Big Ben.

Ben Affleck has had a tumultuous career to say the least. Battles with girlfriends, alcohol, and poor acting choices. On the other hand, he burst onto the scene with a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and has been in some of the most successful movies of all time. With Ben, it truly is a mixed bag. At this point, fresh of a Best Picture Oscar win for Argo, his Directing talent can not be denied. That is why this week on CinemaJaw Matt K. and Ry The Movie Guy go In Depth on this Hollywood legend in the making. By taking a look at his Best, Worst and Most Underrated films we hope to get a clearer picture of Where Ben’s taking us.

Aside from Ben Affleck, we have some awesome segments: I for an I, CinemaWAR and the brand new MovieWed Game, and a whole lot more! Its Oscar Worthy!

Reviewed This Episode: Seven Psychopaths, Magic Mike, The Invisible War
I for an I: Oz the Great And Powerful
Jaw 101: James Franco

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Makin a list and checkin it twice!

This Holiday Season, don’t just listen to any ol’ advice. Go to the people you trust at CinemaJaw to help you make those xmas shoppin lists for the movie lover in your family… or just for you, because CinemJaw is droppin the GEMS of home theater shopping. While Matt K may famously think that physical media is dead, it still seems to fly off the shelves and true collectors rejoice because this episode we are picking the Best DVDs and Blu Rays!

Helping us choose is a guy on an epic mission. One that could take him 25 years or more. His mission… to watch every Criterion film! He is Matt Streets, also know as The Criterion Completist  over at Keeping-it-reel.com. Matt S. sits in on the entire episode and lends his tremendous expertise and shopping savvy to the show.

Add to it new segments including a new game and this episode is chock full of ju-ju yummies! Its Cinemalishous! Happy Holidays!

I for an I: The Hobbit and Unexpected Journey
Reviewed This Episode: Killing Them Softly, Life of Pi, Hide Park on the Hudson, Brave
CinemaWAR: Which is the better prequel The Hobbit or X-Men First Class?

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This week CinemaJaw goes live, on location to bring you coverage of an amazing art opening that happens to be tied into an upcoming documentary film. We know… That sounds complicated, bear with us here, because this is a great episode!

Prof. John Otterbacher (who you may remember from his other appearances on CinemaJaw) is currently in the process of making a new documentary called “Officially Limited” that takes a look at licensed and unlicensed movie posters, the artist that make and print them, their process, the fans, and the whole industry that has sprung up around this phenomenon. Recently Professor O. had an event at Gallerie F here in Chicago to raise some money and awareness for not only the film  but this whole movie poster movement in pop art. He was kind enough to ask CinemaJaw to join him. In this episode, we interview the Galerie F owner, discuss Wreck-it Ralph with Jaw heads outside of The New 400 Theaters, and talk about our favorite movie vampires. All in less than an hour… Hang this episode on your wall, because THAT is an ART!

Also – This is Red Box Reno’s last episode as the official Producer of CinemaJaw. Reno is the best in the biz, and we have been so happy to have him for the past 3 years! Stay tuned for a  proper goodbye and news on who the next Engineer will be! (Yes we already have one!)

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Take a look, it’s in a book…

Writers, those tortured souls, have managed to work themselves into their stories since pen first hit paper. The Movies are no different. It’s all quite meta, and it happens in every genre: Comedy, Action, Horror, etc. These are the movies about writers and this week on CinemaJaw we pick our top 5!

Joining us on this literary quest is none other than RedEye Columnist and writer extraordinaire, Mr. Stephen Markley! Stephen helps us choose our top 5 and even drops the science on his latest project in what is another CINEMAJAW EXCLUSIVE!

Also ever-present are our usual line up of great segments. So take a listen, then go read a book!

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This episode of CinemaJaw is dedicated to the NYFD.

This is a difficult post to write for a light-hearted team of podcasters who talk about movies. This episode is not about the tragedy that befell our nation that year, there is enough retrospective on that by much different media outlets, and perhaps even too much. While we never can or should forget the events of that September, we were fortunate in that some great escapes from reality (however fleeting) were to be had at the movie theater. We needed a great year in film to find some respite from the relentless news coverage on television, and boy did we get one. Perhaps, in it’s own way, however accidental, Hollywood did its part to begin healing America with a fantastic run of movies. Again this month, the nation, and much of the world remembers those events and again, in our own way, we hope to provide a short break.

