MST3K

[Reply #360 on:]

It has one of my favourite non movie bits with the commentating on the in movie race. There was even a little logo for it!

 

[Reply #361 on:]

That was fantastic! Just making up random words to describe what was going on.

I love Pumaman because it goes to show even Donald Pleasence needs to bring in the bacon sometimes.

My name is Pleasence and I am funky!

[Reply #362 on:]

War of the Colossal Beast may be one of my new favorite episodes.  Not only is it fronted by "Mr. B Natural," but it is good on its own.
Guy: The foot that made that print was about 10 times the size of a normal man.  That would make him about 60 feet tall.
Woman: Glen was 60 feet tall!
Joel: Think there's a connection?

There's the whole KTLA sketch.

[Reply #363 on:]

Oh absolutely. That's a dandy one. Being preceded by the conundrum that is Mr. B is a slight bonus, to B sure.

Is it sad that I remember offhand that the "woman's" name was Joyce Manning?
(Though to be true I remember it from the guidebook, not the movie).

I was actually just futzing around with some MST bits on youtube before; I watched part of Pod People and Eye Creatures.


Also, see my comment in the silly pics thread.

[Reply #364 on:]

Watched "Laserblast" earlier today and now I'm ready for some football!!

[Reply #365 on:]

Haha, Better than Star Wars!?

Anyone else get the MST3K Episode Guide book? It only covers up to to the early Mike Era (The rest is hosted on the MST3K Fan Site) but is a damn interesting read. For example, Mike and Joel loved linking their ancient PC's together and playing Submarine war games. And TV's Frank used to work in a Diner!

And Space Mutiny (Kalgon blow me away!) was finally Reviewed in the infamous Agony Booth site. A good read. I never knew Lobsterboy died.

[Reply #366 on:]

Anyone else get the MST3K Episode Guide book? 

Hey, what d'you think I've been quoting from all the time in this thread?  (plus the forklift thing in the pics thread)  I've had it since '96. It is very funny. So they never did put out an updated edition though?  I think it came out right before the movie was released.

And as for "Laserblast", I watched that when it was the last episode being shown on Comedy Central. (Last episode produced for Comedy Central..? I just know it moved to the Sci-Fi Channel after that).  But then I seem to remember having still watched it during that summer... Anywho, Laserblast = really dumb movie, but then which one wasn't, I guess.

[Reply #367 on:]

If you mentioned she stole Mikes keyboard I would have realised.

[Reply #368 on:]

Haa... ooh, also, if you look at the rest of the 'obscure references' they mention just a couple of the fairly plentiful ones about Wisconsin... the House on the Rock (Frank Lloyd Wright parody) and the Ducks in the Dells... the show was produced/filmed in Minnesota but a number of the cast and crew had ties to my fine state.

[Reply #369 on:]

I never knew Lobsterboy died.

A victim of a railing kill, I thought.

[Reply #370 on:]

My eyes were too slow to catch him, kind of weird how they built up so that we'd think he and the equally beefy brainless hero would battle it out though wasn't it?

And Km, guess what! They continued the second half of the guide online. Here it is!

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/guide/index.html

[Reply #371 on:]

Oh I know, I just meant they never bothered to actually put out another book.
I wasn't sure if they had or not, for seasons 7-10, but I figured most likely not.

On a side note, I always thought the movie (the actual theatrical release, that is) was overall kind of lame. It could've been a lot better. I know of course they were pretty shackled in what they were able to do with it; the studio really stunted how they went about making it, I heard.


edit: I just read the description of Laserblast at that link. Hilarity squared.

[Reply #372 on:]

They were passed over by that lame Barbed Wire film with Pamela Anderson in it.

[Reply #373 on:]

Diabolik was the movie for today.

Driving off to the store......gonna pick up some bread......maybe stop at the post office.

[Reply #374 on:]

Fucking sidehackers.

[Reply #375 on:]

Rommel you magnificent bastard! I read your book!

God, that film had such a depressing ending. Most films in MST3K do.

[Reply #376 on:]

The whole commentary for the race in that episode is classic.

[Reply #377 on:]

Monster a Go Go had to have the worst ending of them all.

[Reply #378 on:]

Ohh that was bad, and dreary, and lame, yes, but what about High School Big Shot?
And I know they said they were really depressed by the ending of Girl in Lovers Lane.

[Reply #379 on:]

From the top of my head most depressing moments in MST3K movie history:

High School Big Shot: Dude is arrested, dad hangs himself.
Sidehackers: Rommel shot after letting the bad guy live.
Girl On Lovers Lane: Girl loses will to live after giving birth.
Kitten With A Whip: Girl DIES for the gormless Political Candidate.
Rocket Attack USA: NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST!
Rocketship X-M: Everyone gets slaughtered on Mars but two of the crew who crash the rocket on the earth.
Red Zone Cuba: Man dumped in well, blind girl gets raped and Police take forever to catch the odious Antagonist.
Manos The Hand Of Fate: Torgo loses a hand, El Paso's favourite Director gets promoted to Torgo's position.
Monster A Go Go: It NEVER Happened W0o0o0o0o0o0!
Pumaman: The Protaginist, Tony gets laid.
Space Mutiny: See above.
Mitchel: Needless to say, see above.
The Beast of Yucca Flats: Seeing Tor flail around as his movie career dies around him.

