Le pire contre-attaque

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!

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

It was a blast! If you, the viewer, are not familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000, better known as MST3K, I recommend that you rent/buy/borrow, beg, or steal tapes to become a tad familiar with the concept.

The concept is: riffing a B-or-worse-scifi-movie; the victim, er-- subject, in this case, is "This Island Earth", a classic from the 50's. There's this guy (Mike) who's been shot up to an orbiting space station (the Satellite of Love, or SOL) by a Mad Scientist (Dr. Clayton Forrester). Mike is a replacement test subject (Joel, who made the robots for companionship, escaped), and he and Joel's 'bots (short for ro-bots) ease the stress of being test subjects by making wise@$$ remarks while the movie is running. Then there are little interval segments that attempt to tell a coherent narrative.

The catch is that the bots are actually only puppets made from a gumball machine head, salad bowl, Tupperware interlocking set of flower vases, and armatures from folding adjustable desk lamps. The original actor who voices Crow T. Robot is Trace Beaulieu, who also plays Dr. Forrester (ah, the magic of motion pictures!). The guy who voices Tom Servo is Kevin Murphy-- well, if you really want to see him, you'll have to find the episodes on tape and go looking for his appearances as other characters.

This movie is much better than the episodes that have appeared either on Comedy Central or the Sci-Fi Channel, primarily because Best Brains, the production company, had more money to make better sets, props, and better staging of gags. The Hubble was great, as was the amusing and embarrassing segment where Dr. Forrester ends up in the Metalunan guy's shower. [aaagghhh!!!]

The only two things I miss are Joel Hodgson, who was the original host, and Frank Conniff, who played Dr. Forrester's assistant, "TV's Frank". Joel was a much different "test subject" than Mike-- Joel was more introspective, did many more musical bits on the show, was more creative ["Invention Exchange" was Joel's idea; as a comic/magician, he made most of the bizarre and funny inventions on the show.] I feel that Joel's presence, as writer and actor, would have given a tighter, more coherent slant to the experiment (but then, again, I could be biased!).

Frank Conniff, as TV's Frank, was the best inept sidekick an inept Mad Scientist could have, and Frank was the perfect foil for Forrester. Their gags tended to be more physical, slapstick comedy.

But MST3K: The Movie is, I hope, the first in a long line of franchise movies (like Star Trek: The Motion Picture!). I hope that Best Brains, Inc. does another MST3K movie--it's like no-calorie chocolate!!!

Mike and the bots finally get their own movie, and it's a scream! They tackle 'This Island Earth', wreck the Hubble, and use an interociter to talk with some guy in the shower! Some people were upset that they used what is considered a 'classic' sci-fi movie, but fans of the film should give it a try. Fans of the show need no encouragement, and will recognise several elements from the show thrown into the movie (like the Torgo theme in one scene).