Le pire contre-attaque

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!!!

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.

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.