http://www.earwolf.com/episode/superman-iii-live/

One of my favorite movie podcasts … and so far, the funniest … is “How Did This Get Made?”  The podcast is comedians Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael (with the occasional additional commentator) discussing the most ridiculous films ever made.  While this is the theme for countless movie podcasts, Scheer, Mantzoukas, and Raphael are actually, really really funny.  And … most importantly … they seem to understand what makes certain bad movies better than others.  It’s not enough to be schlocky.  Being schlocky is easy and in most cases, extremely dull.  But trust me when I say that that it takes a certain kind of genius to make a film as astonishing as “Road House,” “Cool as Ice,” or “The Room.”  They may not be “good” in the conventional sense.  But they’re not boring.  These are very special movies that are positively f–king insane!  

I listened to many of their episodes today and loved what I heard.  But the best of all of them was their dissection of Richard Lester’s 1983 sequel “Superman III” (the one with Richard Pryor).  “Superman III” is not the worst of the Superman films (“Superman IV” makes “Superman III” look like “Pulp Fiction”), but it’s still pretty awful.  I never thought this film was particularly good or even enjoyably bad until Scheer, Mantzoukas, and Raphael (with guest Damon Lindelof) analyzed this film the way scholars analyze “Citizen Kane,” pointing out wild inconsistencies and just flat-out bizarre plot twists that demonstrate that this is truly a much more bats–t crazy film than I remember.  Regardless of whether you agree with their analysis, it’s one of the most hilarious movie reviews I’ve ever experienced … and easily one of the most fun.  The language can be a bit rough, so not safe for work or little ones.