Le pire contre-attaque

I love MST3K. Seeing it for the first time whilst on holiday in the States, back home I vividly recall leaving a long play video recording the sci-fi channel each Saturday night with fingers crossed there would be one on. (These were the days before in channel planners, series linking and even broadband internet connections). Gradually as the years passed, I could import some of the DVD's from the states until eventually the internet could provide a more regular source of them. For a while though, "The Movie" was one of the few episodes that you could reliably see.

In this episode, Mike and the Robots are exposed to the Universal film "This Island Earth" in Dr Forrester's latest attempt to find the ultimate mind destroying movie. Keep in mind, Mike can't control when the movie begins or ends, but he tries to keep his sanity with the help of his robot friends.

"This Island Earth" isn't a great choice for the MST3K treatment. Despite being dated and virtually plotless (in the way it's presented here), it's both coherent and in focus, which puts it way above some of the other movies they've done. Maybe because of that (and the apparent backstage studio issues they were having) it's not a great episode of the show, relative to many of the ones that made up the series. The acting is perhaps less forgiving in this format, than it is on the regular show and though there's extra money for the effects, the skits are less fun than normal - perhaps most damaging is that the commentary is not as funny as an average episode of the show was, although that might have something to do with my familiarity from having seen this movie a few times.

It works as a fine introduction to the show and there are laughs to be had, and any MST3k is better than none. It's just that for an example of the series that has the highest exposure it's not as good as the series highpoints.

It was a really boring night and me and my sisters came across this movie. At first I didn't notice the silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. WE had missed the first half unfortunately.

Anyway, it was the best laugh i've had for ages. I just can't describe how blooming funny this film is but we were giggling just about the whole way through!

It's such a clever idea and so well done. I have bought a box set and hope it will be as good.

We had never even heard of the tv series and are not sci-fi fans, but still enjoyed the film very much.

I give it 9 1/2 out of 10, because nothing is perfect!

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.

Mystery Science Theater 3000, anyone who is a fan of this show is a friend of mine, it's a great show for any movie buff. The reason why the show is so loved is because it does what we always want to do or say during a really bad movie. So naturally the successful show that was created on Comedy Central wanted to do a movie about our favorite sarcastic robots. Was the movie a success? Not so much, but doesn't mean that this movie is bad at all, in fact, it's a great one to watch. My only disappointment? I think was just the fact that this was just like any other episode, there was nothing really too special about it to make it stand out as a movie. Secondly, I've seen funnier episodes than this movie. I'm not dissing the movie, because this is still completely worth the watch.

Mike, Tom and Gypsy are startled to find Crow deep in the lower sections of the Satellite of Love, pounding at the hull with various digging instruments. He has convinced himself that he can tunnel back to Earth, he tells them. Checking his digging calculations, Crow discovers that he already knew this was inevitable: Look at that, Breach Hull, All Die. Even had it underlined! They return to the Bridge, as Dr. Forrester announces that he is about to make them watch the 1955 classic sci-fi thriller This Island Earth in an attempt to break their wills. In Mystery Science Theater 3000 tradition, we are in for a good ride as they mock this silly clichéd 50's sci fi film with no mercy.

I do love the film that they picked This Island Earth, while in some sense it is a fun little sci fi classic, probably the first movie that I saw before I ever saw it on Mystery Science Theater 3000, it still is really cheesy and fun to make fun of. I just love at the end where the alien is trying to protect our two main characters away from the monster and for some odd reason he just lightly blocks the two people away from the monster as Mike points out "ACTING!", lol! Obviously fans of the show are going to see this movie, it's a little girt to the fans I think in some sense, I wish they had a few more cameos and could've gone a little bigger, but it's all good. For those who don't know the premise of the show, this is a funny movie, the people that I've introduced the show too have mixed reviews, a few loved it a few didn't really like it, so it's one of those movies you'll have to decide for yourself.

9/10

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.