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Ninja III = Free on Prime Video (w/subscripton) 4 Glaring Omissions: 1. Billy’s line: “Listen, there’s an officer in the the Asiatic Division. He said there’s this guy downtown that the local Japanese swear by.” Cause we all know how small, suburban Arizona towns in the 80s had police departments with African, “Asiatic,” Balkan, Indosesian, etc. divisions...I died! 2. The Doctor: “Physically, you’re great. I see no problem. You are under severe stress, of course. But otherwise, Dr. Bowen the psychiatrist you saw, said there’s nothing out of the ordinary. Aside from your exceptional extrasensory perception and your preoccupation with Japanese culture.” What stress aside from being stalked by Billy? What exceptional powers of extrasensory perception? What cultural obsession (a sword she found)? 3. Police Response Time @ Golf Course: Since the ninja is still at the golf course and how fast he is, we must assume this small town has been able to deploy roughly 50 cops and a helicopter within 2 minutes. Uh, not possible.  4. Police Batons: there’s a moment when a cop spins the baton for a sec at the cemetery fight and has the sound effect of an elaborate nunchucks display. But, more to the point, these cops know this ninja survived point blank shot gun blasts and machine gun fire and they’re trying to fight “him” with a stick? PS - Anyone else wonder why the cops were guarding the morgue inside and out like a Scarface mansion scene? Had they showed heightened alert due to the golf course events, it’d make sense. But as J,J&P said, they were casual & relaxed just hours after dozens of fellow officers were brutally slain.

Paul, June, and Jason discuss the 1984 martial arts action horror film Ninja III: The Domination. They talk about the V8 sex scene, aerobics, ninja possessions, and more. Plus, Paul sharess his childhood V8 recipe. Please visit these links Justice for Breonna Taylor Black Lives Matter Campaign Zero EJI Vote

I appreciate what was said at the top about BLM and such. I am sure Reddit will hate it. One thing I would like to ask that the podcast do is try to have more people of color as guests. I know the guests are often friends and I get that, but sometimes that kind of insular community stands in the way of introducing new voices. I discount Nicole Byer through this podcast (and Girl Code gifs on Tumblr) and I couldn't be happier to have her in my life. I don't mean never have white people but make a concerted effort for more diversity?

Oh, I also wanted to share this video cause before I found it on Amazon Prime for free, I looked on YouTube and caught this scene. I thought this music was from the movie and thought “damn! this movie has got a killer sound track!” That song (especially starting at the one minute mark) makes the scene so much more compelling to me.

The modern depiction of ninjas is from the Kabuki tradition. The audience knew to ignore the stagehands, dressed in all black, as not part of the action of the play. But sometimes, an "invisible" stagehand would kill someone in the play, and that was regarded as a ninja secretly assassinating someone. Historical ninjas would never dress like that, even at night, as they are trying to blend in and such an outfit would be incredibly suspicious. As spies, they would want to avoid the kind of confrontation that would ensue from dressing like that. As much as anything, movies use that trope so the heroes can wholesale slaughter any numbers of faceless enemies without it being alarming.

Urban dictionary has quite a few sex definitions for "V8" https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=V8

Microphone check one-two...what is this? We watched:

I had to give up on Unspooled early on. I know it's good to take a second look at sacred cows, but Scorsese one of my favorite filmmakers and it felt like Amy Nicholson just relished in taking a dump on him at every opportunity because he was over-represented on the AFI list. I didn't even get the sense that she liked movies, just that she liked having opinions about them. There were three or four episodes in a row where she accused male characters of being incels just because they weren't getting laid on screen and at that point, I was out. It felt like the attacks she was making were very personal, on the people who liked those movies, so it was very unpleasant to listen to. ANYWAY, I think the strongest sequence in Beats, Rhymes, and Life was when Q-Tip and Phife were recounting the same events that led to A Tribe Called Quest's breakup, but from their own perspective. When Q-Tip said in an interview "I don't have beef with Phife, Phife has beef with me," he felt all he was saying was that he had no beef with Phife. Phife, on the other hand, thought Q-Tip was saying, "it's that CRAZY Phife who's wrecking the group, not me!" I think they were both coloring events to make their own side look better and both being a bit unreasonable.... but both also kind of right. It was a great illustration of how two old friends who had made great art together could let their egos get in the way of forgiving each other over minor (or even imagined) slights. I just wish the documentary had more of that insight. Seeing how the band reformed to make another album and Phife's tragic death, I would love to see a film documenting their reformation and their reaction to Phife dying. There's got to be a great story there. Did it take the shadow of a best friend's impending demise allow the group to bury the hatchet, or was it something simpler? Did they just... start talking again one day? If not, who put them in touch again?