With that in mind we turn our conversation to our favorite films of 2001. The year had a simply stellar line up of films to choose from! Matt and Ry have to narrow an amazing list down to just 5 (sure to be fan-controversial) picks. Great factoids about the Oscar hopeful, and some stellar reviews abound! Also ever-present are I for an I, Trivia, Hollywood Headlines, a sure-to-be-classic CinemaWAR and even a new segment called Featured Review! We hope to entertain you and do our part.

Featured Review: Contagion
Reviewed this Episode: Moneyball, the Warior, Hanah, the Conspiritor
I for an I: Abduction
CinemaWAR!: should George Lucas keep going ck and changing the Star Wars trilogy?

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It’s been a banner year… or has it?

This week on CinemaJaw Ry the Movie Guy and Matt K are joined by a fellow Chicago film critic. Although, truth be told, you can hardly throw a stone in this town (Chicago) without hitting a film critic in the noggin, few do it as well as Mr. David J. Fowlie of Keeping-it-Reel.com. While perhaps all you Jaw Heads are used to our ramblings, the long-form review is somewhat of a lost art. David and his partner in crime Paul bring discourse to their film fandom in splendidly old fashion style, and aren’t afraid to delve into the depths of a great review over at their site. That is why David was the perfect guest to cover: The Best Films of 2011 So-Far. These were not easy lists to make, for several reasons.

The usual CinemaTastic segments abound. We’ve got Guest vs. Matt K Trivia, Hollywood Headlines, I for an I, several reviews and plenty of great jaw! All that plus a BRAND NEW SEGMENT we are calling: CinemaWAR! in which Matt K and Ry the Movie Guy take opposing sides in a heated movie debate and the guest acts as judge deciding who won the debate! This episode is jam packed and comes out just in time for that July holiday flight/drive home! Enjoy.

Sponsor: Protect your Home with ADT Security Services! Call 1-866-778-3127

I for an I: Horrible Bosses
Reviewed This Episode: Tree of Life, Cars 2, Green Lantern, Transformers 3
CinemaWAR!: Is John Cusack a good actor?

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We are always working on new and improved ways to reach the JawHeads out there. Recently we’ve gotten into video. This is our first foray, but rest assured it’s a doozy right off the bat. We landed an interview with none other than Mr. Tony Moore, illustrator extraordinaire, and one of the creators of The Walking Dead!

We hope you enjoy this bonus video, and your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

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Break out those reading glasses!

Wait… We’re movie guys… We don’t read… Right? Wrong! Matt K. and Ry the Movie Guy are both avid readers! (no not just comic books) and this was a tough list to pick for both of them! So the time is here for Matt and Ry to take a look into a (sub?) classification, MUCH USED, in Hollywood: The films based on bestselling books. There are just so many to choose from that honestly this topic is sure to come up again on a future episode. That stellar topic plus the usual “I for an I”, Hollywood Headlines, and Lilly and Gary from New Jersey join in for a trivia bout against Matt K!

I’m going to go read a book… after I listen to this.

Take a look, it's in a book, a reading rainbow.

I for an I: Black Swan,
Reviewed This Episode: Pandoum, How to Train Your Dragon, This Film Is Not Yet Rated

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Subtitles or dub?

I know, I know…. We didnt think this would be a fun episode either, but boy were we wrong! Turns out some of our very favorite films are foreign language films. Perhaps this is because the ones that make it over the pond are the very cream of the crop, perhaps we just like reading subtitles. In either case Matt and Ry take on that topic in this stunningly awesome episode and pick their Top 5 Foreign Films. This is due in no small part to the advent of the Millennium series of films coming from Sweden both of which are covered by the guys this episode.

Our boys are joined by guest Lance Fensterman who is the head of ReedPop the pop-culture division of the massive trade show company Reed Exhibitions, and the man who brough C2E2 to Chicago (thanks Lance!).

I for an I: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Pt 1.
Reviewed This Episode: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire

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(in our best Conan O’brien voice)
In the year two-thousand…. In the year two-thousand!

in the year 2000.....

Welcome to the first ever Jaw Retrospective, an new type of episode! In these Retrospectives we will take a look at one particular year of cinema, and what better year to start with than Y2K?! Matt and Ry the Movie Guy pick their favorite films from the year 2000 and discuss them at length. All that plus Bartender of the Year Janice Deregla joins us for trivia. Plus games, news and more. All the great stuff you’ve come to expect from CinemaJaw! Hur-ah!

I for an I: Due Date, 127 hours, Megamind
Reviewed this episode: Waiting for Superman, Pretators, & more…

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