Wednesday, August 1, 2012

F This Movie! - Revenge of the Ninja Commentary

Patrick goes solo and talks his way through the sublime '80s action movie Revenge of the Ninja, a movie chock full of goddamn sonuvabitch ninjas.

Watch Revenge of the Ninja on Netflix here! Don't feel the need to watch the movie first, either. You can play it through with the commentary the first time and still catch on.



Last chance to order tickets for the F This Movie! screening of Die Hard on August 2nd.

Download this episode here. (41.4 MB)

Email F This Movie! at fthismoviepodcast(at)gmail.com

Subscribe to F This Movie! in iTunes

Like F This Movie! on Facebook and follow F This Movie! on Twitter

7 comments:

  1. thanks for doing it solo you did a great job
    we need more commentary tracks...

    ReplyDelete
  2. OK, I broke down and ordered this on DVD from amazon along with "Reindeer Games" (the other 'F This Movie' commentary track I haven't heard), "MST3K Collection: Volume XXIV" and "Margaret" Blu-ray from DVDVerdict review amazon links (3 out of 4, "Revenge..." never got reviewed by the Verdict).

    Happy now? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heckuva job, Patrick! My ONLY criticism is that you mention the Netflix subtitles too late in the movie. I missed out on who knows how many [REDEEMING MUSIC]s.

    My point is, if you haven't listened to this yet (and you should), turn on the subtitles. So great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ^^^ That's the main reason I bought the DVD besides, you know, Netflix sucking and not being worth $0.02 of my hard-earned cash. When I listen to commentary tracks I always put the subtitles on (when available, i.e. not an English Criterion or any Starz/Anchor Bay title) and I want to read those when Patrick talks his way through this and (with the gang) "Reindeer Games."

      Delete
  4. It was a good job for a first solo track. Next time will be even better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OK, a little late and catching up, but so got damn worth it. My new-to-me movie for Sunday, 1/13/12, was Sam Fistenberg's REVENGE OF THE NINJA on DVD (duh!).

    I wanted to get the first viewing of the movie out of the way quickly so I could rewatch it with Patrick's commentary, so I watched it on a train ride to upstate NY to visit my sister and little baby nice. Holy crap, I haven't had this much fun watching a movie in ages (to the annoyance of my fellow passengers), I literally haven't laughed out loud this much since I was at the "Birdemic" Rifftrax event last year. I completely lost it for a minute when Mario Gallo's Chifano says casually 'Chief' and the camera cuts, "Naked Gun" style and unironically, to a freaking guy dressed like a Native America (who a few minutes latter pulls a pair of tomahawks literally out of his ass). What were they thinking (and smoking) at Cannon Films back then? Keith Vitali's Hatcher looks Will Ferrell (oh, those lovely eyes of his we see over and over on close-up) and, despite the stuntman doing the heavy lifting, has one of the better bad guy deaths I've ever seen.

    This is such a tone-deaf 80's action flick that does with kids both what you're not supposed to (harm them or worse) and what you can get away with if you're G or PG (kicking a grown-up's ass), but the juxtaposition of the latter with the gory, bloody and violent ninja-on-thug action is one of the many aspects that give "Revenge of the Ninja" its charm. I love that, at the center of this and many other 80's ninja stuff (particularly 1985's "Pray for Death" and a recurring role in "The Master" TV series, aka "Master Ninja 1 & 2" episodes of "MST3K"), you have the calm center of the storm raging around him that is Shô Kosugi. His acting isn't great and his delivery is iffy (assuming he isn't dubbed) but Shô was a legitimate bad-ass action dude and not a poser. You feel in every action scene (which he also choreographed) and acting moment that Shô is giving his all, and that's a nice counterbalance to the nuttiness Firstenberg brings to the "ninja" proceedings.

    Patrick's commentary track (I had to rewatch "Revenge..." again that night after sis and niece went to sleep, this time on a big screen TV) reminded me of a KTMA non-national episode of "MST3K" in which Joel riffs a "Gamera" movie on his own. This is the episode (along with another KTMA era one, "Time of the Apes," in which the robots are alone riffing) that proved conclusively interaction between participants is the key to a fun and successful show. We all love Patrick, the heart and soul of 'F This Movie,' but this solo commentary is just dull except for the moments when he laughs out loud (like we're doing). But hey, nice effort and Patrick is still cool. And BTW, my job (along with transcribing the dialogue) is to come up with those descriptive terms for music so that hearing impaired viewers can understand what type of music is being played on the background, but in Spanish. It's not easy to describe music/wordless action sounds, especially after the millionth variation.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Eventually caught up with this. I really enjoyed it. Catching the arrow in between the teeth and the rooftop fight are brilliant. Cutting the mask in half while he still wears it and the extra gushing blood. I can see why you have affection for the film. Its bonkers fun

    ReplyDelete