show is a true debate between two equally passionate cineastes on the merits or not of the movies they choose to review. Both Adam and Matty have their different strengths and likes/dislikes and this adds tremendously to the richness of discussion. They openly say that they don’t run the show just to review the movies of the week and even some high profile movies come and go without mention on this show. They pick a movie that they both feel deserves debate and concentrate on that. They do have various ‘segments’ to their show which goes for over an hour every week which adds to the enjoyment.

The best thing I can say about the filmspotting.net podcast is I have learned more about cinema in general and different movies in particular from listening to this show than anything else I have listened to or read.  This is because when Adam and Matty discuss a movie, they continuously make references to other movies they feel are pertinent and are constantly creating lists of top 5 movies in different genres or years. I follow up on these movies and have become much more knowledgeable and aware of the important movies within genre’s. They also don’t limit their discussion to the typical US movie output and give good coverage to European and Asian cinema as well.

Listening to this show is one of the things I most look forward to in any given week and given that it has been running for several years and that the main income for the show seems to be listener donations makes it even more special.

If you have iTunes installed, click on the button below to subscribe to this podcast:

There you have it. If you have a love for movies and enjoy listening to entertaining, well considered discussion about movies and cinema in general I wholeheartedly recommend that you subscribe to these podcasts particularly filmspotting.net.  They are both available for subscription in iTunes and are both free.

I hope you get as much enjoyment out of them as I do.

It is…as it is.

GuruBob

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