Podcast Part 3: The Part 3 Podcast

Sam recently took Will and Podcast Part 3 by surprise when he instituted a three-star grading system for any threequels past or future. Now it's time to open up the podcast archives and assign one, two or three stars to the dozens of threequels we've enjoyed (or at least tolerated). Who will get the coveted three stars (Army of Darkness)? Who must suffer the shame of a solitary one star (Robocop 3)? Who will split the difference with two (I dunno... that Resident Evil we watched maybe)? Tune in and find out.Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

We're shaking (but not stirring) things up at Podcast Part 3, as Will and Sam tackle Connery, Moore, Brosnan and Craig's respective third James Bonds... Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World is Not Enough and Skyfall. (Apologies to Lazenby and Dalton.)And to complete such a daring mission for podcast and country, they've brought in the host of the Tuesday Morning Screening Room podcast, writer/producer/Bond aficionado FM DeMarco. That's right, it only took 60-plus episodes, but the boys finally made a friend!Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Before Minecraft and Mario changed the game, video game movies were synonymous with failure, so mercifully very few became legit multi-movie franchises... with one notable exception. It's time to watch Resident Evil: Extinction, one of the very few video game movie threequels, and probably the best one to not feature a talking hedgehog.Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Finally, a real superhero to end the summer! With Liam Neeson's fabulous new Naked Gun in theaters, Will and Sam are taking a look back at 1994's Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, the franchise's last installment starring Leslie Nielsen (and unsurprisingly, OJ Simpson). Warning: The words parody and satire will be used interchangeably throughout, so theater majors and film theorists be warned.Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Superhero summer continues with the high-water mark of the post-Endgame MCU, 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. In hindsight, James Gunn made a talking raccoon the best character in the MCU, so maybe we shouldn't be that shocked that he made Superman work.Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

It's a superhero summer here at Podcast Part 3, and we're going way back to 2013 with one of the MCU's true threequels, Iron Man 3, aka the one with a Mandarin but not THE Mandarin. Also, Sam blindsides Will with the new official Podcast Part 3 rating system that he totally didn't make up on the fly!Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Jurassic World has rebirthed, so there's no better time to revisit its most recent threequel, 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion. And don't forget, Giganotosaurus is the largest carnivore the world has ever seen.Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Back in our day, we only had a Jurassic Park instead of a whole Jurassic World and we liked it that way! (Well, mostly...) Jurassic World: Rebirth is nigh, so it's time for a 90-minute speed run through Isla Sorna with 2001's Jurassic Park III, a movie made entirely of ideas they didn't use in the first two Jurassic Parks. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

It's time for another visit to the Universal Classic Monsters (excuse me, the Dark Universe), as we check in on Gill-man's one and only threequel, 1956's The Creature Walks Among Us. It's a sweaty Tennessee Williams melodrama about an abusive marriage and a toxic love triangle that just happens to feature a fish man living in the backyard. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Podcast Part 3 is back, rising like a phoenix from the ashes to talk about, um, crows. Specifically (and lamentably) 2000's The Crow: Salvation, a direct-to-video threequel so dull not even Walton Goggins can save it. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Shriek-quel Threequel season continues with Podcast Part 3's first visit to the shaky, spooky world of found footage with Paranormal Activity 3! As the low-budget, bajillion-dollar making demon possession saga takes us back to 1988, Will and Sam delve into the horror-heavy genre of found footage, pondering why it's so easy to make these movies but insanely difficult to make one that's actually good. Something about how it's hard to make a good movie look like a bad movie while still being a good movie at its core. It's complicated. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

It's October and Shriek-quel Threequel season is upon us once again! Sharpen up your Daggers of Megiddo because we're taking on the Antichrist himself in Omen III: The Final Conflict. Damien Thorn is Sam Neill now, and he's hellbent (har har) on destroying that pesky Jesus once and for all. While Damien recruits every evil little British boy he can find, Sam and Will compare this take on the Devil to The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and the original Omen (unfair), wonder why Satan is always vastly better prepared than God in these movies (fair) and lament that Jesus and the Antichrist don't have a John Wick-style fight to settle things (very fair). Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

