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After the first 10 episodes of Unspooled, @Cameron H. came up with the brilliant idea to include a weekly poll so we could determine, once and for all, whether each film belongs in the AFI Top 100. While the podcast is focusing on 2018's best films this month, I figure it would be a good time to add polls to the episodes we'd missed and allow everyone to exercise their democratic rights. Vote now! Polls are open until March 1. Citizen Kane Ben Hur The Wizard Of Oz Swing Time The French Connection Titanic 2001: A Space Odyssey Bonnie And Clyde Platoon The General All About Eve Double Indemnity Singin’ In The Rain The Sixth Sense Taxi Driver E.T. The Extra Terrestrial High Noon The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

I'm gonna spoil my reaction before Monday but, holy shit everybody, I am about halfway through Passing Strange and I am absolutely loving it! It's totally a theater piece and not cinematic at all, but the music is fantastic and the performances (from the very small cast) are all excellent. Many thanks to CakeCalbug for picking it! This even totally makes up for Across the Universe

I usually see eye to eye on everything with Amy, but I have to say we're going to always disagree about superhero movies. Personally, it kinda chaps my ass when people say things like it's depressing or embarrassing for these films to dominate the box office, and the conversations about movies. Like Paul mentioned, there have always been trends in cinema and this is just the wave that we're currently riding, but just because someone doesn't personally like those films, that should not then make it depressing or embarrassing for the rest of the world to like those films. Marvel films are good. They are objectively good movies. Are all of them good? No, absolutely not (literally Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the worst things I've ever had to sit through), but there are 5 I can name off the top of my head that are great movies regardless of what genre they are in. I've been seeing this so much lately that it just kind of sparks rage in me that people can be so elitist (not saying Amy is but there are hints) that they completely write off anything in a certain genre just because they themselves don't like that genre. I loved Black Panther. It wasn't my favorite of the year, but it definitely was higher than every movie listed in today's episode. It was a good fucking movie and if this hadn't been about a comic book character but rather just a dude from African royalty fighting with his Americanized cousin who is justifiably angry about the oppression of black people, then it wouldn't even be a question about the seriousness of this movie. I think the same thing about Winter Soldier, and I was so happy that Paul thought the same that it's a beautiful 70s style political thriller that changed the way these Marvel movies are made. Suddenly it didn't have to just be a copy and paste story, but now we can revolve around a certain topic and change the genre to fit that. The same way Thor: Ragnarok revitalized the story of Thor, because Taika Waititi took this story and made one of his comedies in this world. I do believe that Amy is right in that Dark Knight should probably be the one to represent the comic book movies, because that is still one of my favorite movies of all time, but if we're going to talk about the importance of these films then I don't think it's fair to have this conversation with so many qualifiers like this is just a depressing time. It's not for a lot of us. A lot of us are delighted to see the things we grew up on being properly placed on screen. Also to the point that she wishes that these weren't the ways that feminism and black & asian representation were taken seriously, we have to really look at the world we're living in currently. People talk about feminism and black lives matter all the time and they never get taken seriously, they never ever get looked at in a way where these conversations go anywhere. But the fact that Black Panther and Infinity War and Star Wars and Spider-Man are the top grossing movies in the world, then putting these things out in that fashion normalizes it in a way we could never possibly hope for. There are already a plethora of movies that I'm sure Amy has watched that beautifully touch on feminism, and black lives, and LGBTQA people, but they aren't getting shown to middle America. Black Panther is. Crazy Rich Asians is. Wonder Woman is. Until we have a government that takes all of this seriously, and until we can get smaller independent features shown to the whitest of the white parts of this country, the only way to show that hey guess what a woman doesn't need a man and black people are people too is by these blockbusters. I know I'm preaching to the choir, and I'm pretty sure Amy knows all of this anyway, but I don't like having to consistently be told that my taste in movies is lesser than just because of what genre it is. I love me a superhero flick, and I love me a gritty independent drama. I find them both to be equal in my mind.

Some good eps this week. Keep it up and in a few more years I might consider myself a fan

The funniest part to me was that this film has never been released in Italy.

