B-Movie
Episodes: “The Skydivers”, “The Creeping Terror”, “Bloodlust”, and
“Catalina Caper”
MST3K
Stars: Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, and Frank Conniff
Featuring
The Voices Of: Trace Beaulieu and Jim Mallon
B-Movie
Stars: Kevin Casey, Eric Tomlin, Tony Cardoza, Marcie Knight, Vic Savage,
Shannon O’Neill, William Thourlby, Robert Reed, Wilton Graff, Lylyan Chavin,
Tommy Kirk, Del Moore, Peter Dureyea, Robert Donner, and Little Richard
MST3K
Writers: Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mike
Dodge, Bridget James, Kevin Murphy, Mary Jo Piehl, Jim Mallon, and Colleen
Williams
MST3K
Hosted Segment Director: Jim Mallon
Created
By: Joel Hodgson
Producer:
Jim Mallon
Feature
length: 675 minutes
Extras:
Non-MST3K Versions and Trailers
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
N/A
Packaging:
Four-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A Cardboard Slipcase
MST3K
Chapter Stops: 20
Non-MST3K
Chapter Stops: 12
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Television Broadcasts: 1990/1994/DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Rhino Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
While
most of us remember “Babylon 5” as the little show about the space station
that could survive the airwaves, it is easy to forget the cult success of
“Mystery Science Theater 3000” where aboard the Satellite of Love one human
being and his robot companions are forced to watch terrible movies transmitted
to them by a mad scientist, obsessed with finding the right bad movie to break
the human spirit. Armed with nothing but their wit and sarcasm, fans watched and
laughed at the mix jokes, jabs, and even the occasional colorful skit with
remarks that were broad enough to cover the mainstream to the obscure.
“Mystery Science Theater 3000” aired successfully on Comedy Central and
Sci-Fi and even had a feature film release. Rhino Home Video has been
distributing various episodes of the series with ten available separately on DVD-Video.
Now Rhino has grouped four fan favorite episodes that are among the most
requested and released them for the first time ever on DVD-Video with the uncut
episode on one side of each single layered DVD and the uncut non-MST3K film on
the opposite side of each disc.
Three
of the episodes feature Michael J. Nelson and are from the 1994 season while the
final disc features Joel Hodgson and is from the 1990 season. Ironically enough
the series has a strange timeless quality since it is essentially an imaginative
blend of low-tech sci-fi complete with imaginative puppets designed by Hodgson
to create the signature characters of Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy, and the unseen
except for the opening credits Cambot. Trace Beaulieu is the mad scientist
“Dr. Clayton Forrester” who with henchmen “TV’s Frank” (Frank Conniff)
provide some comic relief between the character skits aboard the Satellite of
Love and introduce the b-movie our trapped hosts are forced to watch and
hopefully turn an otherwise terrible film watching experience to a laugh out
loud comic experience.
Disc
one features’ “The Skydivers,” a movie that has little to do with
skydivers, but gives a lot of room for our trio to talk back to the screen at.
Disc two and three feature “The Creeping Terror” and “Bloodlust” and are
the funniest episodes within the four-disc set. The monster in “The Creeping
Terror” is a bunch of guys moving beneath a big suit that doesn’t look like
much of anything with a big mouth that the victims wait around and then climb in
while pretending to be eaten. The voice-over is horrible and the movie is just
so bad that as an MST3K target, it is perfect. “Bloodlust” is another film
that is so bad it’s good and made better by the remarks of Mike, Crow, and Tom
Servo. “Catalina Caper” is the only color feature film in the set and is the
only episode to star Joel Hodgson and features a memorable invention exchange
that was a highlight of the early episodes of the series. There are some bad
industrial shorts that precede the features that get hilariously torn apart too
and sometimes the shorts are funnier than the b-movies.
Each
episode of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” is presented in their original
broadcast aspect ratio of (1.33:1). The same hold true for the uncut non-MST3K
films on the flipside of each disc. The videotaped portions with our cast look
great on DVD with no color bleeding or artifacts, but the b-movies reveal a bit
of the video artifacts when we see the imprints of our commentators making fun
of the films. The movies look about the same in their uncut non-MST3K versions
on the flip side of the corresponding DVD so do not expect a digitally restored
video and picture quality, but the addition of this option is a nice touch that
Rhino has made available on other DVD volumes of “Mystery Science Theater
3000” in the past. Two-Channel Monaural Sound is provided on both versions of
each film on each disc, but there are no captions or subtitles encoded on to any
of the DVD-Videos.
Sadly
there are no extra features like a behind-the-scenes featurette or a new
interview with any of the creative team members behind “Mystery Science
Theater 3000,” which is a shame since this box set is a perfect showcase for
featurettes like interviews and whatnot. Trailers for “The Skydivers”
(1:31), “Bloodlust” (1:56), and “Catalina Caper” (: 52) are included on
the MST3K episode side of each disc. An eight page insert containing scene
selections for both the MST3K and non-MST3K versions of the films and a list of
all the episodes available at the time of this writing on DVD and VHS is
included within the Digipack style cardboard gatefold that comes within a
cardboard slipcase with a spinning wheel on the cover where the image of one of
the show’s characters complete with a sarcastic comment can be chosen and
there is even a moving rocket. The packaging shows some thought and makes the
pairing more special for the fans. In fact I prefer this packaging to the art
used on the individual keep cases.
I
hope future collections will include some more memorable b-movie episodes, like
“Gamera,” and some more extra features beyond the trailers and uncut
non-MST3K versions. Three of the films are Crown International Pictures while
“Catalina Caper” is a Warner Brothers film. The MST3K episodes feature full
motion scene selections and animated menus while the non-MST3K uncut b-movies
feature standard interactive still frame menus and all of the interactive menus
on both sides of the four discs are easy to navigate.
If
you are a fan of this series, you still can’t let this box set pass you by.
“The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 1” is available on DVD-Video
now from Rhino Home Video.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
The Top Ten TV On DVD-Videos Of 2002 As Reviewed At GENRE ONLINE. NET