Podcasts - How Did This Get Made? (Episode 9: Fast Five)

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a...tendency...to watch some pretty strange movies.  Some "not that great" movies.  Often at the expense of quality films.  Have I seen Forrest Gump?  No...but I've seen the entire Saw franchise.  My eyes have never fallen upon The Godfather, but I've seen Hudson Hawk several times.  And so on.

But lately, my bad movie choices have had purpose and direction.  No more aimless watching of schlock.  Instead...I've got the "How Did This Get Made?" podcast guiding my every move.  In this great bi-weekly show, comedians Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas (along with a special guest) rip apart some of the worst and most out there movies around, from bombs like Catwoman (which I just watched over the weekend) and All About Steve to out-there and over-the-top flicks such as Suckerpunch and Fast Five.

Quick side note: What's a podcast, you ask?  Think of it as free internet talk shows, across a variety of topics.  NPR, for example, releases many of their radio shows as podcasts, available for free download, while there are a TON of others that exist solely as podcasts (i.e. they aren't pre-existing radio shows).  They come in audio and video varities, cover a vast array of topics, and iTunes has a section specific to podcast downloads (although many can also be acquired on their own websites..."How Did This Get Made?" is available both on iTunes and the Earwolf website linked above and below).  Some podcasts issue new episodes once a month; some are released daily.

So, "How Did This Get Made?" is a celebration of the bad, the extreme and the poorly planned...and it's damn funny.  And one of the best episodes I've listened to is Episode 9, in which the group (along with guest Adam Scott) covers the latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast Five.

This "review" is unique in that the crew doesn't consider Fast Five to be a bad film, per se, but one that is just so ridiculous and out there, with so much going on that you can pretty much just sit there slack-jawed at the end.  But all that having been said, the entire crew really enjoyed it (other ones, such as the aforementioned Catwoman, do not scrape by unscathed).

So, if you're a fan of bad movies, of Mystery Science Theater 3000, or just having a good laugh at the shadier side of cinema, take a look at the back episodes of "How Did This Get Made?" and enjoy.