I've been re-listening to old episodes lately and starting thinking about all the overlap in the movies the gang has covered. So I compiled a list... 7 Appearances Silvester Stallone - Cobra, Judge Dredd, Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, Demolition Man, Over The Top, Rhinestone, Tango and Cash 5 Appearances Nicolas Cage - Season of the Witch, Drive Angry, Trespass, The Wicker Man, Con Air 4 Appearances Danny Trejo - Badass, Anaconda, Reindeer Games, Con Air Arnold Schwarzenegger - Jingle All The Way, Batman & Robin, Junior, Hercules in New York 3 Appearances Jennifer Lopez - Gigli, The Back-Up Plan, Anaconda Al Pacino - 88 Minutes, Gigli, The Devil's Advocate Billy Burke - Drive Angry, Breaking Dawn: Part 1, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 Jackson Rathbone - Avatar: The Last Airbender, Breaking Dawn: Part 1, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 Taylor Lautner - Abduction, Breaking Dawn: Part 1, Breaking Dawn Part 2 Temuera Morrison - Barb Wire, Speed 2, Green Lantern Leelee Sobieski - 88 Minutes, The Wicker Man, In The Name of the King Sandra Bullock - All About Steve, Speed 2, Demolition Man Jason Statham - Crank 2, In The Name of the King, Fast 6 Ben Affleck - Gigli, Reindeer Games, Daredevil Alan Cumming - Burlesque, Smurfs, Spice World Joe Pantoliano - Pluto Nash, Congo, Daredevil Kelly Preston - Old Dogs, Battlefield Earth, Jack Frost Will Smith - Wild Wild West, After Earth, Winter's Tale John Travolta - Old Dogs, Battlefield Earth, Staying Alive 2 Appearances Rita Wilson - Old Dogs, Jingle All The Way Willem Dafoe - Speed 2, Spiderman 3 Thomas Hayden Church - All About Steve, Spiderman 3 Lindsay Lohan - I Know Who Killed Me, Liz & Dick Charlize Theron - Reindeer Games, Devil's Advocate Dash Mihok - Punisher: War Zone, Trespass Cam Gigandet - Burlesque, Trespass Neil McDonough - I Know Who Killed Me, 88 Minutes Hank Azaria - The Smurfs, Godzilla Bai Ling - Crank 2, Wild Wild West Christa Campbell - Drive Angry, The Wicker Man Ron Perlman - Season of the Witch, In The Name of the King Benjamin Bratt - Catwoman, Demolition Man Rob Schneider - Judge Dredd, Demolition Man Jesse Ventura - Batman & Robin, Demolition Man Jeffery Jones - Devil's Advocate, Howard the Duck Ed Gale - Howard the Duck, Tiptoes Grand L Bush - Demolition Man, Street Fighter Miguel A Nunez Jr - Pluto Nash, Street Fighter Doug Hutchinson - Batman & Robin, Punisher: War Zone Bob Gunton - Demolition Man, Glimmer Man Nikki Cox - Mac & Me, Glimmer Man James Franco - Spiderman 3, The Wicker Man Robin Williams - Old Dogs, Toys Bruce Campbell - Spiderman 3, Congo Tania Saulner - In The Name of the King, Wicker Man Tom Atkins - Drive Angry, Halloween III Jennifer Garner - The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Daredevil Salma Hayek - Wild Wild West, Fair Game Steven Berkhoff - The Tourist, Fair Game Richard E. Grant - Spiceworld, Hudson Hawk Dan Ackroyd - Nothing But Trouble, Crossroads Matthew Broderick - Godzilla, Deck The Halls Fred Armisen - Smurfs, Deck The Halls Nicola Peltz - Avatar: The Last Airbender, Deck The Halls Gillian Vigman - All About Steve, Deck The Halls Jean Claude VanDamme - Street Fighter, Double Team Colin Ferrel - Daredevil, Winter's Tale Bob Hoskins - Super Mario Brothers, Spice World Tommy 'Tiny' Lister - Barb Wire, No Holds Barred Richard Edson - Super Mario Bros., Howard The Duck Bruce Willis - Hudson Hawk, Color of Night Hulk Hogan - No Holds Barred, Mr. Nanny Dolly Parton - Joyful Noise, Rhinestone Geri Halliwell - Crank 2, Spiceworld Demi Moore - Nothing But Trouble, LOL Roger Moore - Spice World, A View To A Kill Christopher Walken - Gigli, A View To A Kill Aida Turturro - Crocodile Dundee 3, Junior Danny Devito - Deck The Halls, Junior LL Cool J - Toys, Deep Blue Sea Thomas Jane - LOL, Deep Blue Sea Vanilla Ice - Cool As Ice, TMNT2 Kevin Nash - Punisher: War Zone, TMNT2 Mark Ginther - Con Air, TMNT2 Let me know if you think of any more to add, and I'll update it if any new ones appear. Last Update: 05/05/15

