O Filme Mais Idiota do Mundo

The evil scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) locks Mike Nelson (Michael J. Nelson) and two robots in a spacecraft to watch terrible low-budget movies as part of his scheme to conquer the world. He projects 1954 "This Island Earth" (Title (Brazil): "Guerra Entre Planetas") with the intention of driving them crazy. However, the trio laughs and makes funny comments in every scene and dialogs, having good-time instead, and Dr. Forrester's ambitious plan does not work.

The first time I saw "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie" on 01 February 2000 I loved it a lot and I gave a nine. I had watched the cheese "This Island Earth" a few months ago and the comments of Mike Nelson and the two robots made me laugh a lot. Today I have just watched this film again and it is still hilarious, but my rating is lower this time. "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie" was released in Brazil on VHS by CIC-Universal Distributor. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Filme Mais Idiota do Mundo" ("The Most Idiot Movie of the World")

As a fan of MST3K, I was very excited to see this film. I was lucky enough to see this in theaters, and it was even more fun than your usual episode of the series. It's a little shorter than an episode, but being that the jabs at the film are hysterically funny, it evens out. Now, I heard that making the film wasn't fun for the crew, as producers made the cast change lines and many other things, but you'd never know it from watching it. It's also very interesting to see more of the ship, and see things in a broader way, due to a bigger budget. This ranks up there with the best episodes, and I've been quoting it repeatedly since seeing it, so many years ago. For me, as a fan, this was worth all the effort and frustrations the crew went through, I truly enjoy it and appreciate it!

Let's get things straight right off the bat: I LOVE Mystery Science Theater 3000! It was, is, and forever will be my favorite television show of all time, in all its incarnations. And the movie is very funny and good and you should see it.

That said...

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (hereafter called MST3K:TM for time-saving purposes) could of been a LOT better than it was, and it's NOT the fault of the folks at Best Brains, Inc. (The production company that made the TV show, hereafter called BBI). I place the blame entirely on the fine (HA!) folks at Universal, who forced several changes to the movie and it's wonderful riffing, forcing the folks at BBI to "dumb down" their product, mess with their tried-and-true break format, and shoot an entirely different (and stupid, compared to the original) ending, as well as trimming it down to 74 minutes (because at 88, it was TOO LONG! As Servo would say "...the HELL?) When you come right down to it, BBI makes MST3K one way, and the studio told them to do it a different way. And ANY other way is the WRONG way! I really wish that BBI had held out for an offer with more creative control, but if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, etc. I don't blame BBI for taking the offer, but the selfish part of me would of rather the film never got made than compromised so radically. Then the realist in me tells me to be grateful that it DID get made, and succeeds (somewhat) in spite of (and believe me, not BECAUSE of) the restrictions placed on it. 4 stars to the fine folks at BBI, -1,000 stars to Universal, 2 1/2 stars to the movie itself. It hurts me to say that about the movie, but it's true.

My opinion: The TV series was usually pretty funny, but had its ups and downs. The movie is just hilarious. They must have been saving this movie for a special occasion and they've honed their timing and jokes to perfection. The first time I saw this with some friends, we had no idea what it was. (It had been recommended by another friend.) From the opening credits to the end we were in stitches. I've never laughed so hard in my life. At a few points we almost had to pause the movie to catch our breath.

I should note that for the first ten minutes, we were watching the movie in a state of disbelief. We were all thinking "What the devil is this? This is stupid!" For us, this quickly passed and we had a great time.

This movie's not for everyone: If you're the type who likes to get weird, funny movies and hang out until 4:00 am acting goofy your friends, you'll enjoy this movie. If you're looking for a standard comedy, look elsewhere. If you won't take it seriously and just want to have some laughs, you'll enjoy it. If you have ever been referred to as a movie snob, please avoid this movie at all costs.

Funny funny movie, although this is my favorite tv show, so I'm biased. It's always nice to see Trace (Crow/Dr. Forrester), who left the show soon after this movie was released. It's nice to see the guys at all, since Sci Fi took the show off the air.

But I digress. The movie is almost exactly like the show, except shot on better film and with better effects. Jokes abound, and the victim is fairly awful. I thought they would have picked a worse movie to mock, though, as This Island Earth was a relatively harmless piece of 50's sci fi fluff. They have dealt with much more dangerous and evil pieces of celluloid than this one. But a good introduction for the novice Mystie. They can always find out about the horror that is Mandos later.

The humor has recently been called juvenile and aimed at teenage boys, but I must disagree, as I am a 25 year old woman with a Master's degree in English and still find the show hilarious. The movie is only a taste of the overall genius that is (or was) MST, and if you at all liked the film, immediately go out and get what DVDs of the show are available. It's worth it.