Oof, yes. You are correct. I don't mind people disagreeing with the hosts. I disagreed with Amy on parts of her Goodfellas criticisms. But when someone comes on, first post complaining, I immediately get red flags due to the sheer number of first time posters who have to disagree with a woman.

I welcome anyone coming to the Unspooled boards even if they disagree with Amy. I generally agree with her but I've found nitpicking a bit much sometimes as well. So long as you log on (or create an account) just to complain about Amy and then never post again which happened with Goodfellas (and had happened here with several women guests).

Regarding Unspooled, I certainly get the criticism, and I personally know of a few people who have stopped listening for just that reason. Hell, I myself haven’t listened in quite a while. On the other hand, I feel like Unspooled is a chance for her to take off her movie critic’s hat and just be a movie fan. It’s what allows me to give a film like Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy movie 5-Stars on Letterboxd while simultaneously giving A Clockwork Orange or Raging Bull 2 and 1 stars. Sure, on an intellectual level I get that they are better movies, but they also aren’t movies that I particularly like sitting through either, and I would definitely have nits to pick on how to “improve” them. Honestly, it’s just the way the show has been structured from the beginning. And not to sound like a smart ass, but isn’t wishing she would do it differently kind of like complaining about Dylan’s voice or wishing Goodfellas was something other than what it is? There are plenty of “good/classic” movie podcasts that would probably agree with you. If you don’t agree with her, or if her opinions tend to get on your nerves, my suggestion would be to find a different podcast to listen to. I mean, sometimes it sucks when you want to like something and just can’t, but life’s too short to waste time on something that doesn’t bring you joy.

All fair points. I think when you have a group that iconic, it’s pretty much impossible to cover what everyone wants in a feature-length doc that’s not a filmed performance (ala Stop Making Sense). There should really be a Netflix/Hulu/Hbo/whatever season-length documentary about them. Something like what Wu-Tang got (my phone keeps wanting to call them “Will-Tang” for some reason, which makes them sound like a Will Smith backing band). COMPLETELY unrelated tangent: are any of you fans of Unspooled? Sometimes I like it—and I’ve liked their YouTube shows—but sometimes I find Amy’s opinions so nit-picky as to be cringe-inducing and damn near unlistenable (thinking specifically of the Goodfellas episode, where she seemed to take issue with what the movie WASN’T as to what it actually was. Don’t get me wrong—we don’t have to universally value something as a classic, but comparing the actual version of a film to an imaginary version in your head just reeks of BS to me. I couldn’t finish that episode because she did that so frequently that it undercut any valid points she had and it drove me nuts). Just curious.

Yea, I'll add, I'm a super fan of the band for sure. They're my second favorite rap group and I have all their stuff. (Outkast is first.) But I did not particularly enjoy the documentary. It's weird though because I do agree with the points Graham made, but also with what Cinco said. It needs more music. It needs more Ali Shaheed. It does give good access to the Tip and Phife, for sure, and some of it isn't all rosy. I would have preferred to see more of them when they were young, instead of seeing an older Q-Tip going to see his high school teacher. I dunno. Show me how their clashes and closeness created this music and made them popular and influential. That's the connection I think the documentary needed. Also they don't even mention "Scenario" once.

I watched this the year it came out but didn't watch it again this week. But I was curious how different it feels now that they got together for one last album (which is fantastic if anyone hasn't heard it) and Pfife dying. My recollection is this ended on a note of "well... that was the story and nothing will bring the guys together again." So, knowing it wasn't the end and having a real end probably makes it feel a lot different.

So since I am a super fan, I will post a shitload of other video links here. First, the deleted scenes: Now, the unplugged show with De La Soul on MTV in 1991: Now, some of the music videos: Those were videos from their first three albums, the next were from their 2016 album (after the doc, which came out in 2011). That album featured Elton John, Jack White, Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar and a ton of other guests who were happy to help pay tribute. But the main draw is that the original band was reunited (although I believe their DJ, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, was largely busy doing the music for Luke Cage). Finally, a good interview with Q-Tip about Prince, Phife Dawg and much more. ok, I’ll stop now.

Haven't had a chance to watch the doc yet but I do recall that ATCQ was famously ensared in an early case about sampling because the used the famous bass hook from Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side. They were allowed to release the song "Can I Kick It" (and arguably, launch their career) but only if they agreed to give Lou all the royalties from that song. Seems pretty harsh now but apparently that was the precedent at the time.

