Matt Brown

The Avengers keep on avenging, obliterating expectations and creating a perfect storm of box office success. Meanwhile, Dark Shadows, What To Expect, and Battleship have all come and gone, filling May with bombs and clearing the way for bigger fights in June and July. Whither Spider-Man? Whither the Dark Knight? Plus, Dan Harmon's TV clustercuss, all on tonight's brand new Mamo!

THE AVENGERS! Iron Man! Thor! Captain America! The Incredible Hulk! Matt Brown! Matt Price! Not really. But we take the opportunity - having been talking about this film in some form or another in more podcast episodes than any other project in Mamo history - to have a big conversation about everything that Joss Whedon (and Marvel Studios) did right in finally assembling the Avengers... plus, we circle back on Cabin in the Woods, and tie off our previous non-spoiler conversation with some genuine observations about the strengths of the film. Spoiler warning throughout: we heartily recommend seeing BOTH The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods before listening to this show.

We wrap up our Ebertfest 2012 coverage from the Valois Cafeteria in Chicago IL, with an in-depth chat about A Separation, Take Shelter, Higher Ground, and the meaning of faith in the universe. Special bonus: surreptitious Q&A audio clips!

Live from the Aroma Cafe in Champaign, IL, we continue to recap Ebertfest as it happens. Today we discuss the beautiful film Terri, a terrific program of shorts accompanied by the Alloy orchestra, and our thoughts on a panel about VOD vs. the future of theatrical moviegoing. http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo251.mp3

Mamo comes to you from Champaign, Illinois, the home of Roger Ebert's Film Festival - Ebertfest! We sit down on a park bench to discuss the festival and three of its films: Joe vs. the Volcano, Big Fan, and Kinyarwanda. Plus a big shout-out to the Jane Addams Book Shop. http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo250.mp3

Mamo road trip! We stop at Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a catch-up show. We talk Catching Fire, Avengers, the next Batman, James Cameron, the 3-D 48fps Hobbit, and the future of all mankind (and movies). http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo249.mp3

Mamo comes to you from ActionFest 2012 in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina! We chat up the film festival with a body count while contemplating the warm welcome our American cousins have given us all.

WELCOME TO THE SUMMER, boys and girls! Mamo's summer box office contest kicks off once again, and we give you our picks for what the top ten films of the 2012 season will be.

PLEASE NOTE: the box office contest is run on RowThree.com and only entries in the comments of the Row Three thread will be eligible for this contest. Comments on mamocast.blogspot.com will NOT be eligible.

Kaboom! The Hunger Games shows up, and shows us how it's done. Haters gonna hate, but in this $150M+ teen girl prizefight, we're with Katniss.

Mamo has seen Cabin in the Woods, the three-years'-delayed Joss Whedon / Drew Goddard extravaganza that delivers on every conceivable level. We're joined by fellow Whedonite Sasha James for a roundtable discussion of the Ascension of Joss.

Will theatrical moviegoing die out, or evolve into something new? We talk to special guest stars Ned Loach and Robert Gontier from 360 Screenings, a new screening series coming to Toronto this spring, which will unite cinema and live performance to create a new level of immersion in the film's story.

To support 360 Screenings, visit their Indie Go Go page here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/360-Screenings/

People have been screaming "BOMB!" at John Carter for longer than is, we think, strictly germane to the potential value (or lack of same) of the franchise. Now that the movie is out - and bombing - what happened? And while we're on the subject, what happened to Eddie Murphy?

Our somewhat live Oscar podcast, 2012! We recorded our thoughts in staccato bursts throughout Billy Crystal's triumphantly comfortable return to the microphone to preside over the Kodak Theatre Battle 2012, The Artist vs. Hugo. Now all eleven segments are joined together a single downloadable episode, for your nostalgic pleasure. Remember, kids, going to the movies is great.

In which we put our stakes in the ground and say we know who will win at next week's Oscars. Spoiler: it's The Artist. Or is it?

The Phantom Menace came out in 1999 and our podcast started in 2005, so we never really got a chance to examine its seismic impact on the world of filmmaking - to say nothing of the world of Star Wars. With the film back in theatres (in threeeeee deeeeee!) we take the opportunity to put a pin in all things Lucas, and somehow manage to escape the entire procedure without once following the word "Jar" with a second instance of the word "Jar."

2012 is starting out surprisingly strong, isn't it? We look at the just-released Chronicle, and the notion of "found footage" movies in general, and then step back by a week and examine the reborn career of Liam Neeson, c/o The Grey.

The Boys of Mamo return on Oscar Nomination Tuesday to talk about what the hell just happened, i.e. the same thing that happens every year.

What do Yol, George Lucas, and the Stop Online Piracy Act have in common? They have this episode of Mamo, for one thing.

With the announcement of changes to the eligibility requirements for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars, we pause for a moment to consider the health of the genre. Has a documentary ever changed the world?

Part 2 of our 2011 wrap-up! We look at how the industry fared for the year - not enough money, too much 3-D, and a whole lotta superheroes. Which franchises were born? Which were renewed? Which [cough Green Lantern cough] are dead, dead, dead?

Happy new year! Mamo gathers on a crystal-clear January morning and looks back on the best and worst of 2011 with special guest star Peter Kuplowsky, from our favourite vantage point in the corner booth at Caplansky's Deli. Lists abound. What was your favourite film of the year?

As the year winds to a close we look at a chock-a-block week in popular culture, from Sherlock Holmes to BBC's Sherlock, from The Hobbit to Lord of the Rings, from Tintin to the next Tintin, and from Prometheus to Alien (in reverse). Pull up a chair and get some cream for your coffee.

There is no such girl. But wouldn't it be lovely if there were? We look at David Fincher's mega-zeitgeisty adaptation of the biggest book in the world, before turning our gaze to the biggest screens in the world and their recent, thunderous triumph with a certain impossible mission.

The Boys of Mamo head to the multiplexes to take in the first six minutes of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, and on the way, chit-chat about annual critics' lists, and Butt-Numb-A-Thon, and big burly men in masks with unintelligible voices. Sort of like us.

Special guest star Colin Geddes, Midnight Madness programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival, whisks us away to a secret location to drink old-timey drinks and gab about his cinematic life and times in Toronto. With bonus guest: Our mysterious benefactor! Pull up a stool!