sampo24's Full Review: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie was a long time coming. And it was definitely worth the wait. The movie was a step up from the TV show which at the time was still on Comedy Central. Now, unfortunately, it'll be leaving The Sci Fi channel very soon. You can see from some of my past reviews of the TV show and other episodes released on video that I am a huge fan of the show. So, it's only natural that I got around to reviewing the video.
This movie features our hero Mike and his bots, Tom Servo and Crow as they're being forced by the evil scientist Dr. Forrester to watch really bad movies in order to try to drive Mike crazy. The movie featured the sci-fi movie, "This Island Earth". This was actually a movie that the people at Best Brains (the company who made MST3K) quite well. For their first convention they did a live show of "This Island Earth". Because of that, I admit I expected a bit more out of the movie, but it didn't live up to expectations. But honestly, that wasn't because of anything the Brains did. It was really the fault of Gramercy Pictures who distributed the film. They cut the movie down to an extremely short 74 minutes and took a whole lot out of the movie that made the plot even more confusing than it already was. It also makes the movie look quite choppy. They did this apparently to make the movie "more accessible" to people who had never watched the show before. I think this was a huge mistake on their part...
The basic plot of the movie is about some aliens who come to Earth to recruit scientists to do scientific experiments to help their race. The hero, Cal, knows that the aliens (who pretend that they're just humans with really big foreheads) Exeter and Brak (not of Space Ghost fame) are up to something underhanded, he just doesn't know what it is. Soon, they end up going to the aliens' planet, Metalluna and end up fighting against other aliens with their brains outside their heads. Makes 'em pretty easy to kill... But of course, this is MST3K and the plot of the movie really isn't that important. It's more important whether the movie is good fodder to be made fun of and "This Island Earth" fulfills every expectation. I would love to see a less edited version, though... It also features the Professor from "Gilligan's Island" as an added plus.
The host segments that break up the film may confuse people that have never seen the movie though. And I know some people didn't like them a whole lot. But it's a carry-over from the show where they are used in every episode. Fans would probably be irate if they weren't in the movie. And honestly, when I first started watching the show, I didn't like the host segments that much. After a while I started to appreciate them more and now I absolutely love them. The ones in the movie were pretty good, too, in my opinion. I especially liked the visit into Servo's bedroom.
Overall, it isn't their strongest work, although still extremely good. But as I explained earlier, most of the problems were really due more to Gramercy than to Best Brains themselves. Though it's much shorter than the average episode, it's still jam-packed full of great jokes. And it's a pretty good introduction to people who've never watched the show, though I think "Cave Dwellers" is an even better choice for that. I had such a good time watching the movie that I was even able to forget that my favorite character, TV's Frank wasn't in the movie. So, if you want a fun movie, with quick, intelligent commentary that will make you laugh non-stop, pick this one up at the video store.
Favorite Quotes
Crow - "Breach hull, all die. Look, even had it underlined"
Mike - "Fortunately, he has his theme music on 8-track."
Mike - "This is back when science didn't have to have any purpose..."
Wimpy Assistant - "You know what my kids would say..."
Crow - "You're not my real father!"
Mike as Cal - "Doesn't even have any kids, poor deluded soul..."
Mike - "Let's slip away under the full cover of daylight in the biggest car in the country."
Mike as the Professor - "So Professor, you made this entirely out of bamboo, huh?"
Crow - "Your in-flight movie is "'Fearless'."
Exeter - "We won't start cracking the whip on Dr. Meacham till tomorrow."
Servo as Exeter - "Then I ram my ovipositor down your throat and lay my eggs in your chest... But I'm not an alien!"
Servo as skull-less alien getting hit on the head - "Ouch, now I can't remember my mom!"
Hapless Mike Nelson is kidnapped by an evil scientist and forced to watch the classic "B" sci-fi movie This Island Earth, but Mike and his robot frien...More at HotMovieSale.com
This feature version of the irreverent TV series about a man on a spaceship who's forced to watch bad movies with his robot pals skewers the would-be ...More at Family Video
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