There are so many documentaries and books written about this subject, it’s hard to boil it down to a concise explanation, but I think this short video does an excellent job of doing that.

I have to give kudos to Michael Rapaport for taking this on as his first directed movie. He’s obviously a superfan but his questions are not slavishly adoring. As Graham S. said the doc pulls no punches. Good job, goofy guy in Deep Blue Sea!

I admit to not being overly impressed. I stopped it the first time. When I revisited it I watched the whole thing from the start. As a non-fan I would have liked to see more music, just to see what made these guys so successful. I would have liked more focus on the other two members. I think Q-tip at one point says Jabori (sp?) is the soul of the group but I never find out why. The other thing I would have liked to learn is why the hip hop generation was the first to “scratch” and sample music. There is a comment along the lines of “You use what tools you have, and we had records.” Lots of other people only had records but didn’t take them in this direction. Thoughts?

I started this thread early because—as a fan of this group—I fucking love this movie. After watching it tonight I feel like it has only gotten better—and more emotional—with age. Before I watched it, I read some of the reviews that came out at the time. They were largely positive but some complained that there wasn’t enough of the band performing. I agree—I would happily take a two and a half or three hour version of this movie with more performances. But what I think what the film has is extraordinarily candid access to all the members of the group. What it captures through this access is a portrait of the group’s rise to success, their eventual tumultuous breakup, the strong sense of a fan’s longing for the band to get back together, the sense of their gradually rebuilding their relationship, and a heartbreaking portrait of a lost hip-hop icon (and more than one if you include a brief interview with Adam Yauch). That’s a lot of fucking stuff packed into a 97-minute documentary. And perhaps it doesn’t work as well if you’re not a fan. But for me, there are a number of things that make this movie special: 1. Priceless moments, like Q-Tip talking about creating beats on a school desk and being a computer geek in high school, the inspiration for Phife’s “Seaman’s furniture” lyric, their outfits in 1990, etc. 2. The fact that it does not always paint everyone in the most flattering light (in fact, Q-Tip refused to promote this movie because he didn’t like how he was portrayed). Some critics wrote this off as a toothless fan-made “authorized” doc, but I disagree. I think one of the strengths is how the film shows the group’s arguments. It could easily have just coasted on nostalgia. The fact that Michael Rapaport captures the dismay of the group’s seemingly irreconcilable differences pays off in the possibly hopeful ending and ... 3.The fact they reunited for 2016’s awesome We got it from here...Thank You 4 Your Service. An amazing gift of an album. It’s great that Q-Tip dedicated the album to Phife Dawg. Finally, 4. The interviews with Phife (who died at 46 from his battle with diabetes) now have an aura of melancholy. In the final third, the scenes where he gets a kidney from his wife made me choke up. Maybe I’m just a sap. R.I.P., Phife Dawg. So those are just a few of the reasons why I think the film is an important part of the band’s legacy. It was a film that definitely made me emotional, perhaps partly because of the horrific week we’ve just had. But I’m definitely glad that I rewatched it.

Sorry to involve my Metal Nonsense in an ABBA thread, but I figured this would be the best place to share music/HDTGM crossover content. So if you are into the anachronistic swords-and-magic aesthetic of the 2011 film SEASON OF THE WITCH, then may I suggest... Wolftooth - Season of the Witch (Sorry, for some reason, Youtube absolutely refuses to allow this video to be embedded). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2En3oxF3mk

1) F-Baranski, M-Walters (she’s solid and successful on her own), K-Streep (too serious and bland) 2) F-Skateboard, M-Firth, K-Brosnan I realize this makes me mortal enemies with Cameron H. Crap.

F, marry, kill: Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skateboard

I've been following HTDGM from the first few episodes, for years and years and years. How? By downloading the mp3's. Now, literally the only way you can listen to podcasts on Earwolf is to subscribe to a feed so it automatically downloads whatever it wants to, with no control. You cannot manually download anything with Omny. I do not understand why whatever portion of the fanbase that listens as I do has gotten a big middle finger, but hey. What can you do. Not allowed, and the operators don't seem to care at all. I guess whatever deal they cut is more important than some of the fans. Oh well, nice ride while it lasted, I guess. Five bucks for stitcher, holding the majority of the episodes hostage? I'll give my money to the We Hate Movies guys through their patreon, and I'd advise anyone else who has been increasingly dissatisfied with the directions Earwolf has been going to do the same. 300+ episodes, for free, that you can download. Support the people who care about the fans.

On a formal level, probably Dr. Strangelove is the one on the list that most meets the standards of "great filmmaking" while also being funny.