It's Problematic Director Days here at Podcast Part 3 as Will and Sam continue their foray in to the dear departed X-Men franchise with X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse, two threequels jockeying for worst superhero movie of all time. Thrill as the Phoenix Saga is woefully botched twice in one franchise, and marvel as Oscar Isaac and Jennifer Lawrence compete to see who can look the most bored! Also Sam nobly attempts to derail the episode by talking about Furiosa. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

This week on Podcast Part 3, we don't got a podcast... we got a family. But only slightly, because this is The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the Season of the Witch of the Fast franchise! Join not-quite-Paul Walker as he traverses the mean streets of Tokyo in this threequel that's also canonically the seventh movie in the franchise. Did you know that this franchise that's basically the MCU with muscle cars had a sequel that was actually about racing?! We were just as surprised as you! Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

The most consistently good franchise in movie history is back and grimmer than ever with 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes! As the saga of Caesar draws to a close, Will and Sam discuss whether this is the rare trilogy where the third movie is the best one, how a campy big-budget Twilight Zone episode managed to yield an 80% great series of sci-fi movies, and why the hell Steve Zahn isn't getting more work in Hollywood. (Bad Ape!) Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Get ready for 1.21 Gigawatts of fun (and respectful film discourse) as Will and Sam revisit Back to the Future Part III, aka the one in the Old West, aka the one with the random ZZ Top cameo, aka the one with Mary Steenburgen on the poster. There's no Johnny B. Goode and very little hoverboard as Marty and Doc embark on a passable Western comedy that happens to feature time travel. It's still a Back to the Future movie though, so expect some warm Amblin fuzzies from our two Millennial hosts... even if the movie itself is, like your average McFly, kind of a slacker. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Sam and Will are taking the law into their own hands! On this episode, Podcast Part 3 visits the seedy underbelly of 80s cinema with Death Wish 3, a high-water mark for the infamous Cannon Films (if such a thing is possible). As Charles Bronson delivers his wooden brand of vigilante justice, the boys muse on the prolific schlock output of Golan and Globus, compare Chucks (Bronson v. Norris) and wonder if maybe it's for the best that this sleazy action movie really isn't trying to do or say anything profound about the justice system of 80s NYC. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

WE HAVE RISEN, BABY GIRL! Podcast Part 3 is back, just in time for the most improbable threequel of all: an R-rated third Deadpool, fully authorized by Disney and fully canon in the MCU! Join Sam, Will, Wade and, oh yeah, f-cking LOGAN in a blood-soaked tribute to the mid-00s era of superhero movies. It'll somehow make you nostalgic for the Fantastic Four, Elektra and even a Gambit movie that never actually got made. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an all-new episode of Podcast Part 3: The Part 3 Podcast! And it's a DC Comics double feature as Will and Sam take on the very silly Superman III, aka Superman meets Richard Pryor. And if that's not enough, they're also talking about the deeply frustrating and problematic Superman Returns. While the Man of Steel takes on Brainiac (kind of), Bizarro (not really) and Lex Luthor (canceled), the boys discuss the bumpy cinematic journey of the most iconic superhero of all time, question the damage Five for Fighting has done to the Superman brand, and Sam offers his recasting of Superman Returns with the best that 2006 Hollywood has to offer. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

Together again! It's a new year and a new season of Podcast Part 3: The Part 3 Podcast, and we're taking the show to Broadway with 1984's The Muppets Take Manhattan, an honestly kind of bland entry in the Muppets pantheon... turns out you need a pretty strong story to make the Muppets work, and failing that you need a Charles Grodin or a Michael Caine to bring the gravitas. Sadly, like Jason Voorhees, the Muppets just simply aren't up to the task of taking Manhattan. But we love them anyway. Music: Backbeat by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/) via Creative Commons license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)