https://soundcloud.com/user-604539354/the-plug-compartment

It must be good, right? It's written by John Patrick Shanley ("Doubt", "Moonstruck" - but also "Congo") and stars the likes of Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon, Alan Rickman and Harvey Keitel. But it's a complete farago of a film - a serial killer/rogue cop set-up with a massive slice of whimsy and sheer lunacy added - I won't spoil the rationale for the killer's identification of his victims but I'll just say it relates to the musical notation of Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl". The movie also includes one of those insane late-career performances from Rod Steiger, who is wearing a toupee that I'm sure what give June a LOT of pleasure. This is just a taste, which if these 4 minutes do not convince you that this film is worth covering on the podcast, then nothing will:

I found this episode pretty interesting. I agree with Taylor fully about superhero movies... but then the end result of the episode, even with Amy being anti-superhero, was that Black Panther and Spider-verse were the two best things and I agree with that. I do think of them as their own genre, and those two are definitely among my faves of the genre. I do think they were nitpicking Black Panther, like arguing it misses one emotional beat at some point. That's the end-all of a movie? I don't mind not liking it fully, but that seems oddly specific reasoning. What I like about Unspooled is while they may have a lot of specific facts to share, they aren't nitpicking the quality of the films to death. They look at them broadly, as to how they fit in our lens of NOW, of culture, of 'what is great'. So to do the opposite with Black Panther, I thought was strange and less what I look to critics to do, to be honest. Is it because it's new? Because it's superheros?

Exactly! When people say things like, “Isn’t it sad that people like such-and-such so much” what it seems like they are really saying is, “I wish people liked the things I liked more. It sure would be better.” Which feels, I don’t know, kind of narcissistic or something. We don’t have to tear a thing down in order to raise something else up. We don’t all have to like the same things. We can even passionately disagree. But what we shouldn’t be is dismissive because that closes the dialogue forever.

I 100% agree! I haven’t listened to the episode, but that type of attitude always feels like intellectual/artistic profiling and it can’t help but come off as snobbery of the highest order. “Oh, you like those punchy-punch, superheroes in tights movies? Well, then I already know everything about you and you must be this type of person and like these types of things. I mean, obviously, you’re too much of a Neanderthal to recognize real ‘Art’ when you see it. Poor deluded you...” I like superhero movies, and I like other movies too. I read comics, but I also read books of classic literature, religion, poetry, and art. I’m not an outlier - especially not with this crowd. The one thing I can say about superhero movies is that they are -currently- probably the one thing in this world that people on both sides of the aisle can agree on. If this is the one bit of common ground we have left, shouldn’t we nurture that rather than create further division by dismissing it as being a lesser art form, and implicitly, only for “lesser” people? As Taylor said above, superhero movies are a perfect vehicle for people to ingest on a purely entertainment/spectacle level while opening up the doors to heavier and more divisive subjects (e.g race, sexism, civil rights) I mean, if Black Panther convinces just one child of a racist that maybe racism isn’t the right way, then isn’t that worth it? Doesn’t that make it important?

I'll just give a thumbs-up to the sentiment expressed here. I find the scoffing at superhero movies more tiresome than the current glut of superhero movies. There are always popular genres that dominate the marketplace! These are not that different from Westerns or slasher movies or disaster movies or whatever. The thing I will grant is that the current trend towards remakes and sequels is a bit disturbing. The Marvel franchise at least allows for some originality in its individual entries, but the overall remake/sequel trend is unusual. I would have been interested to hear them talk about how this might also be influenced by the atomization of content delivery: with so much new and original content coming out on Prestige TV, streaming services, etc., the big studio movies have to work harder to be the "safe" option that will get you to actually haul your ass to a theater. But at the same time, there is still a lot of original content on those other services, if you want to look for it.

MITRA JOUHARI joins The Boys to do a Rant Wheel.

I love the weird beaver in any form it takes on your crest. I fully thought that bear was a drunk dog . It could honestly work either way.

I think you mean those wild Aiellophiles!

Bilson shouldn't have been surprised, she knew he was a jumper when she met him.

Taking advantage of all those sweet sweet Euros from all the Christensen-heads in Lithuania. Smart.