[Reply #380 on:]

"There was no monster."
Monster a Go-Go at least had the short "Circus on Ice" though, a good one.

The Dead Talk Back was also incredibly gloomy; and the ending of The Violent Years - and evidently that of Teen-age Crime Wave too although I haven't seen that.
A lot did skew depressing, but then there were the occasional ones with perky endings to counter it out a little, such as Alien from LA and Angels Revenge; and probably a lot more.
Or the ones with supposedly "uplifting" conclusions.

And god, Mitchell was so appallingly loathsome...

Kitten With A Whip: Girl DIES for the gormless Political Candidate.

Yeah, but her and her friends were total nutcases anyway.
"I'm dyin' in a rush!"

Personally I love that one. Another part I always liked was that bit near the end, after she dies and the politician guy is in the hospital, hearing about how she cleared his name or some such, and Mike and the bots say something like "and before she croaked, she voted for you too!"... Ugh, I don't remember the exact line.

I need to investigate those sites more to see if there are any episode transcripts anywhere.

Also, they had a lot of fun with poor Tor Johnson, didn't they.
Almost as much as they had with Coleman Francis.

[Reply #381 on:]

A lot of the most depressing movies are from the forties and fifties era I have noticed. Must have something to do with all those Doughy Guys and grim Priests talking about safety.

[Reply #382 on:]

That's because all of them were slaves of Union Pacific.

[Reply #383 on:]

Well, it's somewhat of a cultural expression of the times of course. Obviously, a lot of science-fiction movies from that era were infused with or informed by the spirit of the Cold War; they were a reflection of the paranoia and rank distrust that pervasively permeated some facets of life then.
No wonder so many of them were rather glum.

Girl On Lovers Lane: Girl loses will to live after giving birth.

Noo, see, that was Teen-age Crime Wave I think; Lovers Lane was the one where the "nice" girl gets pointlessly killed by that asshat in the woods or something and the crew was so upset by that that they decided to concoct alternate endings. They felt she was one of the few decent characters in any of the movies.

[Reply #384 on:]

Oh yeah, the bad guy was the one with the weird right eye. He was also in The Creeper one too.

Still, chalk that one up on the list. One set of movies I loved were the Soviet/Finnish joint movies. They were quite jolly compared to the usual stuff. Jack Frost, Sinbad and the with the Sword I love you all. Especially Sinbad!

[Reply #385 on:]

Also The Day the Earth Froze if only for the clown act brainstorming session after the short.

[Reply #386 on:]

What the hell is a Sampo anyway?

Am I weird for sort of liking Mitchel in a way? He's suppose to be a seventies era renegade balls to the man sort of cop but he some how gets it wrong. Plus, his name is silly. I also feel the same about Rowsdower.

[Reply #387 on:]

Of course you do everybody loves Rowsdower!

[Reply #388 on:]

Sampo.  You know.  It's a...thing.  A thing that Ilmarinen makes...out of stuff.

Also, I'm fucking pissed.  My downloaded videos of the Gamera episode got corrupted somewhere between my external hard drive and my laptop, and that episode is no longer on YouTube.  That was one of my favorites!

[Reply #389 on:]

Sampo sounds suspiciouslly like a plot device. The thing can eat the sun!

[Reply #390 on:]

The Sword and the Dragon, that was the other one, right?.. Yeah, the Russo-Finnish stuff was pretty awesome. Visually lively, but so completely bizarre.

(Seriously, how odd is it for something to feature fairly prominently in a movie and not give any real indication whatsoever as to what it actually is?)

I don't think anyone has figured out just yet quite what a sampo is.

[Reply #391 on:]

It is fun to say though.

[Reply #392 on:]

Not just a plot device, but a MacGuffin.  I know they referred to it during at least one other episode, Twelve to the Moon.

[Reply #393 on:]

Man, MST3K on DVD is so elusive. I'd thank youtube if I could bring myself to that level.

However, am I the only one who prefers the last couple of seasons to the earlier ones?

[Reply #394 on:]

I was watching "The Undead" the other day and I forgot how good that one was.

Mike: "Satan the prince of cabaret."

However, am I the only one who prefers the last couple of seasons to the earlier ones?

No, I think they're all roughly eqaul as far as quality is concerned.

[Reply #395 on:]

I agree, I love them all. Hilariously, the Mike Versus Joel argument was one of the first flame wars of the internets...

[Reply #396 on:]

the sandy frank episodes may have been the best - gamera, fugitive alien, and that one japanese planet of the apes ripoff. i hope they get released on dvd one day.

[Reply #397 on:]

the Mike Versus Joel argument...

I lean Joel...

http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/the_mystery_science_theater

Excellent interview.

[Reply #398 on:]

I'd heard the Sandy Frank episodes were not going to be released on DVD as Frank had a problem with the way the films were treated by the show, which is a shame, because Gamera is fucking hilarious.

As for Joel vs Mike, I could pick either one.  On the other hand, Kevin Murphy clearly kicked Weinstein's hoverskirt, and Trace Beaulieu was light years beyond Bill Corbett both as Crow and in the host segments.  Mary Jo Pehl was just lame.  She's a terrible actress, which I suppose could be ironic in a show about movies featuring terrible acting, but it was annoying.

[Reply #399 on:]

Hey, I like Mar Jo Pehl and Bill Cobbets Crow :*(...

But yeah, Sandy Frank is a git. Hopefully when he dies we'll get them on DVDmatron eventually...