Mix has been updated and boy are my arms tired

vid or it didnt happen

look out for their cronies

Hey, the guest was a female and yet no one on reddit will be able to say that she didn't "get it" - she was handbooking right along with the boys. Almost too well! I'm glad broken English is back in style. The Mac Wheldon thing made me think of a joke: There was this philosopher king in the land of philosopher kings and he would take great long walks along the beach in nothing but his trunks and his robe and he would contemplate matters of the kingdom as the sea air gilded his chest hairs with salt and vigor. One day he was particularly deep in thought and he began scratching at his exposed navel as he walked. Much to his surprise it moved to his touch with a little scraping sound. As he walked he continued to fiddle and eventually found that by digging his fingers in and twisting the thing he was able to unscrew the fleshy endcap. Below it his eyes beheld a glint of gold reflected in the sunlight. Curious, he stopped walking, now completely enthralled with his own navel and twisted faster and faster. Below the navel was a long golden rod, a golden screw thread tunneling into his own body. By this point he was absolutely agog and could not believe what was happening... the rod got longer and longer until with a pop it dislodged from his stomach altogether and with one movement he removed the golden rod with fleshy screw head and held it aloft into the sunlight to examine it. It was at this point that his butt cheeks fell off and slipped out the leg of his trunks, landing on the beach with a soft thud.

Still a big fan of the policy to release the eps when I, personally, get home from work thumbs up and an even bigger thumbs to the continued expansion of the role of music on the show

Do the laws of gravity just.... not apply to the Rock?

Having finished this now, as it's taken a few runs I wholeheartedly feel this has to be covered, because not only does this movie begin and end with Travolta as Gotti breaking the fourth wall and preparing the viewer for him narrating his life story, this ends with a closing title card about how the government was basically railroading Gotti and his son by using criminals as their witnesses in exchange for lighter sentences, the movie leaving out that those guys were doing most, if not, all of that on the orders of Gotti. I can't remember for the life of me where a biopic acknowledges the subject is a criminal psycho, but also a misunderstood good guy.

Thank you, Matt. I did not know what long-form improv was before I heard this show, which I've listened to since episode four, I think. I had recently discovered Comedy Death Ray. The first episode I ever listened to was the Patton Oswalt one--I was really into stand-up at the time and had just discovered podcasts, so I typed Patton's name into iTunes and found CDR on a whim. After 10 minutes this Don Dimello character shows up. I had no idea what was happening; but after a couple minutes I realized he was just making this stuff up. They interviewed him for an hour, and he just kept on making up an increasingly ridiculous backstory. This blew my mind. Something I had always had a natural talent for was actually a *thing*! People were out there doing it. One day on the earwolf site I saw Andy Daly was a guest on this show called Improv4Humans. I started listening. This really blew my mind. There was no structure! These guys could just build entire narratives out of a single word, or vague idea. I had never heard anything like this before. Anyway, I've been listening ever since. There's not much of an improv scene around these parts, but Matt: again, thank you. You introduced me to a kind of entertainment I had no idea existed, and it's helped me tremendously. Not only has it gotten me through some tough times (I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. I went through a seriously awful bout of depression, and sometimes the only bright spot in my day was this show) but it's helped my writing as well. I had been working on a novel for a while but got totally stuck. The idea of finding the "game" to a scene, taking a simple idea and carrying it out to its logical extreme--this completely got me out of my writer's block. The novel (which I'm still chipping away at) is constructed in a such a way that every chapter is based around a theme. So I started treating those themes like one-word suggestions. I tried to think of stories from my life that I associated with that theme. As a result, I was able to imbue a lot more of myself into my writing. The dialogue was improved dramatically. The drama escalated more effectively. (I promise I put more effort into creative writing than I do my rambling, boring forum posts) That all is to say nothing at how brilliant this show is as a piece of comedy. Not even SNL has been able to tackle political and social issues like gun control and gay marriage with the poignancy and deftness of Improv4Humans. The show is as good as it is because you care. You get mad, you get excited, you get depressed--but you channel that into some of the best comedy I've ever heard. (I think the lack of that kind of emotional fire is what has made SNL a little luke warm, actually) I always found it very cathartic hearing the episodes where you read letters from his recently-deceased father. It's helped me to laugh when coping with losing loved ones. Basically, this show means a lot to me. Thanks again, Matt. Star Wars, Jake